If most of your time on social media sites is spent accumulating as many “friends,” followers or contacts as possible, you’re not only missing the point, you’re missing out on an opportunity to create genuine and lasting relationships with a broad range of people.
Start by asking yourself, “When is the last time I had a meaningful interaction with these people? How often do I ask about or comment on their interests?”
For many of us, it would be nearly impossible to have a meaningful interaction with all of our contacts in one day or even one month, but the goal is not necessarily to reach everyone all at once. The goal should be to keep our relationships as fresh and meaningful as possible and this can be accomplished by having a few genuine interactions with our friends and contacts on a daily or weekly basis. Otherwise, these groups are just a list of people.
Set small goals for yourself. Try to have at least one new – and I stress, genuine – interaction with a different person each day and branch out from your usual group of friends. You’re not running for office and you’re not selling anything. You’re staying in touch with the people you presumably care about.
Make sure to send a brief but unique note to everyone. Ask them about their interests or projects. The beauty of social media is that you can immediately see what others care about and begin relating with them on a personal level. While a note like “What’s up? How’ve you been?” is nice, a note like “How was your trip to Spain. Did you visit Barcelona while you were there?” is better.
Remember that follow up is very important. When someone responds to you, shoot a note back as soon as possible. Otherwise, your attempts to reconnect might be in vain if the other person thinks you’re just mining them for information.
One last note: As much as possible, try to bring online interaction into the real world. Cyber friendships are nice, but they will never replace real, in-person interaction.
These tips are just a few ideas to help keep your relationships fresh and lasting. How do you keep your relationships fresh?
Photo Credit: Olga
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
YES! All too often people talk about building their numbers and collecting Twitter followers. That isn’t the goal.
I’ve been watching how posts on Twitter drive traffic to my various blogs and sites versus similar posts on Facebook and LinkedIn. In general, Facebook drives more traffic, as those people are more engaged in my life on a regular basis.
LinkedIn, however, drives more personal interactions. People there tend to email me directly, while Twitter is useful for SEO and other things, but doesn’t drive much direct traffic and interactions happen only in the confines of Twitter.
Of course, all this online interaction is great, but if you don’t get out there and speak to people directly, then you’re losing a lot of the value in social media.
Chuck –
Thanks very much for your comment. You make a great observation about how each type of social network contributes to traffic. I have seen the same (i.e., Facebook drives most traffic, Twitter is good for SEO, etc.).
But as you say, if you don’t get out there and interact with people directly, you lose out on the primary benefit of social media — human interaction.
Thanks again!