Face-to-Face vs Virtual "Friends"

Since my business is coast to coast, I am more efficient with virtual contacts. I accept all invitations in my target market.

I have been in B2B sales and sales management for many years and have found that long distance professional relationships can be rewarding both financially and personally.

Since the majority of my target market's potential clients are also coast to coast, I am able to introduce them to each other virtually.

When I find a person in one social networking site. who would be a match for someone in another social networking site, I introduce them in LinkedIn. They may be in the same city or on the opposite coasts. That is the core of my marketing. I am a resource of viable contacts.

Because my company has very little competition people just need to know about us. When they have a need they remember me and get in touch with me.

Iris Salmins - VP EJL and Associates - Collection Agency for the Media Industry- 678-640-4896 - iris@ejlandassociates.com

My physical business is presenting Wellness Events and working with patients as a practitioner. However, biznik has been great because I remet many old business contacts and met new people online I later met in person. I am pleased to add people I have not met in person.

I have had very few people ask to join my network that I hadn't had at least some correspondence with so it hasn't been an issue.

I have never even been clear about the purpose of the network on Biznik. I can't even send them all a group e-mail. And I never ever look at someone's network to decide if that person is "okay." I like to give people a chance anyway, and look for the value rather than be suspicious.

If someone asks to be part of my network I assume they were somehow drawn to me or my business and that's a good start.

I wouldn't want someone to judge me by who is in my Biznik network. Of course, if later something would happen where I wouldn't want to be associated with that person, I can always remove them, similar to unfollowing in Twitter. I have only done that once in the whole time I have been a Biznik member.

Well, great conversation here. I am pretty open with my network. I have accepted many that I have not met face-to-face, but I usually like some kind of interactions via Biznik, whether it's through a thread conversation, or simply a single interaction.

I guess I'm looking at it differently than my other networks. I look at it as my "Biznik" network, which is worldwide, online, collaborative and reaching beyond the norms. As much as I would like to say I have "guidelines for my network", it's more of a gut feeling and "the Biznik way".

I only invite people to Biznik that I've met and likewise I only ask for an ad if I've met the person face to face or spent significant time getting to know them online.

Interesting stuff, Christian. I want to add to my earlier post that I have had several people tell me that before they hired someone they specifically checked to see if that person was in my network. Comments like "I figured if you added them then they must be good." Though I didn't expect people to do this, it confirmed my initial instinct to only accept people I know in some form as mentioned above. But I do wish there were more ways to tag how we know people AND what level of endorsement we can offer.

Thanks for bringing this up!

Christian, thanks for reminding me that an exchange we had was part of the reason you started the thread, and sorry for not seeing it earlier - I've been swamped with a website and blog upgrade.

Someone wrote that there were quite a few different approaches taken by Biznik members. That's probably true, but I think that the center of gravity is different from other networking groups, with 'meaningful' connections being the prevalent way determining a network connection.

I see less of the mentality of 'never mind the quality, look how many connections I have' than is common on LinkedIn. Great reminder about the idea of pruning - I have a few LinkedIn connections that are connection hunters, for whom the connection wasn't really meaningful. It's hard to eliminate all of those when you have Intel in your resume.

I want to thank Howard for helping me crystallize my thinking on Facebook. Biznik and LinkedIn are enough for me for business networks at this point although I look at Plaxo occasionally. I'm pigeonholing Facebook as personal, and won't add business connections there. I wish that a couple of the local organizations would stick with LinkedIn.

One social network tool to bind them all? (Not rule) Who will build it, or does it exist and I missed it?

It's a little off the topic, but if you are interested in the issues around networks and influence you might want to look at the debate between "The Influentials" (Keller and Berry) - basically saying that a few key people can make a difference in the adoption of an idea (or viral marketing) - versus Watts and Dodds who say that the malleable influencee is much more relevant to the spread of ideas. I don't think I'm communicating this well, so I'm going to study it some more, but I raise it here in case someone can articulate how the ideas fit into the discussion.

--Mike

This is indeed a fascinating topic. I'll admit it...I'm a social networking junkie/whore (why is it that the terms that seem most relevant here are pejorative?) I've lost count of how many I'm on and I've been doing it since the 'net was just a twinkle in Al Gore's eye. My criteria for accepting invitations/add requests/etc vary widely but relate specifically to the reasons I'm a part of that particular community. I wear many hats in my roles on various social networks - sometimes I am acting on behalf of an employer or client...other times it relates to a particular professional or personal interest of mine...

I got so excited about this that I continued this as a blog post - Social Networking: Playing Nice with Your Peeps http://annwendell.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/social-networking-playing-nice-with-your-peeps/

Maybe I'll even get my act together to turn it into a Biznik article.

Ann

Last week end I had an exchange here on Bizchat with Allan Elder at We lost four clients in a week

It gave me tons of useful information that we incorporated into our marketing. He's in California and the chances of meeting are slim. I'm now in the process of reading more of what he has to contribute.

What the downside or "risk" is in accepting an invitation from someone you might not know well? It's not like they can spam you or group message you, or even post "tweets" that will show up in your box!

I guess I don't see the downside. As entrepreneurs, building a "list" of people who agree to allow us to periodically remid them who we are and what we offer is often a key goal. It seems odd that I might try to build a "list" while at the same time refusing connection on Biznik. It's not like Facebook or Twitter where people try to get thousands of followers, and really, there would be no point in them doing so.

If they're putting out a network request, they are basically saying they'd like to remember me. It's a compliment. Perhaps they felt a comraderie after reading a blog post or an article I had written. Perhaps someday they'll need a coach or a musician, or be able to refer a friend who does. Far be it for me to discourage them!

I personally only ask people to be in my network if I feel some sort of connection and have had interaction, whether online or in person. And I always send a personalized note; I think it's just plain lazy not to.

Interesting conversation (I just found page two).

Interesting that some people would take a network addition as an endorsement. I always thought that endorsements were endorsements.

Kate, I found the endorsement bit interesting too and that's why I brought it up. People don't always see things the same way you/I see them and it's good to keep that in mind.

Knowing that people might check my network list in making their decisions prompted me weed through my list at that time to make sure there wasn't anyone on there who I might specifically NOT recommend.

I don't personally see the network as an endorsement, but I want to make sure that if someone else does, that I am not keeping someone on the list "just to be nice" if I feel that a person's work or actions have proven to me to be below a basic standard for someone I would say is a stand-up person/business.

I see the network more as a way to alert people about a group, article, or event. I also use it to see who from my network will be at an upcoming event.

If more elements are added to the network feature, like the tagging I mentioned above, I think it could become even more useful in the future.