Value is a complex word, but you better dissect and understand its complexity because value is at the heart of your business social media challenge, opportunity and path to success.

I post value updates on Facebook, I have attracted thousands of LinkedIn followers because of value, I tweet value, and I post value videos on YouTube.

REALITY: Value must be perceived as such by the recipient, or it has none. If you think it’s valuable and your connections think it is not valuable, then delete will overpower forward or share.

CHALLENGE: Put yourself in the shoes, and in the chair, and in the mind of your connections. Read whatever it is you wrote aloud, and ask yourself: How will I use this to learn? How will I use this to earn? How will I use this to better my business? How will I use this to better myself? How will I use this to better my life?

If those questions cannot be answered in a positive manner, you have not achieved value in the mind of your connections, and your business social media outreach will suffer accordingly.

GOOD NEWS: Value is rare. Because I’m a value provider, I study value. And because I’m in a market with many other authors, speakers, writers, publishers, and business people, I study their value. I get their emails, I go to their websites, and I read their offerings—mostly followed by the delete key.

Oh, they offer stuff that they believe to be valuable, but in the end it’s an exchange they’re hoping for. Their perceived value for your money. Big mistake.

HERE IS MY SECRET: I put myself in front of people that can say yes to me, and I deliver value first.

Your messages of value have to be genuine, authentic, and without an offer to buy. Your messages of value must be transparent, and without expectation of return or response.

When your followers and connections realize that you offer genuine help, and that your messages have real-world value, they will begin to buy from you because they believe the rest of what you offer also has value. Value to them.

I see all kinds of lessons, I see all kinds of classes, I see all kinds of downloads, and I see all kinds of offers about how to win at, how to build up, and how to monetize social media. But I rarely see the word “value” in those messages. And I NEVER see valuable information offered before payment is rendered.

But value isn’t a deep, dark secret. In fact, I don’t think there’s anything more obvious on the planet! If you give value to someone without any obligation or expectation, they will like it, connect with it, tell others, and want more – the very essence of business social media.

Value first, connections second, money third. Money is not the motive, it’s the by-product and the report card for doing the right thing with value.