An Inquisix member recently sent me this link to an interesting blog posting. The author, Noah Elkin, writes about how marketing professionals can reach out to business contacts on social networking sites. While Inquisix is primarily a business networking site for sales and business development professionals to exchange referrals, I felt Noah had some interesting comments to pass along.
I’m cutting and pasting his comments that I find most relevant but you can read the full posting here.
“The principal difficulty lies in the ever-shifting nature of personal and professional boundaries…..some individuals are more judicious than others in accepting “friend” requests.”
“With etiquette and consideration in mind, here are five simple rules to follow when using social networks for business purposes:
1. Ask permission, not forgiveness — even though they may be public, social networks are highly personal
2. Remember to inquire about each person’s preferred mode of communication
3. Treat each contact as an individual
4. Respect the boundaries each contact sets (but adjust as the relationship develops)
5. Don’t bombard anyone with messages, regardless of the delivery method”
These simple rules should work for everyone, not just marketers and sales people.
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