Nice to meet you. Now what?The best advice I have ever received with regards to social media is to build relationships past the original connection. You must begin to take those connections off-line to a coffee shop or phone call or Skype chat or something other than quips back and forth in 140 characters or less.
Nothing has changed
The barter system is alive and well, so is social networking. Both are more than 10,000 years old. If I have a bag of rice and you have a goat, we may be able to help each other. This is not to suggest that you and I do everything for trade or free but relationships are built far past the widgets and services we exchange – aren’t they?
You can’t drink coffee from an empty cup.
Without the key, the $150,000 Porsche is a gorgeous piece of German engineering to admire in your driveway. The new house without furniture and memorabilia, friends and family is simply a building on a road. The restaurant without chatter and laughter and human exchange is simply a collection of man made things in a room.
Where are all the people?
When I was a kid, I had this recurring dream of waking up and all the people were gone. It stemmed from some movie I had seen but imagine if you had every material desire at your finger tips. The best cars, the coolest homes, all the toys but the only stipulation was that you were not allowed to share it with anyone, you had to be cut off from any human interaction.
Is this really about websites and stuff?
Still interested?
We don’t live this life alone unless we choose to so before getting too caught up in tweets and followers and friends and ranking, let’s remember what’s important - real connections with each other.
Have an awesome weekend!
@knealemann
photo credits: journal.davidbyrne.com | getentrepreneurial.com
