Ever go to a cocktail party or conference reception and there’s “that guy” or “that girl” who monopolizes the conversation talking about work? You’re standing there, stuck. Drink in hand, you scan the room looking for an excuse to make a graceful escape.

I’m friends with “that guy” on Facebook. In fact, I’m friends with a few people like that on Facebook.

After a long day of meetings, formatting brochures, uploading blog posts, and being a legal marketer/therapist, I want to go to my Facebook page for a diversion. See what my friends are up to. Maybe catch an interesting article or two that I might have missed.

What am I finding these days?? My Wall is filled with posts from a few of these “friends.” The majority of posts are links to articles that I had already read through my Google Reader. Good articles, but no original content. I don’t want my Facebook Wall to become a legal marketing Reader. I have the Legal Marketing Reader for that.

Life is not always about work. And neither should social networking. It’s about getting to know you, my dear work colleagues, better.

Now, these are work colleagues I’m ranting about, so I can’t just “unfriend” them. That would be rude.

But Facebook has a solution!! Woo hoo! I’m just hiding all of their posts. I’m also ignoring their suggestions for other groups to join, people to friend, etc. Their credibility with me is gone. I’m blowing these people off and the worst part is: they don’t even know it.

Ok. So why the mini-rant here???

Don’t be “that guy” or “that girl.”

I’m not saying don’t post a lot to Twitter or Facebook. Just don’t be so work serious all the time. Be fun. Be friendly. Be helpful. Share a great blog post you wrote. Share a great article that is a MUST read. Hey, share some pictures from Halloween, or links to a concert you’re attending. Do be AUTHENTIC. Who are you?? Why should I get to know you better?? Why should I like you? Why should I trust you, your suggestions and links?? We’re talking about SOCIAL media and SOCIAL networking. If all you do is throw out links to articles, and requests to attend paid seminars, I’m not going to get to know, like or trust you. Worse yet, I’m going to ignore you by hiding you and your posts. I’ll also avoid you at that next cocktail party or reception.