Ever post something in a Facebook group that you belong to, to find that no one replies, or even Likes, your post?
There are several reasons why this may happen, and I’d like to share them with you here:
1. No one knows who you are, and you ask for support right out of the gate.
This is one of the top mistakes I see new entrepreneurs and group members make. They join the group, and immediately focus on how others can help them, instead of figuring out how they can help others.
Remember, if you’re new, no one knows you! Give, give, give and give some more. Don’t even wait for the right hook after the jabs (ala Gary V), just keep giving. You’ll soon stand out as “that guy” or “that girl”.
Be that person, and you’ll gain respect and lots of good karma.
2. You only care about your own posts, and never contribute to other conversations.
I see this time and time again. You may be helpful and give a lot of good advice, but you don’t seem to care what other people say. You only post new things, and never give your input in other threads. It’s hard for members to want to contribute to your thread when you don’t reciprocate.
3. You disguise spam as helpful information.
If you’ve got some great advice, just share it! Don’t send your fellow group members to a landing page to get their email address. It’s tacky, and it shows an agenda. You quickly lose credibility that way. People are pretty smart, and can usually see through things like this. So, it’s best to not even try.
4. Your only purpose of joining is to post new episodes / blogs / products / etc.
I’ve deleted quite a few members of a group that I administer. They simply ignored my direct messages for them to stop posting things that violated the rules, so… gone in a click!
This one is a no brainer. If all you care about is publicity for yourself, you will systematically be deleted from every group you join. What seems like a clever way to “be everywhere” is really a quick way to shoot yourself in the foot so many times, that your feet soon disappear altogether.
5. You’ve asked a question that many long-time members have seen over and over again.
Use the Search feature in the group. It can get tiring for people to read the same questions over and over again. It’s likely your question was already answered.
New members especially, do your due diligence! Show that you at least tried to find the answer before asking the basics.
6. Your post has no value or reason to continue reading it.
Bottom line, if your post is just generic:
“I just started a podcast, click here to listen to it”,
you will get no responses.
7. When asking for help, be specific about the problem you are having.
You will likely not get any help when you post: “I am having a serious WordPress problem, can anyone help me?”
Actually, you might get someone to respond. But imagine if one of the members knew the exact answer to the problem you are having, but since you didn’t explain it, you now had to do the back and forth thing through the thread to get the solution much later than necessary.
Explain the problem in enough detail to give the members a clue. This group is extremely responsive to members that need help. But if you provide a generic request for it, you may end up getting ignored.
I hope this helps some of you that belong to podcast groups and other online entrepreneurial-type groups that may be getting crickets on their posts. I don’t mean to sound condescending, but there is an etiquette that will yield you better results. And a lot of it really has to do with awareness and respect for other people’s time and energy.
Once you truly value others, value will come your way.
If you have any more to add, feel free to comment below.
Insightful and powerful article on why engagement with an audience isn’t working for a business and how to change the approach to ignite and grow customers!
Thank you sir! I appreciate your comment. I imagine there will be a part 2 to this post soon. 😉