I’d stop talking to my best friend online if he had an agenda.

There, I said it.

I don’t care how carefully you tip-toe around, unless you’re “socializing and making friends” online with a bunch of other internet marketers, no matter how friendly or inviting your money-links are they will (almost) always be highly irrelevant to me when I’m busting someone’s chops online for liking the latest Black Eyed Peas single.

It seems marketers are so rabid to make something work in a social setting that they’re willing to throw out everything else we know about relationship selling. Go ahead, throw away years of proven internet marketing experience and tinker around with the coldest traffic available and calculate your ROI. Try “Social Media Sniping” because if someone is talking about their dog, they must want to hear about the latest dog collar line available at Amazon, right? That makes so much sense. Because instead of ranking organically for keyphrases or advertising, we can intercept them virtually in real-time now and engage them immediately mid-conversation.

Wait… what happened to framing your visitors? What happened to commercial intent? Where’s the lead-in, the follow-up, the free-line, relationship, reputation, authority, social proof, reciprocity….

Where’s the magic push-button to make this happen?

I’m about to save you weeks worth of work, if you’re willing to accept what I’m about to tell you:

The social tactics that worked 4 years ago, still work today. Nothing has changed except the number of people available and the speed of which you can research (not engage).

Sure they’ve been modified and polished slightly with the onslaught of Web 2.0 flexibility and availability, but “changed” it has not.

To understand social media, you sort of need friends to qualify (take that to the bank). Make me laugh. Give me two free movie tickets. Tell me my coin collection is awesome and you took time to calculate it and it’s worth approximately $7.

If you want to learn social media, then guess what, that book was written 73 years ago. Your choice. Around $10 for that book or up to $3,000 for a misguided “education” on a social monetization strategy.

Stop thinking like a marketer. You might actually find something more valuable than your ROI spreadsheet can calculate. You can get invited to be a guest blogger, be interviewed on a webinar, or asked for help on a product launch. These things are of incalculable value whether you’re an authority or not. Don’t charge for it. Just build the relationships.

Now go make friends.

But don’t start with me because I’m already mad at you for trying to pad your pockets with fake friendship.

Bonus!

Take the “Spot the Social Media Marketer” Quiz!!