Last week I told a story which exemplifies the benefits and wonderful connections that can be made as a result of social networking. While I am a huge proponent of this type of communication, I wanted to make the point that is should not be to the exclusion of personal communication. It should augment it. In many cases, social networking is the precursor to more personalized communication. But, it is important to note that social networking doesn’t really work unless it leads to a real “connection.” In other words, it’s not just a numbers game. There is a lot more to it than just seeing how many friends you can get on Facebook or how many connections you have on LinkedIn.
So, what do you do once you make a new connection on a social networking site? First, think about the reason for wanting to connect with a particular person. It shouldn’t just be random or because you share a group with that person. You need to really consider whether making this connection will be mutually beneficial. Then, once you have done that and the connection has been made, the next step is usually a few exchanges via site messaging or email. However, the ultimate goal should be to speak with that person either by phone or in person. That is when the potential connection will start to take place.
In the story that I told about meeting Nadia Bilchik, the steps that were taken in making this connection went something like this:
Step 1: Nadia sent me a message through my LinkedIn profile regarding the upcoming Worldwide ERC Conference in which she was going to be a speaker.
Step 2: I immediately responded to Nadia and accepted her request to connect on LinkedIn.
Step 3: We began a dialogue through LinkedIn that lead to the exchange of phone numbers and the confirmation that we would speak prior to the conference so that she could have an informal interview with me.
Step 4: Nadia called me 2 days prior to the conference to make a plan for meeting each other upon her arrival.
Step 5: We met, but better yet, we connected!
From there, the story continues…Indeed, we made a connection, which has lead to the retelling of this story both on my blog and on Nadia’s blog.
If you have made a recent connection (not just made contact) with someone via social networking, please share your story by leaving a comment on this blog post.
