Why No One Responds to Your Messages (And How You Can Fix That)

Here’s why no one accepts your friend requests, joins your group, or responds to your messages…

You don’t look like someone worth connecting with. Plain and simple.

Lately I’ve been getting like 100 connection requests per day, and I have to say that the overwhelming majority of those requests are DEEEEENIED!!! ???♂????

And here’s why…

Consumers today are bombarded by thousands and thousands of marketing messages every day. Everyone is trying to get their attention to pitch a product and sell them something.

To manage this, consumers have resulted to making snap judgments about the messages they receive. That way they can quickly discern whether they’re worth listening to.

? And the fastest way to do that is to judge you on the surface-level.

Before I decide to accept a friend request, I pop on over to the person’s profile to try to quickly answer the question, “Who is trying to get my attention?”

And this is the same question your prospects subconsciously ask themselves about you.

There are three questions prospects ask theirself any time they receive a marketing message from you. Whether it’s a friend request, group invite, or DM to their inbox: ??

1. Who are you?
2. What do you want from me?
3. Why should I trust you?

And if don’t answer those questions in a nonthreatening way, you will not get the result you want from the interaction.

The thing you must realize is that consumers DO NOT start out in a neutral position.

It’s not like they’re starting at zero and you just need to push them a little to the right to win them over.

Instead, consumers have grown to distrust marketers, and actually start in an initial stage of DOUBT and SUSPICION.

Once the initial excitement is over from seeing the little red notification bubble, they immediately shift into investigative mode and begin answering the three questions above.

What they’re trying to do is determine how they should respond. And that can only be decided after gathering some more information about you.

But why do people do this?

Here’s why…??

WHY YOUR PROSPECTS DON'T TRUST YOU:

Imagine for a moment that you’re reliving your 5th birthday party… all your friends have come over to celebrate, and they’ve all brought fancily wrapped gifts for you as a present.

You’re so excited to open them up and see what’s inside, and can’t wait to play with all the fun toys and playthings that await you.

After making a wish and blowing out the candles on your birthday cake, you sit down and all your friends gather around to watch you open up your presents.

You grab the biggest box the fancy wrapping paper and ridiculous ribbon and quickly start ripping it apart to get the goodies inside…

But once you open up the lid, instead of finding the toy you’ve been praying for, a giant snake lashes out and bites you in the face!

OUCH!!! ??

You’d probably be a lot more suspicious of birthday gifts from that day forward, wouldn’t you?

Well, that’s exactly what’s happened to consumers in the past after trusting inquiries from strangers.

We’ve all been lied to and let down a million times, so naturally the default expectation is that it’s going to happen again the next time a marketer tries to talk to us.

This is why trust isn’t automatically given… it must be earned.

Instead of viewing your inquiry as a birthday gift, your prospects view it more like a strange package that’s been left at their door.

They don’t know who it’s from, and they didn’t ask for it, so they don’t know if it’s safe to bring inside and open it up.

And the first thing someone does after receiving an unexpected message like that is try to figure out who it is from.

Why??

So they can determine if the message can be trusted.

If it’s from Grandma, sweet! Then it’s probably a birthday card filled with some money.

But if it’s from someone you don’t know, you immediately think, “Who the hell is this? And why they hell are they trying to talk to me?”

The guard immediately goes up. And you must bring it down carefully if you want your prospect to respond positively.

6 THINGS PROSPECTS JUDGE ABOUT YOUR PROFILE:

Here’s a list of the 6 things people judge about your profile upon receiving a connection request (I’ve received 12 since I started writing this post): ??

1. Your Profile Picture
2. Your Name
3. Your Cover Photo
4. Your Intro
5. Your About Section
6. Your Recent Activity

Go look at these things on the profile of some random person on the “People You May Know” suggestions and pay attention to how these items influence your perception of them.

Focus on how these things will shape your perception of “What can I expect from this relationship if I respond to them?”

And the surest red flag for people on Facebook is any sign that they’re going to immediately receive a DM from you with a lame marketing message…

Or that you’re going to post spammy crap on your page nonstop…

Or that you have nothing of value to offer, and are instead just going to take, take, take.

So for me, here’s the 5 people I rule out almost immediately: ???♂?

1. Forex Traders
2. Network Marketers
3. Affiliate Marketers
4. People Promoting Groups
5. People Promising Easy Riches

Sorry pal, you just give me the feeling that the relationship with you is going to be extremely one-sided and nothing more than a nonstop pitchfest if I open up the door and let you in.

That being said, there are some people who fall into those categories I have accepted as a friend. If that’s you, congrats… you made the cut.

