How To Meet Almost Anyone On-line

Can you use social media to meet new people? I was talking with a colleague today about Twitter, when it dawned on me that there are still people out in the world who don’t understand how Twitter and LinkedIn can make it fairly easy to meet most anybody on-line.

Who do you need to meet? Only you can answer that question, but let’s just pretend that you have a reader full of blogs that you follow and you want to meet one of the bloggers. While we’re at it, let’s also pretend that a relationship with this person can somehow help both you and the other person in some way. They could have written on a topic that you’re working on, or they could being doing something similar to what you’re doing, or you could just think that they’re cool. In any case, there is a way to get somebody’s attention, via social channels, and not come off as a creepy cyber-stalker.

Here is what I have found to be effective:

Basics

I am a firm believer in representing yourself socially in a way that you feel accurately represents who you are and what you stand for… If you have a blog and/or twitter account, write about stuff that you’re passionate about. If you have a LinkedIn account, make sure that your profile represents you. These are the basics. The jump stop to triple threat position if you will.

why it’s important Ideally you’re trying to get somebody’s attention because you can use their services or they may be a good fit for something you’re trying to get done. Whatever the reason, you’re both potentially going to benefit from your reaching out and you want that to come across when the person inevitably comes to your site or profile to figure out who you are. Make sure you’ve got your best stuff on your home turf.

The Research

So now you’re all set with a kicken profile and you’re saying smart things on-line to passively attract people like you who may be looking for people like you. Congratulations, but that’s just half the battle. The internets are a vast and glorious place. It’s really hard for people to find you because they can do a million other things on-line with a million other people. You need to seek out relationships, and to do that you can go to Alltop to find a bunch of blogs around the niche you’re interested in and pump them into your feed reader. Another good place to look is http://delicious.com/popular, shout out to Rob May for that one. According to Rob, you know that a site or page that’s been bookmarked a lot is good because it annotates that people thought the material was good enough to want to come back too.

why it’s important The people you end up meeting on-line will only ever be as good as the research you put into meeting them. Start following high level nodes (people with a lot of links) and read read read. Read as much as you can, and you’ll begin to notice who is good and who is not. You’ll begin to notice who is accessible and who is not. You’ll begin to notice who is cool and who is not.

Reaching Out

This can be done any number of ways and I would say that the only right way is the one that works in a particular situation. Here are some general guidelines though: If I find somebody through a blog post on my reader, or through a twitter link, or through some kind of internet news site, then I try to reply back in the medium where I noticed them. That could mean a comment on a blog post or that could mean tweeting them back. Extra Bonus Tip: be sure to say something thoughtful, that extends the conversation in some way. Don’t just agree with them or tell them they did a great job… really say something. Compel them to respond to you.

After that, put their blog in your reader if it is not ready. Follow them on Twitter and attempt to link with them on LinkedIn. You can usually get a person’s real name from Twitter and then just throw that into the LinkedIn search and you’re off. This gives you extra data points to connect on in case they don’t reply right away. Show consistency and win their favor. Extra Extra Bonus Tip: I like to put a message about setting up a 15 minute phone call in my request to link with them on LinkedIn, and that has served me well so far.

why it’s important I think that it’s important to reach out on multiple channels because it shows commitment. You’re not just lazily following somebody on one channel and hoping for the best. You’re taking charge, and go-getters like to see that. One note would be to limit your “stalking” to these three venues, as they are primarily used to attract people for business purposes. I never like it when somebody I don’t know or just met tries to friend me on Facebook because I personally use it for people I know or have known in some capacity. So don’t be that guy/girl. Stick to the blog, LinkedIn and Twitter. They’re safe.

There You Have It

The hallicious three step guide to meeting almost anybody on-line and getting them to acknowledge your existence. Did I touch on everything, or is there something I could have added that would have really set this list off? Please let me know in the comments below.