Have you ever reached the point where you just do not know how to stay connected with all of your Facebook friends anymore? You look around and say who are those people that I connected with last year. Maybe it was someone I met at a networking event, or on Twitter. Either way, the challenge is now you have to know which Facebook friends are really friends.
OK! Well, I may be getting a little personal here, but that was me. I still have challenges with keeping up with all of my friends, but I have figured out systems to keep up with the vast majority of connections.
Last year I maxed out my Facebook friends. In fact, I even had a No More Friends networking event. While that was fun, it still left me wondering how in the world I am going to leverage the connections I have now in order to build better relationships and also build my business.
The quick answer is that not all 5,000 were worthy of my attention. Shocker indeed! I have pared down the list when I have had time by 10% over the past year. Every time someone I do not know spams me, I take them off my Facebook friends list. I pared down the international friends as well, because it was interfering with friends that I connect with here locally.
So, now that you know what did to get rid of the undesirables(Just got Harry Potter 7 on DVD), you are wondering well how do you find the desirable’s to build a closer relationships.
I send them a Facebook message. Say what? I send them a Facebook message asking to meet them for coffee, tea, or their beverage of choice. I can not tell you how many people deemed their beverage of choice to be a beer! If they are too far away to meet in person I do a phone or skype conference call with them.
While I have not gotten to all of my Facebook friends I have reached out to at least 500 or more so far. By the end of the year I should have reached out to everyone. Some have said they do not want to talk to me. They go in with the undesirables. However, a lot more have said they want to learn about my business or how we can work together.
Some amazing Joint Ventures are coming out of these messages. Plus, I have had the opportunity to connect with clients who would normally not give me the time of day, because they were off elsewhere.
Even more amazing then that is how it has refocused my business. I still use networking along with social networking as a driver of my business. Now, I can get even more benefit from connecting with those in my network online that I do not have to attend as many networking events as I used to when I started my business. In essence, it brings balance to my marketing strategy.
And it also is a great to make your Facebook friends feel more valued!
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Nathan:
What a novel plan & idea! You making a commitment to connect as much as possible with your Facebook friends. To have reached out to 500 that is an amazing effort & accomplishment. I suppose out of 700 or so friends I have spoken/met with 100 or so. Your plan here encourages me to come up with a more concerted effort to connect more. The ironic thing to me is when all these social media sites heated up 3 years ago or so I was a bit skeptical,,,as I felt this was (These sites) one of the most ‘Impersonal’ connecting methods I had seen,,as I was always ‘a belly to belly guy’, a guy who picked up the phone & called folks,,,Then I felt folks were just behind a PC screen & nothing would really bring them closer. I must say in the Past year some of the best friendships I have made are because of these social sites,15 years ago this would not have been possible.
Thanks for sharing
Matt Geib The Great
Matt,
I am glad that you have been able to see how much value these sites can bring to your business. It can bring more belly to belly meetings than people could ever imagine if they just spend the time building relationships!
Andy
Andy this is a very practical and doable strategy. Wish I had of thought of it and wrote the post pretty cool. I will have to look into this idea of yours. I have noticed a lot of people on friends list are local for me. Thanks for the tip.
Steve
Steve,
Thanks! It took me a long time to figure out that this was one of the most effective ways to stay connected with my network. Works great with local people!
Andy
Hey Andy,
Thanks for sharing this strategy.
It certainly is a great way to make your FB friends feel more special. Nice job on reaching out to so many of your FB connections. That is surely the way to take the connection to the next level and build genuine friendships.
I wish I had more time to do the same thing, but I have certainly been able to develop a deeper relationship with those I connect to on Skype.
It’s great that you were able to find that balance in your business.
To your continued schmoozing,
Marc
Marc,
It is so hard to do that with everyone. Fortunately, people filter themself out by not responding to me. Additionally, Skype is such a powerful tool that I am able to do so much more than I used to be able to with connecting with people!
Andy