And that’s because despite the “red flag” indicators on your profile, there was enough information there to make me consider that you have something of value to offer.

The first thing a prospect is going to think about before responding to you is

“What’s in it for me?”

We’ve all had those moments where we hover over the “accept” button and try to decide whether this person is worth connecting with. And the value you potentially bring is usually the deciding factor.

So go through your profile and try to look at each element through the eyes of a stranger hearing from you for the first time…

• What “red flags” might you be giving off that will turn prospects away?
• What might give your prospect a sign you might try to spam them in the future?
• How can you make your profile less threatening to skeptical consumers?

Now, I’m not saying you have to change everything and do a complete makeover. If what you’re doing is working for you, great. Keep it up. Don’t change a thing.

But if you’ve been struggling to get the results you want, you might want to change things up a bit.

Your profile is probably sending

all the wrong signals.

The key thing to remember is that as far as the consumer is concerned, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. ??

And if you look like a marketer, sound like a marketer, and promote like a market, then you’re probably a marketer who’s going to spam them.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE:

For Facebook, I think it’s better to go the innocuous and non-threatening route, and make your personal profile look like one more of an average person than someone trying to sell something.

Remember that Facebook is designed as a social media platform to help you connect with family and friends. So that’s probably what your profile should make you look like.

Take my profile, for example: ??

https://www.facebook.com/wesblackwellbranding

• My profile pic is a nice selfie picture of me smiling and being friendly.
• My cover photo is a pleasant picture of the city I live in (Phoenix, AZ)
• My intro sums me up nicely in five words, with a mix of my profession, personality traits, and personal interests.
• My photos are all of my family and I having fun and being goofy together.
• And it’s not really until my posts that a prospect realizes that I’m dropping some knowledge bombs and may have something to sell them.

But even then, I lead with VALUE ???

In a 2,000 word post, roughly 90% (1,800 words) of it is all helpful, instructional information. And that all comes before the pitch at the end.

So when someone lands on my page, they think, “Ok… this guy seems cool. He’s kind of funny, loves his family, and is extremely handsome ??, so what’s the harm in accepting his friend request? All these other mutual friends did, so maybe I should too. And he even has some really helpful posts on his page, so I can probably expect more of those in the future by listening to him.”

And that’s exactly what I want them to think. This doesn’t happen by accident.

HOW TO WRITE YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE:

Now contrast this with my LinkedIn profile, which you can view here: ??

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/wesblackwellbranding/

Unlike Facebook, which is more personal, LinkedIn is designed to be more professional. It’s a platform specifically built for business networking and people expect you to lead with your offer.

• My pictures are professional and high quality.
• My cover photo tells prospects how I can help them with their business.
• My about section tells people what I do, who I work with, and how to get started.
• My profile promotes my book and other promotional offers.
• My experience goes into greater detail about what I do to help clients get results.

This is much more in-line with what people expect on a business networking site like LinkedIn.

But imagine for a moment that these two profiles switched places. Imagine my Facebook profile looked like my LinkedIn profile, and vice versa.

• On Facebook, you’d think I was a spammer hoping to sell you on something
• On LinkedIn, you’d think I was unprofessional and unsuccessful

In other words, my POSITIONING affects the perception of my promise to prospects.??

The goal of positioning is to influence your customer’s perception of your promise before you present it to them and make the offer.

With effective positioning, you can pre-sell them on your offer and make it seem more credible without even telling them what it is.

And the same works in reverse. If you have “bad” positioning, then your customers won’t listen to your promise no matter how good it is.

All of this has to do with your Brand Identity, which I define as “the “attributes that help identify and distinguish your brand in consumer’s minds.”

Basically, it helps consumers answer the question, “Who are you?” like we discussed earlier.

But there’s one more thing you need to know... ??

• Brand Identity is how you WANT consumers to perceive your brand...
• Brand Image is the ACTUAL perception of your brand by consumers.

If identity is the voice, then image is what they hear.

And the way you position yourself on social media speaks volumes about who you are.

Want to know about how this works? ?

Then I’d like to invite you to join me on a four-week, one-on-one intensive where we’ll work together on the following:

1. Showing you how to subconsciously sell prospects on your offer before they even see the pitch.
2. Positioning your brand to gain maximum authority, trust & influence with your best prospects.
3. Sharing my strategies for communicating with consumers to gain instant influence and authority.
4. Bolstering your messages to build motivation in prospects and shorten the sales process.

To learn more or see if you're a fit, just DM me. ??

And if you found this message helpful, be sure to send me a connection request so you won’t miss out on any more like this in the future :-) ??