In the last week or so I’ve had a couple of interesting online experiences. On Facebook two individuals have emailed me asking for more than just an idle connection. So many of us get caught up in the numbers racket of connecting, growing our friend lists to new and sometimes stratospheric heights, but do we really know many of the folks on our lists? In our circles? Oh sure, you recognize a few faces but often many others are there because of a friend that follows you or someone recommended you. You don’t really know who they are, and they don’t really know who you are.
Stop gathering new followers, slow the growing of your flock, and instead take the time to explore the faces you already have. Find out how you can connect them further and how they may be able to share a lead or contact with you. The two that contacted me genuinely wanted to know more about me, what I’m up to, who I am and how we can support and assist each other. They reached out and I’m reaching back.
Social media and networking isn’t about how many warm bodies you can collect. It is about how many meaningful interactions you can create with those in your circle. While I appreciate that you may not have time for everyone, and not everyone is going to want your time, but if you took the time to get to know even 5 new faces a week, by the end of the month you’d have 20 new colleagues instead of just acquaintances. This is the true value of social networking and it far more about netweaving and netliving than the work that is implied.
Forge relationships, don’t settle for idle connections.
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Mellissa, Thank you so much for this reminder. Mary Frye of HFIA knows me well enough to have recommended your newsletter to me many months ago sharing why I would like you and what you have to teach others, and it continues to inspire me. Especially today as I am just back in the office after a challenging week with family issues and disaster.
My niece, Sharon, has just realized the importance of this message through the disaster of her sister’s premature death. At the tender age of only 32, her sister, Casey, was pushed to the edge by depression last week where she took her own life. The family bi-polar disease strikes again as it did with my Father in his 40’s when I was only 10. Sharon has been telling us all this week how she has spent many years holding her friends at arms length by “being too busy to get together this week” and how much better it feels now to have let them come close at a tender time when she really needed their love and support and help in every way. With this note, I am forwarding your newsletter to Sharon so she also can sign up if so inspired. As a busy wife and daughter and niece and aunt and sister-in-law and granddaughter and a mother of 2 young boys (Sheesh, with all these jobs it is no wonder she is so busy!) her connection with decorating and design results from making a beautiful home out of the house she and her husband Ben have built together in the beautiful mountains of Edgewood, New Mexico (just outside of Albuquerque). I know she can gain so much inspiration from what you share on all levels and feel very blessed to be the one to share this with her. Look me up if you ever get to the Dallas Market, since this is where I work 4 days per week, and I will deliver a few hugs to you in person! May God continue to bless us all with this connection we make with one another!
If you knew me well, and my habit of run-on sentences, you would realize I have already exercised moderation in my comment. Hope it can be delivered in full, now… Just in case it cannot, I am copying the contents to an email I will send directly. Continue to prosper by design!
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