If you connect with another person and find things you like about them and the way they represent themselves, then you’ll have a positive view of that person overall.  You’ll feel comfortable exchanging personal information and when the time is right, maybe even professional information.  Unfortunately, too many people don’t get it.  They feel like a profile on a social media-type site is just another sales opportunity.  And while it can be, that’s not how to frame the experience.

Your intention to join a social network, or other type of membership-based web site should be to find and be found by people like you–people who like what you like, who do what you do, who know what you know and people you want to learn from, or more about.  The attitude should be that you want to meet new people, period.  Once you have stable connections with these people, you can find opportunities to send them updates and information that may be of interest to them.  Better yet, you may have a way to directly help them via something you know or someone else that you’ve met who they should meet too.

You never want to lead with a pitch about what you do for a living because it will sound like a sales pitch one hundred percent of the time.  People don’t like that.  Rest assured, they’ve read your profile, they know what you’re all about and what you do already–it goes without saying.  If they need you, they’ll let you know.  In the meantime, find ways to help them and at some point they may do the same for you.

So when signing up for social networking sites, use your name and identity–and be you!  The relationship they have with you will ultimately endear them to your brand.