Social Politics

Social Networking Is Like Politics

Make Your Vote [Shares] Count!

image - Social PoliticsI was sitting in our living room talking about politics (yuck) with my wife and decided to share the conversation and how it relates to politics, at least my take on it.

She made the point that she likes Ron Paul because he doesn’t compromise. Don’t worry; this isn’t going to be about politics, not like that anyway. I made the point that Dr. Paul does compromise because every politician has to or nothing would get done. That’s the nature of politics; you wash my back, I’ll wash yours. A one-man band simply doesn’t work.

Now, lets brought that back around to promoting our blogs via social networking. Social Networking is like politics, like it or not, at least for business AND at least in the beginning.

NOTE: By that, I mean, if you’ve already made it to that point of success to where momentum alone will grow your social status, this may not be the best advice for you.

Notice I said social networking and not social media, so forget about friends and family sharing things outside of our business for a second.

The Social Networking Party

Some bloggers get it and others still need to learn but we help each other, as bloggers and networkers. I get asked a lot on how to drive traffic, increase sharing (See Linking Out To Other Blogs And Getting Noticed For It), and encourage interaction etc. and here’s the biggest part of the secret…

Blogger Lobbying

Take Twitter, for example; Look at my Twitter feed and you will see that 90% of my tweets are sharing other people’s posts and content. You will also notice that those social shares include the other blogger’s @NAME whenever possible. I want them to know I shared their post. That’s social sharing – that’s politics. Talk about Campaigning.

Straight Talk: Listen, if you’re new to blogging, you have to understand just how busy many of the influencers you’re trying to attract are. (Don’t misunderstand here, I’m not suggesting you only share influencers content – far from it). Just get in the habit of making things as easy as possible for both your audience AND your social network. Don’t wait for them to notice – but don’t become a pest with constant reminders and/or requests. Find that balance that works for you and your network.

Polling Data and Blogger Advocacy Groups

Another way social networking is like politics is most bloggers will drop others that just don’t “get it.” For example, I’ll follow you on Twitter, but you have to follow me back. No matter how cute, popular or smart you are, I’ll drop you like a hot potato if you don’t follow back. If I’m sharing everything you have and you aren’t giving me the time of day… see ya! That, my friends, is social networking and it’€™s a lot like politics.

See:
☑ How To & Why Add Your Twitter Handle To Your Social Share Buttons
20 Twitter Mistakes That Hurt Your Brand
☑ How To Effectively Follow The Masses On Twitter

Blogger Action Committees

Groups of like-minded bloggers get together to support each other’s work all of the time. Triberr immediately comes to mind but there are others. Many bloggers, just like marketers, develop their own little “clicks” if you will. Sound a little like politics?

Triberr Update: I’m not sure how it will affect the social sharing network yet, but Triberr was acquired in Feb. 2016.

Triberr’s been acquired and the rules of social medias mandate that I say something about it on Facebook. What can I…

Posted by Dino Dogan on Monday, February 15, 2016

Your Vote?

I’m not going to run for office anytime soon, but this blogger would love to hear your comments. What’s your advice when it comes to social networking?

Related Social Media Post:

About Brian D. Hawkins

Blogging superhero by day and internet super villain by night. Blogger, future online millionaire and an all around great guy.

Comments

  1. Oh yes, very similar to politics. The thing I love about Social Networking is that the core is helping/giving each other. While I probably don’t keep score as well as some, it’s all documented online and can be tracked if desired.

    I always think how hard is it to follow back, especially on Twitter. It’s painless. Even if I were a celebrity I’d follow everyone back, minus the fake users. Now if you want to unfollow inactive users, that’s another story. That’s just making your Twitter account tighter.

    I totally agree working with a group that gets it is paramount. As in every facet of life, you’ll have some that are just worried about #1. As an individual you need to determine if you want to support this person or not. In most cases it will be adiós.

