I am a LinkedIn Open Networker, meaning that anybody can send me a message. I recently received the following message from a stranger on LinkedIn:
Hello.... I wanted to take a moment to ask you to help me build my FB Business Page audience. Please click on the following link and "Like" my page.
Facebook Page Link was here
Thank you for your support and I would be happy to return the favor by "Liking" your page as well.
Enjoy your day!
Oh boy, this request is just so wrong, so let's start from the top.
1) This is an unwelcome interruption
I don't know this person. Individuals become LinkedIn Open Networkers to make it easy for potential clients to reach them, not for people to use this as an opportunity to spam them with unwanted solicitations.
2) What's in it for me?
Everybody is busy, and we are assaulted thousands of times daily by marketing hype, so why would I want to do this favor for a stranger? What is interesting or special about her page that would benefit me? I don't even know what it's about, and I shouldn't have to go there to find out. Why should I take a moment of my time and give it to her? She has given me no reason to even look at her page. There is no perceived value to me.
3) Quality vs quantity
I guess this person isn't interested in quality likes from people who are actually interested in her content. She only cares about volume. In my opinion, this is a flawed philosophy. I'd rather have just 10 eager and interested people, who have the potential to become clients one day, reading my Facebook Page than 1,000 people who are just going to ignore or hide my content from their newsfeed. So her offer of a reciprocal follow is meaningless to me.
The bottom line is that followers and fans are earned on social media. Good pages grow organically because of the value they offer. Begging for followers is useless unless you don't care about the quality of your audience.
