Each time I attend an industry conference, I have the opportunity to connect with inspiring industry friends and discover so many new wonderful and creative people. When I get back to my office - I want to "be connected" to my new friends so I can stay inspired and motivated. After getting back from the most recent AIM conference in Huntington Beach (which did not disappoint with the wonder and creativity - FYI) I began updating my contact lists.....
Making new friends can be A LOT of work (tongue and cheek - yes). Let me explain! The documentation and updating social sites aspect of making new friends can be an arduous task. After making new acquaintances at a conference or networking event, first I begin updating and grouping my new friends in Twitter groups, then I'm off to Facebook to either accept friendships or send out requests, then I make my way to LinkedIn to update my connections, sift through the inbox and review the "people you may know" column.
Phew....not done yet.....now I must not forget to check to see if my new friends have a YouTube channel, a blog or a Foursquares account. The social networking connectivity goes on and on. What gets even more confusing and time consuming is that some of your new friends are "work people", some are "work/friend people" some are "friend" people - these internal categories create inner dialog...."Should I put him on my Facebook page or just leave him on Twitter?"; "I guess I could block her viewing my FB photos or simply connect to her on LinkedIn?" So many decision to make when documenting and categorizing new friends! Not every relationship needs or wants to be a part of every social networking site - so how do you choose? What is your secret?
I know, I know.....there certainly are more earth shattering problems in the world but hey......we are social people, we like to talk about EVERYTHING!
And P.S. - the updating of the social sites is SO worth the effort.