    • I agree Steve, it seems a little too self serving to see those following 50 people with 5,000 followers. That works for very popular people but the majority followed first and then dropped the masses once they got the numbers they were looking for. That’s a touch cookie to network with. Those that say we can’t follow thousands of people simply don’t get it yet. It’s a simple matter to setup lists and even keywords when we want to narrow things down a bit. Oops, there I go ranting a little.

      Thanks for the Triberr invite, I’ve really been enjoying the other Tribe and I’ve met a lot of cool people.

  2. sai krishna says

    haha very nice points hawkins ,your comparison is appreciable 😉 keep rocking and reach your 2012 goals ..

  3. Hey Brian,

    I can see how social networking is like politics because it’s like you said the nature of it is you wash my back and I’ll wash yours. Good job, you had some great comparisons in this post.

  4. Anonymous (Read Comment Policy) says

    really interesting!!! seeing the way blogging is similar to politics although in blogging we are all like-minded and help each other out….i`ve never seen that happening in politics

  5. Lennart Heleander says

    Hi Brian,
    As the name says, it is social networks is to help and work together and the pull at the same direction.

  6. Adam Boyd says

    Nice article! This really got me thinking about Twitter and how I should be using it. A lot of times, I get stuck posting links to my articles instead of actually using it to network with others. That could really help, thanks. I like the Ron Paul analogy but I still would have to say, he’s not much of a compromiser…but obviously he’s gotta work with other people to get stuff done. What are your thoughts on using your blog to talk about politics? I like to get the word out about things but sometimes am stuck wondering if there is a conflict of interest with my visitors?

    • Hi Adam, Twitter is my number one referral source right now according to Google Analytics, followed by Blog Engage, StumbleUpon and Facebook, respectively; all of which I use to network.

      There are plenty of very successful blogs out there on politics. I wouldn’t blog about politics here, of course, but there are a lot of people very interested in anything political. Many personal blogs will post political content and some of it can get pretty controversial. When written and moderated right, controversial blogs can be very interesting and inspire some pretty cool debates.

  7. Bishwajeet says

    We have not used Twitter much but I have seen guys having 100s of RTs on useless posts all due to Retweet clubs and all.

    • I’m not sure about retweet clubs but I’m becoming a big fan of Triberr. One key to Triberr is to have great content so you can gain access to the better Tribes. That takes care of the useless posts you were talking about. None of us want to promote bad content.

  8. I think that blogging should try not to be like politics as much as possible. Bloggers should try to express their own personal views whenever possible to bring their own unique style and personality to a blog rather than simply following public opinion, which I think many politicians tend to do.

  9. I only tweet if it is for my work and business.. Most people probably don’t know how good social networking can be for their business, and many don’t realize how effective it is. they are blindly using that form of communication without realizing the effect it has with their customers.

  10. Wong Chendong aka The Bad Blogger says

    Seriously and honestly, I hate groups of people who only votes for their own group especially in a social bookmarking site. I mean even the content sucks or they never even read the content, they also vote for one another, to me that’s just bad marketing, or some might want to say Black-Hat Marketing.
    If they comment and vote on the content, it might sound good to me, but with so many votes and without a single comment even on it’s actual content link, sound to me… they are voting just to get to the front page, this really sucks.
    To me, this is politics, it’s kind the like I’m the good guy group and you are the bad guy group, how good your content is I will never vote for it unless you vote mine… sound ridiculous right?
    But that’s just how Blokube and Biz Sugar are…

  11. As Becca stated, many businesses don’t realise the true power of the social media, Its amazing how you can make individual customers feel so special yet appeal to a wide audience

  12. Kevin Martin says

    I like the advice given in this post, but I don’t fancy the idea of following someone back just because they’re following you. You would not really be interested in what the person who you followed back has to say, so I don’t advise follow backs. Nice post though.

  13. Abhi Balani says

    Hey Brian,

    Very interesting post. I’ve started to do do the same as you do with Twitter. And I’ve seen your tweets like that, as well.

    Now, I don’t forget to mention the blogger who’s content I’m sharing (If I can get his or her username)

    Great share.

