Fostering Virtual Business Relationships
In a previous post, Transitioning to the Virtual World, I wrote about how face-time (e.g: lunch or a scheduled meeting) furthers our business relationships. When we’re connecting with people on a virtual level we have to figure out other ways to bring our relationships to the next level, but how?
There are tons of “social media” sites, each one being touted as the best way to connect and network virtually. So where do you start?
I started my social media experience with Facebook, but for personal reasons rather than business reasons. From time to time I waffle as to whether or not I should start befriending people I “kinda knew” back in the day, in an effort to spread the news about my business. To date, I haven’t been able to commit to this strategy.
Next up was LinkedIn, which touts itself as “what networking should be”. I’ve gotten off to a slow start with LinkedIn faced with a catch-22 situation. LinkedIn scanned my address book so I could start making connections. Unfortunately, out of my 400+ contacts there was only one who thought creating a profile on LinkedIn was a good idea. Since a basic premise of LinkedIn is to expand your network by way of friends of friends, colleagues of colleagues, friends of colleagues, and colleagues of friends (phew!) you should not be asking random people to join your network - you need to have some familiarity or common bond with the person in question. As I’ve been making efforts to integrate myself into the virtual business world I have added people to my LinkedIn network but this has been despite, not because, of LinkedIn. In my opinion, the real value that LinkedIn can provide is their Q&A section. You can post questions or answer other people’s questions on a variety of topics. It’s a good resource when you need information and provides exposure which increases your visibility and helps to expand your network.
The last tool I’m going to talk about is Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging site where you can post short updates (140 characters or less) about what you’re doing, known as tweets. You can follow other people’s tweets and people can choose to follow you. I like Twitter because if you find interesting people to follow you will be entertained and enlightened all at the same time. But, I am not using Twitter to the fullest because a) once again, there is only a single person in my immediate circle that has a Twitter account; and b) I can’t wrap my head around the idea that people might be interested in the mundane and trivial details of my minute-to-minute life. I feel the need to come up with scintillating, thought-provoking tweets and I haven’t figured out how to do that on a regular basis (or even sporadically for that matter).
So what am I saying?
From my perspective Facebook is best used to foster personal relationships.
LinkedIn is better suited to creating virtual business relationships as opposed to fostering them. I’m always open to creating new connections. Check out my LinkedIn profile and Cynthia’s too.
Twitter works best for both creating and fostering personal and business relationships. Twitter allows you to seek out people that can benefit your business and the opportunity to directly engage those people. Twitter’s simple and interactive interface most closely replicates “face-time” in the sense that you are sharing and gathering information that is similar to the small talk that occurs in the real world during a lunch, drinks, or hanging out around the water cooler. Hmm, I’ve almost convinced myself to make an effort to start tweeting more. Feel free to follow me on Twitter.
