Seriously, I need to draw the line somewhere — I’m no longer going to accept friend requests on Facebook from people I have not met in person or at least spoken with over the phone. Sorry to those I ignore in advance.
If you have questions or suggestions, please e-mail me at meyers (dot) drew (at) gmail (dot) com.
Or you can reach me on Skype - my screen name is drmeyers2001
I'm going to need good contacts in all these areas at some point in the future, but nothing is immediate. When I get to the point where I need these services, I'd rather use someone I've known and trusted for awhile rather than having to go seek someone out. But if you want my business and to be recommended by me, don't pitch me; build a real relationship and the biz will come later. You can start that process in the comments here (or on any of the blogs I write), via a personalized email, or on Twitter
Hooray! You’re not an arse, that’s the only way Facebook remains valuable for you, buddy
Hi ya,
A colleague, Dave Schappell, suggested I add your mykro to a list of gen y blogs about philanthropy. Anyway, I saw your post here – and I just wrote about this issue too – although slightly different take –
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/07/what-are-your-t.html
Did you see the article in the HBR about this?
Beth
“I’m no longer going to accept friend requests on Facebook from people I have not met in person or at least spoken with over the phone. Sorry to those I ignore in advance.”….with the exception of those that wear silly hats (come on….there needs to be an out to the A**)
Funny … my head’s been moving in the opposite direction on this one lately. I’ve seen such value from the publicity of twitter (and blogging (for other people
) that I’m now questioning the value of anything published online that isn’t public (and properly attributed.) I mean really, anything that can’t be publicized could just as well happen f2f or over the phone – both of which are still far better ways to build close relationships than what asynchronous posting to a closed website is. Celebrities have lived like this for decades. The fb audience is just too valuable not to leverage it to increase your social capital.
This takes us back to Granoveter’s strength of weak ties and the fact that fb’s become such a powerful social publishing platform. Logically, the biggest potential to benefit from your fb activity is to open it up (or, as they (fb) would say; use their filters to only hide that small portion of your errr …. photo album that you want to keep a secret.)
Obviously I realize that there are going to be douchebags (yes, I said “douchebags”) who abuse your publicity. But I’d argue that the same thing can happen IRL (and that your IRL “friends” can frankly also screw you tx to fb if they want to.) It’s just that, as with the rest of social media, the benefits to publicity outweigh the costs 99.9999% of the time.
I’m still mulling this over but think there’s a strong argument for opening up your facebook (and starting a scrapbook at home for the photo’s you don’t want on the web.)
Very funny ines
David-
I’m definitely not advocating not using Facebook to increase your social capital. I do it, and think it’s smart for others to do so as well. What led me to write this is that many re pros are going about it all wrong. Do the ones who “friend” me get any value out of doing so (other than having me be one more person in their “network”)? Do I get any value from them being my friend? I think the answer to both is no, unless they (or I) take the time to get to know the other person. Without that step, i don’t know the 1st thing about them – so of course I’d never send business their way.
[...] I realized there does need to be a subtle, but distinct line between the two for me. In my case, I no longer accept Facebook friend requests from people I haven’t met in person or talked to o… (and I’ve grouped my connections and given each their own privacy settings). Sorry if you [...]