Building Relationships = Social Networking

08/02/2009

Lifestyle, Social Media

Smiling beautiful girl with friends in the background social networkOne of my favorite things in life is connecting people to each other.

Sometimes I meet a person and hear their story and I inevitably say to them “ hey have you met …? You two should really get together and talk about this. You two have a lot in common in this area.”

It happens a lot.

When I look at my friends, sometimes I look at them through the lens of a series of connections. I’m not one to use my friends to get to others nor do I have an agenda for all of my friends. I think there is a time and place for that and a very appropriate way to do that if the opportunity makes itself available.

What I’m talking about is seeing the opportunity my friends have in them… not me… and making sure they are connected to the right people to see them either grow personally or professionally… or both.

For example, look at Facebook and Twitter and you will find a series of connections within a wide level of relationships. Most people think of Facebook and Twitter as social networks but never consider that the circle of friends you experience real life with are the real life version of a social network.

Why is this important to know?

Some of you have a hard time figuring out what to do with all of this social networking/social media craze. If this is you, I would encourage you to just start here. Build relationships that foster growth. Sounds like a no-brainer I’m sure, but are you surrounding yourself with people that are helping you grow personally and professionally? You should be. We all need friends who challenge us.

My friend Randy says this all the time…. “Rising tides lifts all ships”

Then, if you haven’t joined Facebook, Twitter or some other social network then try one. Hey… try two if you can. For me the most fun ones are Twitter and Facebook.

Try them for 30 days and see what you think about it and see what kind of connections you make. You will find business peers, friends from college or friends you haven’t seen in forever, new opportunities, new technology or pieces of information you never knew existed. It’s all there for.

But remember this. Relationships are about engaging each other in conversation. This is true offline… as well as online.

Ask yourself… What I am doing to foster relationships that help challenge me and create growth in areas of my life that could use a change? Build Relationships… Engage yourself in a social network…

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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/MusicGardener MusicGardener

    I would totally agree as I have made so many new connections via both Twitter and Facebook.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Lindsey_Nobles Lindsey_Nobles

    A great reminder that we need to be intentional about our relationships – online and offline. And our intentionality will be rewarded.

    I love all the friends I have made, and continue to make, through facebook, twitter, and blogging.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/MaureenTA MaureenTA

    well, since this is how we know each other, I would have to agree with you 100% :)

  • http://www.intensedebate.com/people/torybee torybee

    I'm a twitter/Facebook/blog addict and yet I'm not sure I quite get twitter. I've only been tweeting for about 8 months, ever since I got my iphone after Christmas and I am addicted. With Facebook I tend to keep friends that are people I know in real life. They may be wonderful friends, people I know peripherally through church or people from high school I'd never keep in touch with otherwise and I find it to be fun and valuable. There are many facebook friends that I barely know and through my online interaction they know me. Since I comment a lot, they know me pretty well.

    So, facebook I understand. Twitter I don't. Twitter seems designed for people to interact that don't know each other and hope that this deepens relationships and the exchange of information. In fact, I'm commenting on this blog because you, Spence Smith, started following me on twitter. You seemed interesting enough to follow so I now follow you on twitter and decided to check out this blog. I like this blog. Why you decided to follow me I haven't a clue. You are quite interesting but I'm not. In fact, I've written nothing in my twitter profile bio. In my opinion there's no reason why anyone would wish to follow my boring updates on twitter. I still have yet to become interactive on it; I read other's updates but seldom @reply or direct message them. I've never retweeted yet. I just have a hard time figuring out why people who don't know me would have any interest in what I have to say.

    I love twitter, but don't understand it's purpose. Does it have a purpose?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Timcallington Timcallington

    I think the point about using social media to build a genuine relationship is spot on. Personally I prefer twitter to Facebook, much as I can see the benefits of both. I think it comes down to choosing the method that works best for you and your lifestyle.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/theonlyeL theonlyeL

    “ hey have you met …? You two should really get together and talk about this. You two have a lot in common in this area.”

    — my sister keeps saying this to me about YOU. And then she begins every introduction with, "Spence, have you met my sister?" LOL How many times have we met now anyway?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/torybee torybee

    Sorry to bug you but I just realized how funny, fun and valuable social networking is and that it truly does build relationships.

    Earlier this afternoon I was sent a retweet by a person I follow from Tennessee that I don't know. I don't follow many on twitter, and have just begun to follow people I have zero connection with. (and it's fun; I love it!) So, I get this retweet saying to check out this guy's music on noisetrack. I very well may be the most curious person ever so of course I check it out and then realize that it's a person I knew and went to church with 8 or 9 years ago! I'd go to park days with his wife and children. I'm sure he'd never remember me but it's funny because (though he's moving) they're not more than 40 minutes from me and yet it took a retweet from Nashville to alert me to his album. Love the internet and now I follow him on twitter and just read his latest blog entry.

    I have no idea why that strikes me as so funny but it does.(sorry!)

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/JasonWert JasonWert

    "What I’m talking about is seeing the opportunity my friends have in them… not me… and making sure they are connected to the right people to see them either grow personally or professionally… or both."

    That's an incredible attitude to have…I need to spend more time looking at my friends like this.

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