ImpactWatch Blog

In his latest blog entry, Chris Brogan gave great advice passed along to him via Conn Fishburn (Yahoo):  bring wine to the picnic.

Specially, Brogan is referencing the ‘social media picnic’ most of us attend on a daily basis.  Fishburn wants us to bring something of value to our online peers instead of only self-marketing.  It’s a simple principal, but definitely one that bears repeating.  Many Twitter, Facebook, and other platform users neglect this important aspect of the Internet game.

As a personal example, I have an aspiring DJ friend that wants nothing more than to have his musical creations reach a wide audience.  Any time I have the chance to mention him, I try to provide a little linkage to his music, as I just did.  It’s a small act that can mean a lot to the friend, when done appropriately.    Below, I’ve reprinted Brogan’s 10 Ways to Build Relationships Before You Ask for Anything from his post.  I can confidently say that I agree with all of these.

• Comment on and reply to other people’s observations, posts, and ideas. (Sometimes, just retweeting someone’s status message in Twitter is a gesture that matters to people.)
• Share good information freely, such as pointing to great blog posts or articles.
• Make virtual introductions when you see obvious like-minded people who could do to know each other.
• Create useful media like blog posts or ebooks or videos that help people.
• Find mutual interest points and talk about them. (Bonus points to you if they’re off-topic from your business needs, like talking about the Red Sox or Barbecue.)
• Remember things about the other person, such as whether they have a big meeting on Thursday, and ask them about it on Friday.
• Help when someone is promoting their thing. Spread information for other people liberally.
• Find causes and nonprofit experiences to help out. Showing that you’re not just a capitalist pig goes a long way.
• Reply to people and build conversations.
• Thank people when they’re helpful.

Interestingly, most of these suggestions are things that would be equally helpful for ‘real life’ friendships.  I wouldn’t mind if more of my convos in real life contained valuable information.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm and is filed under Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.