Do you collect “connections” online?
As I said in my previous article on “online networking”, I do have more thoughts on this topic!
Two different comments from two different people got me thinking about networking, and online networking in particular, from a perspective that hadn’t occurred to me before.
One comment was about keeping up and responding to all the emails from various people who want to network with you. (And I’ll talk about this topic in next week’s article.)
The other comment was about how some people don’t seem to want to build an online network (such as LinkedIn or openBC).
For instance, there are people who either decline invitations to join an existing network, or they don’t invite new people to connect with them online, or both.
My immediate reaction to the second comment was that one size doesn’t fit all.
Perhaps these people aren’t “online” people. Perhaps they prefer in-person contact.
Then another thought occurred to me: perhaps these people prefer “depth” over “breadth”.
What I mean is this: networks can be built in different ways.
For instance, you might prefer to build a large list of contacts first. And then, on an as-needed basis, get to know and build deeper relationships with different people within that list.
Alternatively, you might want to build deep relationships with a small group of people first. And then, on an as-needed basis, use their help to find new contacts to expand your network.
Online networking platforms allow both approaches to work just as well.
So how you respond to people who want to join your online network depends on whether you prefer to start “deep” or “wide”.
However, given the online profiles of member, search capabilities, and other such features and tools, I wonder if online networking encourages a “breadth-first” approach?
What do you think? Please share your comments below.
– Sri
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:41 am
Dear Ms. Dasgupta
This reply is not because I disagree with anything you have said. Rather it is to add a different prospective to your comments. For people who work with “NETWORKING” in a professional, non-digital setting, there are multitudes of definitions of that phrase. And, there are multiple reasons people should network. However, I think that for most business people in the United States “On-Line Networking” is an oxymoron. As you mentioned, there are all sorts of people out there, so sure, there are some who are just sort of “wired” for all things digital. But for the vast majority of us, we still have twentieth century analog minds.
I don’t know for sure what you do, or how this web enterprise results in income for you. And of course, you don’t know much about me. I have three primary target markets, business owners, sales people, and professionals in practice. I get business from those targets in two ways. On a national or even international level, I am a professional speaker who speaks mostly on marketing related issues to associations and groups made up of those there segments. On a very limited geographic level, I provide training, coaching, support and networking opportunities for those three groups of people.
There are lots of reasons to network besides getting business, and lots of reasons to participate in on-line activities. I personally have had great professional development and support from on-line communities at various stages of my career. I have several friends who found their spouses on-line, so I do realize that sound relationships can be developed on-line. On-line communities have value beyond their ability to generate sales. However, when we examine that part of the equation, generating new customers, for those people who are looking at networking as a tool for generating new business, on-line is likely to be a waste of resources.
I believe that there are three major marketing paradigms; the retail paradigm, the cold-marketing paradigm, and the word-of-mouth paradigm. All of us use elements from all of these paradigms as part of our marketing mix. However, the vast majority of people who do business on the web at this time are cold marketers. The amount of spam that floods our in-boxes every day is mute testimony to this fact. By the way, there are lots of so called “permission based” or “opt in” internet marketers that I classify in the cold marketing realm because of a level of vagueness or even deceit in the way they get people’s permission.
There is also a much smaller group of web marketers who are relying on the retail paradigm. Many major retailers fall into this category, along with lots of players in the financial sector and other assorted business enterprises.
But for those businesses that are dependant on the word of mouth paradigm as their primary marketing focus, on-line networking is almost as ineffective as what I describe as the bottom level of “Joe’s Hierarchy of Marketing Activity,” - sitting by the telephone waiting for it to ring. When we look at the classic marketing principle of market segmentation, the web is great for people who can identify very specific demographic target markets. But for those whose major target markets have strong geographic elements, “on-line networking” is problematic.
If any of these comments strike a chord with you, I would be happy to exchange ideas with you. Which would of course, mean we are in fact networking on line.
Enjoy reading your material
Joe McBride
July 23rd, 2006 at 8:09 am
Sri –
I find the online social networks (LinkedIn, Ecademy, Ryze, etc.) predicate their value around the ‘breadth’ vs. the ‘depth’ approach.
LinkedIn gleefully tells me that I have over 4,000 connections less than 2 degrees away and over 330,000 people in my total ‘network’. Puhleez!
I seriously doubt that, if I was short on my mortgage some month that any of these alleged connections would feel any compulsion to help me out.
However, while the breadth angle is the ‘hook’ of the popular online networks, I invite people into my network based on two factors: 1) can they offer my network some value and, me some potency for knowing them, and 2) can I reciprocate the value in return. If not, then I find the potential connection will not last for long or produce much reciprocated value for the parties involved.
Care learn more about an alternative online network? Ask me for more details or visit: www.theexpertdirectory.com
Cheers!
Bill
July 24th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Hi Sri,
Thank you for your interesting email and the question you have raised.
I would like to share my experience with you regarding online networking. A friend of mine asked me to join his online networking through linkdlen. I was quite excited to do it and I did. Then 2 months letter somebody tried to abuse my details so I decided not to do it any more until I have come across you.
I prefer to be selective in building my networking then developing my relationship in depth. As trust is my priority.
Looking forward to your next articles.
Regards,
Halle Yilmaz