Have You Got “Junk” in Your Facebook Trunk?

I share the concept with my coaching clients that our online presence on Facebook is like the show called, “The Antiques Roadshow.” On that show all kinds of people, from every age and background possible would stand around for hours to have their cherished possession that had been laying around or found in their trunk assessed, crossing their fingers that it will make them wealthy. It got me thinking about what we have in our Facebook relationships (our present day trunk) that may or may not have significant and considerable value.

I’m talking about your engagement, connection, and long term relationships on Facebook. Or what I sometimes call “client attraction” or “business attraction”. You can pride yourselves on the number of friends or “likes” you have on Facebook, but are they of real value? Having the most friends doesn’t necessarily mean that you are the most successful. Yes, in that at some time they asked you to friend those on Facebook, and you thought that they may be a good business to business referral and you became known to each other. You sent a few messages back and forth and then got busy.

But, what’s happened since? If you haven’t kept in touch with them through further connections or having a conversation offline then can you really call them a ‘live’ contact? In other words, relationships in your Facebook friends or “trunk” only have value if you keep in touch – and that will only happen if they see you as bringing real value, engagement and connection with them in some way.

You all know this, but so frequently fail to do anything about it. So often you quit staying in touch with people on Facebook because you’re not quite ready to go public and take the conversation offline and maybe have a sales conversation. Or your Facebook engagement may not have great depth. But is that really an excuse? The truth is that you’re all learning, just like the rest of us, and there may be no better way to stay in touch than just by saying hello and letting people know that you’re still working on your social media relationship building, engagement, and perhaps even asking for suggestions. Imagine sending a message to your Facebook friends that says, “I want to improve my Facebook connection and friendship with you, do you have any suggestions?”

If you did you may find that one of the most surprising traits of having friends on Facebook is that when you ask for help, you are inclined to get it. I’m the first to confess I was guilty of not keeping in contact on a frequent basis on Facebook but now I’m enjoying making so many new and old connections, and loving every minute of it!

Why not start by sending a message to every one of your friends on Facebook asking them to reconnect or reengage? Let them know that you’re improving your connection skills on Facebook. By admitting that you’re willing to improve the relationship and connection, you will attract all kinds of help and ideas and you could improve your client attraction and client retention at the same time.

The key is to update your engagement, and connection with your friends on Facebook continuously. If you haven’t connected with your friends in a while, this may seem overwhelming, so start with the ones that you are most comfortable with and then work on some of the other names each day.

You could contact only a few a day to make it seem more manageable. Watch how fast you’ll have a new, highly valuable, useable list of Facebook friends and connections.

Keep connecting, liking, following and befriending on Facebook always engaging and providing great content and value. Watch how fast your relationships improve, profit and multiply over time!