Relationships and connections. Followers and following. Friends and fans. Fleeting or forever? Online or in person?

We’ve always understood the importance – emotionally and practically – of relationships. Whether in business or personal life, we seek sincerity, trustworthiness, shared vision and values, two-way listening and conversations, similar goals and expectations. We hope to establish constructive, mutually rewarding common ground.

Some relationships and connections become long term. We – family, friends, clients, colleagues or neighbors – have known each other for years or decades, seeing each other regularly or chatting occasionally. We may disagree on some issues and have differing interests, but we’re there for each other.

Today, millions of us are networking in person and online. We’re experimenting with the enormous potential of social media, group and blog conversations and meeting people in new venues and creative ways. How many will become significant relationships or positive connections? We will see.

In his book, Effective Personal Communication Skills for Public Relations, author Andy Green discusses relationships and connections. His guidelines and insights and guidelines are enlightening, including his description of our networks.

• Personal Sanctum – personal community around us of possibly 15 people.
• Professional Sanctum – focuses on our career and working life and includes “professional apostles…people who act as the frontline of our personal advocates.”
• Inner Circle – number of people with whom we have a genuinely social relationship.
• Outer Circle – people who might be our “advocates”, “endorser contacts”, “awares” or “unawares”.

On another note, author Brian Solis discusses social networking relationships in “The Ties that Bind Us – Visualizing Relationships on Twitter and Social Networks” at: http://www.briansolis.com/2009/02/ties-that-binds-us-visualizing/

Whether through social media or in person networking, we should all tune into the nature of our connections. Do we understand and appreciate our role and the potential of relationships?

I have offered some quick observations on a subject that deserves much more depth, and I look forward to your feedback.

In the meantime, let’s be grateful for the true relationships we have had and continue to have in our lives.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 9:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.