How are you using social media with regards to your relationships? Do you use the power of social media to connect with more people or to build better relationships? Is it both, and if so, at what point does that become unscalable?
My Facebook account (which I’ve all but abandoned) shows that I have 185 friends. Facebook’s statistics say that the average user has 130 friends, but I bet most people would find that to be a low number. In fact, a random calculation of 15 of my friends’ Facebook accounts showed an average of 293. The sad thing to me is that I can’t write down 25% of the people that I’m “friends” with. I’d have a much better chance of remembering all 50 states and capitals, an ability that vanished almost immediately after a grade school test that required it.
Facebook has turned into a tool of more, not a tool of better.
But Social Media is More Than Facebook…
Thank God for that. Take this blog for example, it has allowed me to connect with people passionate about customer experience. I have been able to start and build some great relationships that would never have materialized without it. That makes this blog a tool of more and better relationships, but how far can that go? At some point, the scalability breaks down. At some point, the number of meaningful friendships and strong relationships we try to maintain becomes overwhelming.
What About Your Business?
Are you using social media in your business? Is it to reach new customers or to build better relationships with your existing customers? Do different channels serve different purposes?
Do you want more customers or better customers?
I think it’s an important question to ask when you start thinking about your social media strategy. Lots of questions here, so let me know your thoughts.
That’s a great question Tim and I very much look forward to hear other opinion, thoughts and experiences.
Here is mine: It must be More AND Better to work for me.
More meaning more relationships than I could do without it and better means stronger relationships than I could do without it.
Social Media is so to speak quadrupling my social abilities.
The Dunbar Number (see Wikipedia) sais that we humans can’t deal with more than 150 meaningful social relationships. The 130 average on Facebook makes a lot of sense. But only if we do nothing else than moving from our traditional way of connection to an online version with out doing anything.
Our human body can lift on average no more than one time our own weight. But if we use a crane we can do so much more – if we use it right. Social media is the “social crane” if we use it right, we can build MORE STRONGER (more + better) relationships.
I have about 1200 Friends on FB and about the same on LinkedIn and so forth. I try ti “lift” about ten times Dunbar 😉
How to: That is a bit more than a blog post answer but the above answers your question I guess.
Axel
http://xeesm.com/AxelS
(ways to connect)