I disconnected from a couple of people on Facebook this week.

They were both fairly well-known names in the world of marketing. In fact, I'd been a little bit flattered when they sent me connection requests.

But what I found after being connected is that the only thing they posted was business content.

Not sales pitches or anything like that. They were sharing valuable tips and ideas.

But it just felt off to me.

I couldn't figure out why for a while. After all, I advise that you share valuable content with your audience.

I finally got it when a friend of mine shared some valuable content herself.

And the thing was, I didn't get the same “off” feeling about it.

What I realised was that my friend also shared photos and stories of her life on her timeline, along with jokes, updates on how she was feeling, all sorts of stuff.

And that made all the difference.

Because of all the other stuff she was sharing, this piece of content felt like she was being generous and sharing some useful advice with her friends.

With the other guys, because all they were sharing was business tips, it felt like they were doing content marketing. Like they saw me as a target client, not a friend.

And that felt off.

Now often I'm happy to be an audience member or target client. And if a relationship starts off on somewhere like Linkedin, I don't mind at all if the relationship is purely professional. That's what I connected with them for on Linkedin.

But on Facebook, my expectation is that my connections are friends. I don't expect to be marketed to.

(Or if I'm being marketed to by my connections, I expect it to be subtle enough that I don't notice ;) )

Now, I've used Facebook as an example here. But it applies across all forms of relationship.

There comes a time when your relationship with someone progresses beyond just being vendor to customer. Or expert to audience. Or business partners.

There comes a time when – even if only a little bit – they come to see you as friends.

Those relationships are deeper. They last longer. And from a business sense, they're much more valuable.

But if you just deal with that person at arms-length all the time like they're an audience member or a customer then it will feel off to them.

If you want your relationship to be deeper, communicate with them in ways and on topics that are more than just business.