Social media is all about relationships. You’ve probably read, saw or heard this time and time again. The importance of your relationships is unfortunately usually evident only when you need them; not before and not after. You need a new job, you need help on a project; if you’re a company, your sales might be down or your site visits are decreasing or you might be launching a new product.
Before social media came along, you stacked your Rolodex. Guess what? The same is still true. Social media just makes this easier because you’re always connected to somebody. What’s always been important is building relationships before you needed them – being there “before the sale” as Chis Brogan and Julien Smith taught us in their book Trust Agents
Now that I’m looking for contracts and maybe a new job, I’ve turned to my network – both offline and online. I’ve used Facebook to get in touch with old bosses, Twitter and LinkedIn to look for new opportunities and I’ve had lunch with friends and acquaintances about other opportunities.
Social media makes it easier to stay in touch and build relationships, so use it. Spend some time building these relations. Research shows that weaker social ties are more important when it comes to career changes than friends, so take some time to write on walls, “like” statuses and send messages; @reply, DM and RT; comment and forward; send emails just to say hi.
Forget about the lingo and new concepts – do great work and focus on the relationships, one day you’ll be happy you’ve put in the effort.
What do you think?
(Photo credit: Johan Larsson)
