Comments on: Be My Friend http://www.crttbuzzbin.com/2007/09/14/be-my-friend/ Musings and analysis on marketing, buzz and communications. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:07:22 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Neuromarketing http://www.crttbuzzbin.com/2007/09/14/be-my-friend/comment-page-1/#comment-8512 Neuromarketing Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:37:56 +0000 http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/2007/09/14/be-my-friend/#comment-8512 This seems to be an increasingly common dilemma... does one limit one's network on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to true friends and actual business associates? Can one effectively limit things even further, like using Facebook only for college friends and current personal contacts? Or should one accept invitations from random business contacts or other people one barely knows? After a business conference, it's common to get a flock of invites, some from people you encountered only momentarily. Is that a good thing? Networking advocates suggest building one's contact base. On the other hand, if you have a few hundred friends on a site, the way you use that site and your friends list will be a lot different than if you have just a couple of dozen close contacts. I think the jury is out on this. Some of the seemingly random "friends" you add may, in fact, turn out to be real ones in the future. Some of the incidental business contacts may end up doing real business with you. Most, I'd guess, will leave you scratching your head a couple of years later as you desperately try to recall who that person is, how you met, and why he's on your contact list. -Roger This seems to be an increasingly common dilemma… does one limit one’s network on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to true friends and actual business associates? Can one effectively limit things even further, like using Facebook only for college friends and current personal contacts? Or should one accept invitations from random business contacts or other people one barely knows? After a business conference, it’s common to get a flock of invites, some from people you encountered only momentarily. Is that a good thing?

Networking advocates suggest building one’s contact base. On the other hand, if you have a few hundred friends on a site, the way you use that site and your friends list will be a lot different than if you have just a couple of dozen close contacts.

I think the jury is out on this. Some of the seemingly random “friends” you add may, in fact, turn out to be real ones in the future. Some of the incidental business contacts may end up doing real business with you. Most, I’d guess, will leave you scratching your head a couple of years later as you desperately try to recall who that person is, how you met, and why he’s on your contact list.

-Roger

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