Networking... or notworking

Business in the old days used to be a bit different - though the principles should have been, generally speaking, similar. Let us imagine an ancient Greek market-place, where local goods were traded (olives, sheep, cloth and the usual stuff). A merchant would sell his products, for which there was a certain demand, and accordingly he expected a price to be paid, such that he could subsist. Even in this most crudest form of business under the warm Mediterranean sun of those days, the main core of doing business was ... mutual trust. A buyer not trusting the quality of the olives would not buy them. Even if the merchant were to fake being trustworthy and the consumer found out later, the reputation of the merchant would put him out of business. Clear enough.

Nowadays, we send mailings, deal with online marketing, including blogging in order to present our merchandise to potential clients. But one of the intriguing tools for doing business are networking platforms like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Xing and the like. On a daily basis, I do wonder, what in fact people expect from them. I shall briefly describe my feelings regarding LinkedIn:

One can find one's potential contact either by group membership (e.g. belonging to European IT Consultants, of UK HR Professionals) or by regional searches (all CFOs within 15 miles of your residence). Up to the user... so it seems. 

While I have miraculously found ex-colleagues, whom I worked with ages ago, and it was nice to re-connect, I have gained some very interesting contacts of people, who have an added value either because they give essential contribution to discussions, some provide a lead. In some cases, I wonder, what the objective is.

Unfortunately, there is a whole host of users, who simply seem to acquire as many contacts as possible (prestige i.e. status?), but when sending a short message to actively communicate, there is no response. Most annoying are people, who 'portray' themselves as being open to business contacts, then suddenly turn your application down with "I don't know the person", giving the applicant a bad reputation of being a kind of a spammer.

This comes back then to the Greek market place. Perhaps as if because of all these hi-tech gadgets and tools, business (people) seem to have forgotten about the "trust-aspect". If users on social networks behave in such a way, which does hardly do any good to mutual trust, it gives not only a clear signal what kind of business people they are, it also pollutes the place. Communication is the only tool to create that trust. Without it I don't know what you want, they do not know what I want, so what's the use of linking? But are they really lacking true interest, or is the quantity of contacts simply an overkill of information, which they're no longer able to handle?

In my case, from time to time I filter my contacts - those who seem only link-collectors with no demonstrated interest for communication shall be eliminated. Simple as that. Never mind the 500+, 1000+, or more champions.
Meanwhile, when writing this article, I got a craving for Greek olives. Cheers!

Business in the old days used to be a bit different - though the principles should have been, generally speaking, similar. Let us imagine an ancient Greek market-place, where local goods were traded (olives, sheep, cloth and the usual stuff). A merchant would sell his products, for which there was a certain demand, and accordingly he expected a price to be paid, such that he could subsist. Even in this most crudest form of business under the warm Mediterranean sun of those days, the main core of doing business was ... mutual trust. A buyer not trusting the quality of the olives would not buy them. Even if the merchant were to fake being trustworthy and the consumer found out later, the reputation of the merchant would put him out of business. Clear enough. Nowadays, we send mailings, deal with online marketing, including blogging in order to present our merchandise to potential clients. But one of the intriguing tools for doing business are networking platforms like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Xing and the like. On a daily basis, I do wonder, what in fact people expect from them. I shall briefly describe my feelings regarding LinkedIn: One can find one's potential contact either by group membership (e.g. belonging to European IT Consultants, of UK HR Professionals) or by regional searches (all CFOs within 15 miles of your residence). Up to the user... so it seems. While I have miraculously found ex-colleagues, whom I worked with ages ago, and it was nice to re-connect, I have gained some very interesting contacts of people, who have an added value either because they give essential contribution to discussions, some provide a lead. In some cases, I wonder, what the objective is. Unfortunately, there is a whole host of users, who simply seem to acquire as many contacts as possible (prestige i.e. status?), but when sending a short message to actively communicate, there is no response. Most annoying are people, who 'portray' themselves as being open to business contacts, then suddenly turn your application down with "I don't know the person", giving the applicant a bad reputation of being a kind of a spammer. This comes back then to the Greek market place. If users on social networks behave in such a way, which does hardly do any good to mutual trust, it gives a clear signal what kind of business people they are. But are they really lacking true interest, or is the quantity of contacts simply an overkill of information, which they're no longer able to handle. In my case, from time to time I filter my contacts - those who seem only link-collectors with no demonstrated interest for communication shall be eliminated. Simple as that. Never mind the 500+, 1000+, or more champions.

Business in the old days used to be a bit different - though the principles should have been, generally speaking, similar. Let us imagine an ancient Greek market-place, where local goods were traded (olives, sheep, cloth and the usual stuff). A merchant would sell his products, for which there was a certain demand, and accordingly he expected a price to be paid, such that he could subsist. Even in this most crudest form of business under the warm Mediterranean sun of those days, the main core of doing business was ... mutual trust. A buyer not trusting the quality of the olives would not buy them. Even if the merchant were to fake being trustworthy and the consumer found out later, the reputation of the merchant would put him out of business. Clear enough. Nowadays, we send mailings, deal with online marketing, including blogging in order to present our merchandise to potential clients. But one of the intriguing tools for doing business are networking platforms like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Xing and the like. On a daily basis, I do wonder, what in fact people expect from them. I shall briefly describe my feelings regarding LinkedIn: One can find one's potential contact either by group membership (e.g. belonging to European IT Consultants, of UK HR Professionals) or by regional searches (all CFOs within 15 miles of your residence). Up to the user... so it seems. While I have miraculously found ex-colleagues, whom I worked with ages ago, and it was nice to re-connect, I have gained some very interesting contacts of people, who have an added value either because they give essential contribution to discussions, some provide a lead. In some cases, I wonder, what the objective is. Unfortunately, there is a whole host of users, who simply seem to acquire as many contacts as possible (prestige i.e. status?), but when sending a short message to actively communicate, there is no response. Most annoying are people, who 'portray' themselves as being open to business contacts, then suddenly turn your application down with "I don't know the person", giving the applicant a bad reputation of being a kind of a spammer. This comes back then to the Greek market place. If users on social networks behave in such a way, which does hardly do any good to mutual trust, it gives a clear signal what kind of business people they are. But are they really lacking true interest, or is the quantity of contacts simply an overkill of information, which they're no longer able to handle. In my case, from time to time I filter my contacts - those who seem only link-collectors with no demonstrated interest for communication shall be eliminated. Simple as that. Never mind the 500+, 1000+, or more champions.