    • Thanks Abhi, you definitely understand. There’s nothing wrong with letting the author know you appreciate their work and you’re sharing it. I totally understand about trying to find the username though, some bloggers make that pretty tough.

  14. Biddy Bytes says

    Yes, pure old social etiquette to mention blogger or twitterer from whom you got that pithy information or brilliant satiric take, so we bloggers all need give credit where credit’s due…And on the note concerning Ron Paul, do tell wife that Ron Paul most certainly negotiates his purist take on things, as when he takes entitlements for his district in Texas, because “after all, if he doesn’t, they go to executive branch to do whatever.” So, you’re correct in stating they all “Play politics;” it’s the nature of the beast. To learn more about Ron Paul, do access interviews in past where journalists have brought out his seemingly- contradicting stance.

  15. Emily Williams says

    You drew a very interesting parallel between politics and social networking. I like this idea, and fully agree with you, cause you always have to support and help someone if you rely on their help in future. So, maybe it sounds a little weird, but you don’t get, if you don’t give.

  16. Hi Brian, Networking always involve some part of politics, but I agree its more of promoting other and giving the dues, it will return much more than just promoting our own contents.

  17. Amit Shaw says

    Nice One Brian. And Really Nice comparison.

  18. Thanks for the comment Prakash.

  19. Kimberly Gauthier says

    I think it’s important to set aside time for social networking. I do it on my morning and evening work commute. That way I don’t feel rushed, I don’t feel sneaky (like at work), and I can take the time to actually read and respond to blogs and share to the social networks that I like.

    I found that once I started sharing posts by others, thanking people for shares, and engaging in conversations on various sites, I started having more fun and people started looking for my posts.

    I follower tweeted me this morning about my site being slow and I found out there was a server issue with my host – I love that he was watching for my posts!

    • I take it you’re not driving to work when you’re networking. lol That’s pretty cool and a good sign you’re interacting right on the social networks. Thanks. 🙂

  20. What a reaction about politics! Yuck… I find it not surprising. I too is not fond of very complicated world either but I love Social Media. It’s interesting how you relate politics on social networking, the only key is that in Social media, it’s important to show your true self to be reputable and be able for your audience to build trust.

  21. Nice comparison, I agree it does happen in twitter… if someone is following you on twitter and you didn’t follow back then you’ll be dis-followed in next few days.

  22. Interesting comparison!
    In a way, it is very similar to politics. Maybe politics is dirtier.
    But one has to do what has to be done to spread the business, I guess. 🙂

  23. Astro Gremlin says

    Brian, you remind me, I need to go through my Twitter followers and make sure I follow them back. I guess I don’t like to think of my political leaders behaving as purely self-interested Twitter users, taking campaign contributions and paying them back with votes or government contracts. Compromise with other points of view is required to obtain consensus and get stuff done. Compromise of integrity to get elected . . . well watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. But, as bloggers and internet marketers, heck yes, we need to trade favors. It compromises no one’s integrity, it corrupts nothing, and it’s how to get things done.

  24. They are very similiar. In politics and social networking, you are gathering a group of people to support your cause. Facebook uses a lot of likes and voting as well.

  25. quad parts says

    Hey – nice blog, just looking around some blogs, seems a pretty nice platform you are using. I’m currently using Word press for a few of my sites but looking to change one of them over to a platform similar to yours as a trial run.

  26. You’re pretty much bang on the money here. All smaller blogs are essentially symbiotic in nature; and its very hard to succeed without the help and support of your piers. I’ve often found the online blogging community to be one of the most open and helpful natworks out there when it comes to leading one another assistance because people understand exactly what you’re saying here; we need to support one another.

  27. Actually Steve picked very interesting topic and yes it is true but casting a vote or show your likeness is not only related to politics.

    If you like iPad and recommend it to your friend does it mean it is like politics?

    Not sure if anyone else here at hotblogtips will agree with me or not.

    Cheers!

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