REFERRAL NETWORK: #F4F currency

No strings attached?

How often do people offer to help with no strings attached?

It occurred to me the other day when someone who had tweeted at me to thank me for a Retweet #rt probably and included asking me whether he could provide me with any assistance.    I had responded with tweets and in my zest and exuberance (or zubrance in an english speakers'  lazy lingo).

I had replied inviting him to read and subscribe to my optioneerJM blog.  Mighty lofty eh?  Well, he DID ask me.

Let's do lunch
Is another cop out when a conversation starts running out of steam and you haven't figured out how to gracefully bow out of a phone chat that has gotten out of hand by its sheer length.  Admittedly, that is the norm whenever calls me.  Instead of just saying quickly, I gotta go, and then "click".  Back in the day when I fooled myself into thinking I was sophisticated and classy, I'd say that a lot.  As my budget diminished, it changed to "let's go for coffee".

Not for sale
Contrary to popular belief, sales folk do not enjoy being sold to.  If anything, they are looking for the "close" to get to the main point so they can move on.

Especially annoying to me is when someone is trying to sell me something unsolicited.  Just post your resume online to test my theory.  You will be bombarded with numerous job opportunities .... from scammers.

#F4F as an online currency
I decided right there and then to see if I could re-tweak the hashtag #F4F to change its meaning from "Follow for follow" label to "Favor for a favor" to create a free referral network.  If someone does a favor for you, or you do a favor for them, include the #F4F hashtag.  Hopefully, people will congregate there to create a climate of exchanging ideas, follows, retweets, subscribers, and influence merit.  

referral exclusivity
You'll probably notice, as in most other things in life, career, family, friends:  there are takers and then there are givers.  Rarely do the two worlds collide.  Why is that?

copy cats
then there is plagiarism on social media.  If you put your great idea out there, it is presented to be scooped up by someone who doesn't have the imagination nor ideas of their own.  They create their own press and make believe that they are social media rock stars.  

entitlement
some people will take your ideas without a blip of a conscience.    Their strong sense of self suggests that they can just help themselves to someone else's idea and make it there own.

guilt-free
A guilty conscience would rarely be formed.  Promises can be made and kept within a few keystrokes.  

guilt-thee
Some don't give credit for an idea scooped up and owned.  You made it better right?  Or, called it something different.  

own it
ownership is difficult for ideas on social media and the web.  If you put it out there, blog it, share it, state it ... it is fodder for cheaters to say they own it.

renamed 
to something that sounds a little more like them or rephrased differently.  Jump on a blog and write about it and then start tweeting it on Twitter and everywhere to take claim.

Foul ish
anything truly dishonest like this ends up as a plot for a movie or becomes reality on social media.

#F4F Currency
Let's give it a try.  Forget bitcoin and any other online currency attempt.  Why not use the thing that is sitting in front of your nose, and accessible by your fingertips.  DO try this at home!  I believe that people will start to reciprocate and communicate, arriving at a mutually beneficial exchange.  No money required.

un- free
nothing in the climate of referral is ever free.  Money may not necessarily exchange hands, maybe a special loyalty discount incorporated, referral fees perhaps.  The expectation is never that anything is for free.  Your opinion, your referral, your network, your reputation is worth something.  

rewarded
share it and as others embrace it and share it.  Reward them.  Don't be dishonest and scam people into revealing their identity.  Just so that you can try to scam them or sell them some more.

Referral network:

Make use of your gift, talent, ability

Save your money.

  use #F4F