Do you let people talk to you on Facebook?

On your Facebook page wall you can decide what people can do:

•  Write or post content on the wall.
• Add photos.
• Add tags to photos.
• Add videos.

Often I will visit a page and find that they don’t let me “do” anything. I think this is ridiculous!

Social media is supposed to be social (the clue is in the name). It is all about listening, talking and building a relationship, how can you do that if you don’t let the other person talk?

Often when I watch TV and an annoying ad comes on I end up shouting back at the TV – obviously I know that they can’t hear me! TV ads are a way for advertisers to shout at you – they aren’t trying to build a relationship and get to know you. But social media is different.

In social media your company is trying to build a relationship with your audience so that they trust you, recommend you and do business with you. It is a long-term strategy, which are all about telling people that you have this new exciting thing that they must buy now.

I know people are worried about negative comments and/or spam, but in trying to stop people doing that you are also stopping the people who actually want to talk to you, and who you should be listening to.

Obviously the more people on your page the more likely you are to get spam or negative comments, just due to more people = more potential for it. But, of the pages I have one has over 4,000 “likers” and another over 16,000, in terms of spam I maybe get one post a week, in terms of negative comments or feedback maybe once a month. It is really nothing. Plus if people do post spam then I immediately block them from posting on the page, and will also report them.

If I go to a page for a company that I have bought from and there is no way for me to comment or post my thoughts are why are they here? They don’t care about me, they don’t want to listen to me, they just want to promote themselves. Now I’m not saying that everyone feels that way, but consider it.

Imagine if I walked into a shop and was told “you can buy anything you like, but you can’t ask any questions and I’m not going to talk to you other than asking for the money and if you’d like a bag”. I mean HOW rude?

Can you see what I’m saying? Are you going to let people to talk to you?

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks mobile phone socks, Chief Rabbit at Social Rabbit – your guide in the world of social media, founder of Steps – the online Facebook and LinkedIn training course and author of ‘Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business’. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.