DISQUS

Louis Gray · 9 months ago

Post by Corvida: http://www.friendfeed.com/corvida

paul mooney · 9 months ago

Once you make a connection you don't know how it will turn-out

Corvida Raven · 9 months ago

No you can't, but you can influence the way you'd like it to turn out.

Mona N. · 9 months ago

Hmmm perhaps our definitions of Social Media are different. I take the term as it is: being social in media -- keyword here, being "social". I am not sure how you define social, but to me being social is engaging with all and any who want to connect with me and vice versa. I think it has to do more with finding your own groove and balance. That way, you can maintain relationships without it being a burden. Currently, I have Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, blogs, and e-mail that help me out. I just feel fortunate people want to connect with me that I value every single connection that comes my way.

Bottomline: to each their own.

Corvida Raven · 9 months ago

True, and this is all about being social. The level of interaction is the key focus of this post. That's the line of thought I was treading along.

rightbrain · 9 months ago

I collect only a few tweeters and periodically drop the uninteresting ones. I marvel at people who follow tens of thousands of tweeters. Maybe for them it's the status in their stats.

Corvida Raven · 9 months ago

This could be true. For some followers is an extreme ego boost.

Corvida · 9 months ago

Paul I responded to your comment on the site. :)

Mike Elliott · 9 months ago

The only useful thing I've found with a lot of connections is the opportunity for discovering new connections. I intentionally go through google reader every couple of months and add feeds from little known bloggers that I find through alltop just to hear some new voices. I try to do the same thing with Twitter.

David Libby · 9 months ago

Yeah, but do that over the course of a year and how can you keep up with all of those people? It doesn't make sense...

Michael McGimpsey · 9 months ago

It can become rather hard to handle having a lot of connections. That said if you decide to follow someone you should make the effort to take some sort of "interest" in what that they are doing.

Corvida Raven · 9 months ago

What if the interest is in why the person is following you? There could be a lot of answers to that question. Would you really want to know the answer by making the effort to do so with every person that follows you?

Wendy Peters · 9 months ago

Building on Mike Elliott's comment - is it a continuous job to then weed out those you have not connected with? Do you take out the blogs and unfollow those users that no longer provide you with value? Or just check in from time to time to see if anything is still there? I like the concept. It's like pruning a tree to ensure it stays healthy and continues to thrive. Taking out some of the old, so new fresh leaves and spout from underneath.

Corvida Raven · 9 months ago

Exactly! However, for long-term connections, do you think this would still be the case as often as it might be for managing short-term connections? Do the same principles still apply? To what level?

JanSimpson · 9 months ago

Nice post. Difference strategies for different people. For you maybe fewer connections are the best, for me I love to talk about lots of things, even at the same time. My updates almost equal my connections-lately not so much- because of moving-but I have done the limit many times in one day, not because I am on for hours at a time, but I type fast and I interest in enough subject matters to seek out and speak to as many as 17 at one time. That for me is relaxing.

Thanks for showing what strategy is good for you! That was nice to share with the rest of us.

JanSimpson

larrylanier · 9 months ago

Long-term connections are taxing my time... but they are most rewarding.

Damond Nollan · 9 months ago

I have surpassed the number of people where reading every post or comment is feasible. Today, I group friends and family and follow those that bring value. By connecting, I open the doors for potential friends. As one person wrote, you never know where or when that special someone will make themselves known to you (or vice versa).

I appreciate the opportunity to meet new people. While many of those I follow will never actually see me, I value their daily input. I may never tell them I appreciate their form of comedy or insight, but I do. The same is possible for me, there may be someone reading my posts/comments thinking how great of a person I am but never tell me.

In the end, I believe we should just continue to contribute to the growing body of internet content. Write, draw, or speak your own brand of stuff and someone, somewhere, may find your work engaging, enlightening, or motivating. The true value of gems is found in its rarity.

tamihania · 9 months ago

As I said on Twitter: I like article as it is. It underlines the time dimension in group relations.
One may also take into account other dimensions of relations in group and/or group in itself. The size of the group is important. One cannot simply deal effectively over a long time with the crowds (groups over 100-200 members if you are professional or - 20-30 people if you are not).
You cannot talk about connections/ relations in crowds or with them (but you can lead them if you are prepared to, you have a talent or - you have a group of co-workers helping you).
The strategy which can be effective on Twitter is arbitrary choosing people you would like to interact and, well, treat the rest as the crowd or your public...
For further reading:
http://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~dforsyth/gd/ - excellent resource on Group Dynamics
and (found there):
http://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~dforsyth/gd/1... - Crowds and Collectives
http://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~dforsyth/gd/3... - Individual and the Group.

Michael Wacker · 9 months ago

I recently posted about this myself and I seem to be in the minority, but I like to keep my connections tight. I use TWITTER for educational purposes mostly. If you have an inordinate number of people you're following I may even block you. I know that sounds funny when we seem to want more followers, but I'd rather keep it manageable and realistic. i like the people that I'm following, I like their contributions to my network. I don't need my tweet deck bogged down with ads or spam-ish type posts. But that's just me.

Knikkolette · 9 months ago

Great article... sometimes posting on twitter can be like those "speed-dating" scenes we've seen on t.v. where it should really be more substantial. When I first started tweeting a few months ago - I was all about the numbers... but now I'm working on building connections and having more fun!