Attracting Friends and Followers

By Dan Beldowicz, Sales Consultant

One of the principles from “How to Win Friends and Influence People” that should be applied to Social Media campaigns is simply, Smile. This may be one of the simplest ways to influence people: the power of a smile. Babies are perfectionists at this art form.

While on a road trip with my wife and kids, ages 3, 2, & 11 months, we pulled into a Waffle House at 6 am. Now, if you have never had the pleasure of dining at a Waffle House I highly recommend it. If you are from the north you will have to get to the southern states to find one.  We happened to be in Georgia at the time.

800 miles from home, in the middle of nowhere, we stop to get some breakfast. My wife and I have a kid each next to us in the booth and my youngest in a height chair at the end of the table. The waffles are fantastic and of course the kids love the massive amount of chocolate chips in theirs. But it was my youngest that was the star that morning.  He kept leaning his head back to look at a person that was sitting behind me. He’d sit there smiling at this person for a minute, lift his head up take a bite of waffle and lean back again chewing and smiling.

Well it didn’t take long before the person behind me was smiling, waving and making silly faces back. Now he had made a little friend.  This went on throughout breakfast.  Eventually, I turned around and start making light conversation with the man behind me.  We talked about his grandkids and how he missed them and about his work and how he was on medical leave for quite some time.

When we were ready to settle the bill, it never showed up, the man behind me had already taken care of it. He was having trouble walking and he told us that he hoped that by doing something nice for someone else would eventually come back to him some day. Now, the bill wasn’t more than a few  bucks, but the simple act of smiling changed that man’s day.  He went from worrying about work to smiling and thinking about his family.  The simple act of smiling can change everything.

I don’t speak of the story to tell your kids to smile at people to get them to pay for you but to illustrate the point that even a baby knows that a simple smile can make a friend.

Social Smiling

What does your profile picture say about you?

Is it some random picture of you? is it a picture that portrays you as an expert, an intellectual, a hippie, a rock singer, or something else? Yes, your picture should show your personality, but is it inviting to the audience you are trying to attract?

Are your profile pictures consistent?

For Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all of your other social profiles do you maintain and brand yourself? If not you should be thinking about it.  Branding rules dictate Frequency and Consistency, so no matter what medium or site you are growing your audience with, they should be able to immediately identify with you.



Copyright 2009 Single Throw, Inc.