Fact: You are naked on the internet, especially with social media.

The fact that most social networks are open systems and have low barriers to communication and sharing of information means that everything you do within the social matrix is transparent and wholly obvious.

A couple of days ago, I got a Twitter public message from: Jodi Joseph Asaiag with the message:

@andrewwee for IP resources, tools and discussions visit http://www.bpcouncil.com – suggestions welcome at editor@bpcouncil.com

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Sounds like a pleasant and helpful message.

I took a look at her twitter stream:

While it’s nice to receive direct message on twitter (perhaps they’d heard of you by reputation or were recommended by someone), it’s not as kosher to receive form messages, especially since I don’t specifically cover intellectual property or “brand protection”.

The feeling of “being special” wore off after I found that the same message had gone out to lots of other people.

Bottomline: it doesn’t hurt to get to know people before sending them a recommendation (reaction: I don’t know you… why should I care about you or your welcome – the classic WIIFM – “What’s In It for Me” question you’ll need to address to be relevant and build your standing in the community).

Participate in a conversation your intended prospect is having and you’re more likely to pique their interest and they’ll naturally want to follow you back, strike up a conversation, etc.

If all you’re doing is blatantly self-promoting on the social networks, you’ll come across as a fairly shallow person – more concerned with selling books, courses and DVDs than having conversations.

If you brought that attitude into the dating scene, you’d be pretty lonely on Friday night, so why bring that same karma into the social network.

On a positive note, it’s encouraging to see Jodi adapt her use of twitter in recent days to be more conversational in nature, with conversations and retweets populating her twitter stream.

Being naked does have its priviledges.