We hear this every single day. If you want to utilize social media and become an integral part of the community there is only one mantra to follow : give, give, give. I am not against the idea of “giving” cause that is what social media is based on to some extent. However, giving without moderation and consideration can hurt your personal brand. Think about it for a minute. How often do you give? What are you giving? How might this “giving” hurt your personal brand?
Before I go sharing my “personal opinion” I would like you to know that I am not saying you should never give. You should. After all, this is what separates social media from traditional media. In social media space you are able to give advice, feedback, disagreement, etc. But giving doesn’t include just that. Giving includes helping others out through retweeting people’s stuff on twitter, sharing links on Facebook, promoting digg submissions etc. I’ve seen so many people “giving” others so much that it is hard to find their own voice. If you are constantly giving and trying to help someone out, how do you build your own brand?
We need to hear your voice too. We need to hear what you have to say and have to offer. We are interested in you more than your friends.
Just something that hit me and thought I would ask your opinion. Do you think social media is all about “giving?” Personally, I don’t think so. It’s about giving but in moderation. If you are going to use a platform and be the giver the entire time, all you end up doing is build someone else’s brand and your personal brand suffers, in some cases it becomes almost non existent. Even Santa waits till Christmas to give and he still manages to pull off quite a following and fanbase in the society 
, think about it.
Would love to hear your take on it.
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Hi, My name is Ritu. I am a member of SMA (Social Media Anonymous) ;-) & help bloggers and businesses utilize the social web. 
Well said. There is a place, there is a time. Giving fills in the gaps but if you don’t have the mortar to hold together the bricks you build you’re nothing but a house that the wolf will blow down with one big HUFF & a PUFF.
Short, concise, point well stated.
- webaddict
I agree that only passing on (or RTing) the stuff of others without bringing anything new to the table is a lazy use of social media. Perhaps the social regurgitator can create an image of being in the know except to those who actually do know and see the constant regurgitation for the parisitism it is.
[...] and bloggers to more than 100,000 sources around the globe looking to be quoted in the media. Social Media Is All About “Giving,” Right? Wrong! – ritubpant.com 07/14/2009 We hear this every single day. If you want to utilize social media and [...]
Sharing or giving is an old and useless tactic before. Now “engaging” is the most important thing to do on social media. I believe it.
Giving and taking. You give and you take what others give you. And you add new thoughts and ideas to the mix. I agree that you risk losing your own message and watering down your own brand if you spend all your time RT-ing everyone else. Also risky if you spend too much time latching on to someone else’s ideas like a groupie to the who’s who of social media, with comments on all their posts saying “awesome” “great post”. If you feel moved to comment, and have something relevant to say, then add your own thoughts and contribute – you know, give and take;)There are a lot of “experts” out there who act and speak as if they are the gods of social media. Yes, they are viewed as the “thought leaders” however this is all evolving so fast, that leaders or beginners all have potential for contribution and defining methods, technique and rules. Give your own thoughts and take what applies to you and learn from others.
I agree with the points from Joel ((@webaddict) and Phaoloo, giving is only part of a virtuous social media eco-system.
As in yin, there is a yang. Social media is about ‘engaging’ and ‘communicating’ with people.
The lesson in giving is that this is where the cycle of trust starts. If you want anything, you have to give first. This builds harmony & trust.
Engaging, helping and giving takes your brand to another level.
If you dont believe that assertion, try ONLY TAKING.
Instead of asking “how might this “giving” hurt your personal brand?”, try asking
1 – “what do I need to do to add value to my client(s)/potential clients business/lives”?
2 – “how does my giving add value to building my brand”?
3 – “how can I compliment my strengths with my clients weaknesses”?
4 – be genuine, engage engage engage by providing OTT (over the top) value or you will get your house blown down with one big HUFF & a PUFF
Love on!
Nice article. It took me over a year and a half to figure this out. I spent so much time helping promote other people’s stories etc. etc. that I rarely had time to produce my own content or work on my own site.
Thanks everyone for sharing your views and taking the time to comment.
I just want to clarify that I didn’t mean to say that we shouldn’t be “giving” at all in social media space. Not sure if it came out that way but if it did it wasn’t intentional. My point is that while giving we need to remember that we can’t chime along with someone so often that we lose our own voice. Like momblebee said in her comment, some people help others out too much just to “be under their wing” and usually they aren’t really giving much to that person because they themself haven’t built that following to help the other person out.
I totally agree with Iconic88, it’s all about engagement. Engaging is the best way of giving as it allows you to give feedback, suggest and interact.
Good point. The bad thing is there is just so much spam out there and people with blogs that don’t even know what a blog is.
Thanks for your reply Ritu.
All the best and thanks for sharing your thoughts
It depends where you are in formulating your message. If you are still determining what you offer (or if you are just getting into social networking, blogging, online marketing or whatever), “giving” is a valuable way to give back in appreciation for the information you are receiving. It sure beats reading, reading and reading with no visible response.
But if you have a message, you have to get it out into the marketplace of ideas.
-Diana