Well, this has been a little irritant of mine lately and recently annoyed me a little more because of several situations I was involved in with an event for an organization.
Having been training small business owners and entrepreneurs on social media for the last few years, I have noticed one common trait. One of the least often checked places in a social media account is in fact the inbox. It just does not take priority for a lot of people.
Direct Messages on Twitter are so full of spam, LinkedIn has emails coming for invites to many groups and Facebook can be full of emails relating to other events too.
These networks are really not a place for high priority emails and contact.
Why do I say this?
Because you cannot depend on everyone having instant notifications of contact from social networks, nor can you rely on the fact that they will be in these accounts on a daily basis – or even weekly!
(Of course this trait does not apply to everyone – but for the average small business owner – it tends to be the case.)
If you have something very important to say, ask or share… especially something with a timeline on it – social media is not the way to reach out when looking to send a private note.
Send the person a direct email instead. Use their website contact page, check the info section on their profiles for an email account. There are many ways to reach out that will ensure your message has a better chance of timely delivery and action as opposed to sending a DM on Twitter or a message on LinkedIn.
Most small business owners are in their email daily – that is your reliable path to choose.
I know some will disagree with me on this – but I always say social media is Connections without Expectations and that is where I think my reason for this comes from – you can never expect that people will be seeing your VIP email come in if only sent via social media.
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