Are you a tart?

Posted by Tony Ozanne  at September 5th, 2013

That got your attention I’m sure, but I don’t mean it in the way your dirty mind is thinking, so if you thought this was going to be a seedy post full of sexual innuendo, then you’d better leave now (sorry).

What I mean by the question, is are you a social media tart, specifically with LinkedIn?

Do you join as many groups as you can to make you look impressive and all connected, thereby getting in with as many groups as possible?

If you do…WHY?

Is it because you have a vested interest in the group?

Do you have a legitimate interest in that particular sector or industry?

Are you there because some of your clients or contacts own or manage the groups, and it seems polite?

Do you just want to feel ‘wanted’?

Joining many groups can add to your level of inefficiency. Unless you carefully set up the group settings to manage notifications you can quickly find your daily email greeting you with many group notifications and posts that don’t really interest you, and you just go and delete, delete, delete. If this is you (and it was me several months ago), then what is the point? It is just another task to do, and one which may take a few vital minutes out of your busy time.

I have just performed another group ‘cull’ as I had several groups I changed the settings for so I didn’t get messages, and I simply NEVER visited the group, let alone contributed. I didn’t see the point in maintaining membership as I offered no value.

I do manage a group, and it is pretty awesome if I do say so myself (Canberra Small Business Owners– join us if you want, and I don’t put you off with this post). We have over 250 members, and a core group of contributors which is great as I hope it offers value to the members, but I do often wonder why people join. Why join a group and not contribute? I had to look at my own behaviour and make the culling decisions as mentioned above. My advice is if you join a group and have no further interaction, then maybe the group isn’t for you. You may simply be a ‘watcher’ of the discussions and still get value, and this is fine, but if you never come back, then you should look at your initial reasoning for joining.

Don’t be a group tart and get in there and have a say, people would love to hear your views I am sure.