It seems everyone nowadays has a profile on Facebook and LinkedIn plus more and more are becoming Twitter users. But are people there to really network and create relationships or is it something you have to do to stay in the game? With so many blogs and other publications giving strategies on how to leverage twitter or how to get the most out of Facebook, is everyone really just there to promote themselves? Now I will say that there are users out there that are very committed to their social networks and often interact with people more online than they do face to face, but is that the majority? Are most people out there just commenting on your blog post or writing on your Facebook wall so that you will listen to them? And does that mean that they don’t really care about your message at all?

When I comment on a blog I am genuinely asking a question or giving my opinion but do I hope that it will help traffic and linking to my blog? absolutely (isn’t that part of the strategy those articles tell us?) When I follow you on Twitter do I expect you to follow me back, of course. My point really is that all forms of social media are not completely transparent and everyone who participates does so with some degree of selfishness. As brilliant as Seth Godin is, do you really think he writes his blog just to share ideas and isn’t hoping that it will help sell more copies of his next book?

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