December 8, 2008
Posted by Ryan Graves
Social Noise-making vs. Social Networking
Today Ross Kimbarovsky, co-founder of crowdSPRING posted a very good post titled ‘Talk with people, Not to them’ on the startup’s blog. He used Chris Brogan and Tim O’Reilly, two highly respected individuals in the technology space, as great examples for how they Twitter and converse with people on the web. His point was that so many people are focused on increasing their follower number that they lose focus on what the hell they are actually saying. (I have fallen victim to this school of thought, but I’m getting over it)
I met Ross for dinner last night after originally connecting on Twitter. We had a conversation about this topic. I wanted to piggy back off his thoughts and our conversation last night and use our dinner as a perfect example of social networking vs. noise-making.
It comes down to this, what are you actually doing with Twitter, Facebook, or your blog? Are you social networking or social noise making? I’ve focused a great deal of effort recently to turn noise-making into actually networking that is valuable. How have I done that? By actually meeting the people I’m talking to. No, I don’t have any grandiose plans to meet everyone, ala Gary Vaynerchuk (he probably will btw, stud), but I just want to make the relationships that I’m investing in real and valuable. I understand you can’t meet everyone in person, especially when you’re in a place like Milwaukee! But a phone/skype conversation is sure a hell of a lot better than 140 characters.
Over the past few months there are many individuals that I’ve met via Twitter and now have real relationships with them. (List below) Twitter, more than any other social web tool has been phenomenal in how accessible it makes individuals who would otherwise be very inaccessible. I’ve been able to contact CEO’s of companies, founders of huge organizations, and individuals like me who are on their way. I’m met people who are experiencing the same entrepreneurial anxiety that I am and desperately trying to find a way to cure it.
The relationships I’ve created by connecting on Twitter and meeting in person will last, they will be of value to me and the other person, and they are what make me continue to use Twitter. When my Tweets are answered by many people sure it makes me feel great. But, when I’m able to sit down to dinner with guys like Ross and have a meaningful conversation about life, career, startups, and other topics of substance it makes all my Twittering well worth it.
