Automationship: Why Convenience is Killing Authenticity, and How You Can Avoid the Trap!

"Good day Alexis, are you struggling with your social media strategy? I can help!" 

After receiving the message above, with an incorrect name and a pitch for social media marketing services to myself, a social media marketer, I had finally reached my apex of annoyance. 

If you've reached any sort of milestone (birthday, work anniversary, career change) and updated a profile on social media, you've likely received a pre-populated message about it.

We're living in a world where time is scarce. With it has come the rise of time saving apps, virtual assistants, and drive through coffee shops and banks. If you live in Saginaw, Michigan, you can pay your respects at a funeral home without even leaving your car (http://www.paradisefuneralchapel.com)! Mostly, time and energy-saving hacks are awesome (maybe except for the drive through funeral home, that's just terrible.). But you cannot automate your relationships. 

Social media networks, like Linkedin, are continuing to grow in presence and popularity. Standing out from the crowd is becoming increasingly effortful. So it is painful to witness remarkably LESS relationship building effort from its users. 

You may be tempted to use pre-populated messages from Linkedin. It's much easier to click a few buttons than it is to write a sentence or more, especially when you're always on the go. Linkedin has made this particularly easy from their updated mobile app. But don't be fooled into believing that this is a carbon copy of genuine communication. It's not, and social networks are actually doing you a disservice by offering it. 

In his book "UnMarketing" Scott Stratten discusses the dangers of automation, and refers to automatic tweets as,

"...like sending a mannequin to a networking event in your place with a Post-it note attached." 

His argument works just as strongly for those pre-populated messages that you're sending to connections that you (hopefully) want to feel valued and important. There is nothing special about waking up to dozens of identical messages in your inbox and Googling to see if there's a virus on your computer. 

Automated and/or pre-populated messages become even more dangerous when it comes to your customers. If you run a Facebook fan page and a prospect or customer privately messages you, you now have the option of just clicking on a message pre-populated by Facebook instead of actually responding. Imagine clicking on an irrelevant response or sending a message that sounds robotic and insincere to a serious concern. You've now taken the relationship to shaky to downright treacherous. 

Your relationships with your loyal customers deserve time, effort, and patience. It costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to satisfy a current one. Sending automated messages means trading engagement for efficiency, and that sounds like a pretty risky transaction, don't you think?  

However, on the bright side, as more people try to figure out ways to automate their networking and customer relationships, those that do not succumb to the pressure will be more sought after as the gap widens. 

Here are some easy ways to not get lost in the shuffle!  

1. Learn about your connections. Read their posts, ask them more about their career milestones. Make sure that you are sending messages that are relevant to their position and background. 

2. Offer knowledge. Linkedin is a gold mine of knowledge from people working within your industry. Share tips, feedback, and ask for advice. 

3. Offer a hand. We all need a little help sometimes. If you know a connection that would be a great fit for a role, refer them! 

4. Scrap the pitch. If you are copying and pasting the same three paragraph pitch to every new connection, stop it. For every positive response that you receive, you have wasted an awesome first impression on plenty of others. Imagine going to a networking event and spending 20 minutes talking about yourself to each person in the room. It's not speed dating, it's a communications portal to connect with like-minded professionals in your community and beyond. 

5. Take things offline to learn more about each other. The digital world provides a great platform to meet new people, but nothing compares to a creative brainstorming session over coffee in real life. 

I'll leave you now with this clip from The Big Bang Theory that perfectly sums up the risky business of trying to find loopholes for relationship building. Don't get yourself a Raj, be yourself, even if it does take a little more time. Have a great day!