Monday, January 14, 2008

Making new friends via social networking

I ran across a blogger named Scott Bradley who has thought long and hard about first contact in the social networking Web sites. Here's a summary of some of his most critical points:
  • Of course, he starts off by sending the friend requests.
  • But he follows up with a personal message. This is of course possible with the major social networking engines (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace):
    When sending the friend request put a message in there saying, "Hi _____(their name) I saw you in the _____________(name of the group) and wanted to add you as a friend. I am a (_______) (entrepreneur/business person...etc) who likes networking with other like minded individuals. If you would like to talk feel free to IM me on my screen name [...]. I hope you have a great day!
Here is his line of reasoning:
  • You are just sending this message personally to the person saying their NAME...not just some huge message that you generally send out.
  • You are edifying them that they are someone that is worth getting to know.
  • Are showing them that you have an interest in networking.
  • [You] give them the freedom to contact you if they are interested in talking more.
And he goes on to describe numerous random contacts he has gotten as a result. One key he does not emphasize, but that it it is obvious he holds on to, is that he believes so much in the power of the random contacts that he is always ready to move on them. To start a conversation on something relevant.
Now one thing that you have to be aware of...is that it takes a lot of requests for this to happen...but...those that do come to the surface are awesome people.
Those who use the dating Web sites know the same principles are working in meeting potential dates online, but I think we don't see how well the same principles apply with professional contacts. I have only just started to see it myself.

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posted by Ron @ 8:31 AM

1 Comments:

At 8:54 AM, Blogger Scott Bradley said...

Hi Ron,

Thanks for sharing my old blog with your readers! I really appreciate it!

I have started posting to a new blog! Here is the address!

http//www.NetworkingEffectively.com

I really liked how you picked out the key points to the post I made!

 

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