Your Question Ideas | Social Media Best Practices

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Thinking about social media best practices, I recently asked you, Does This Question Kill Conversations? The question I’m referring to is:

‘What do you do?’

It’s a question some can’t help asking and often far too eagerly. It seems to slip out without most people even realizing, regardless of whether they’re talking face to face with someone or using any one of the many social media platforms that exist.

I asked you to tell me in the comments section what you thought. Clearly it’s a question that many of us hate to hear. 

I also wanted to know if you had some alternative ideas. My aim being that we could perhaps make a start on developing some social media best practices when chatting to people online for business.

I’ve decided to share the best suggestions here so that more people can benefit from the experiences of others.

There would be less wrong with this question if it wasn’t asked too early in the conversation. Most people agree that building rapport first, goes a long way to lessen the dislike of being asked what they do.

Ryan Bidduph says:

“I train myself to care about the person, not about what I can do for them, or what they can do for me. It’s seeing a similarity, and pointing it out in an email. Or it’s simply asking, “How are you today?”, or “How are things in (insert home town or country here)?”, so easy, and it brings down guards, immediately.

Too right Ryan and these days if we bother to look at people’s profiles on any of the social media platforms, we can find some common points of interest as conversation starters too.

Janet Calaway comments:

“I have asked people what’s your favorite social media platform and why or what do you like best about it? Their answer to that question usually tells me about them and where they want to go.”

This a great way to lead in Janet and with Google + being such a new social media platform, one can always ask them what they know/think about this specifically which can then lead to the other questions you ask.

At some point in the conversation one will probably want to progress to the subject of business though, so is there a way to get there without asking THAT question?

Oliver Tausend echoes my point above; that we often know a lot about people up front so we don’t need to ask them what they do.  He suggests the following question ideas:

‘What are three major challenges in your business?’

‘How’s your business growing?’

‘How do you build your business?’

‘What are your biggest challenges? What have you learned so far from these challenges? Would you like to do something about this?’

Brigitte Charlon says:

‘My fav Q when connecting with new people is” What would help you in your life at the point where you are?” or

“What would you ask me to do if I was a fairy?” and also, “Can you tell me about one of your childhood dreams not yet realized ?”

My purpose is to share; to know people, and find out what they want. Or /and help them to find out what they want!’

Pedro Cardoso shows how a very small change to language can transform a question into being different and quite acceptable:

I think a much better warm-up query that usually leads to the same conversation routes, although much more comfortably and honestly, is:

“What do you *like* doing”?

Amazing how such a simple word can make such a difference.

Here’s an alternative approach from Ilka Flood. She asks:

“So, what do you like to do for fun?”

Then I listen. People love to talk about themselves and you can find out a lot just by LISTENING. Then depending on what they tell me, I ask…

“How would you like to have more time to do that?”

Listening more than we talk is great advice which brings me to a funny story left by Liz which illustrates how important listening is.

When I was pregnant someone asked me ‘When are you due? I thought she said “What do you do? So I gave this summary about what I did, when the person had this blank stare on their face I just kept elaborating on points thinking she needed more information to understand what I did. She finally smiled and walked away.

The next person that asked me when I was due made me realize the last person really didn’t want to know what I did at all; she was asking when I was due.

Boy did that kill the conversation! Dah, I felt like such a dope.

How could that not bring a smile to your face?

So how do you answer THAT question when asked?

Janet Calaway:

“You know how people are always saying they wish they had more money or time or could stay home with their kids? (Slight pause so they can nod/acknowledge) Well, what I do is help them get what matters to them–and, you know what? I absolutely love it; it’s so much fun.”

Oliver Tausend:

‘My canned answer to this dreaded question is: “I am a professional network marketer and mentor.” Canned because I might vary it according to the exact question and situation.’

In conclusion Janet Calaway shared a quirky and clever way to deal with that other dreaded question, “How are you?”

‘My response is, “Perfect” and that’s all I say. A high percentage of the people break out in a smile and say “WOW! I’ve never met anyone perfect.” Marcus, that one response starts some fantastic conversations.

I am sure it does Janet, I’m sure it does!

Asking questions is one of the most effective ways to connect with people but they can also be responsible for creating a disconnect. The key lies in asking the ‘right’ questions at the ‘right’ time.

Be sure to read the original post if you want some more ideas. A big thank you to all those who left comments and especially those featured in this post.

Do you have any other ideas to add?

Are there any other questions or lines that you particularly dislike hearing when networking with others?

Have your say in the comments section and I’ll meet you there. Please share this post with your followers so that they can join in the conversation too. Thank you.

Be Happy!

Post image: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Avolore