Social networking is about people, not tech
July 20th, 2008 by Todd Van Hoosear
As I sit at Podcamp Boston 3 absorbing day one’s learnings, I am constantly reminded of how important the face-to-face aspect of social networking is.
Think about it. Deep down inside, you just don’t feel like you really know someone until you’ve met them in the flesh, no matter how much they may blog about their life. It was this reminder that I shared with the Boston Herald’s small business columnist Jennifer Heldt Powell, who wrote a story for today’s paper on the importance of online networking.
I’ve been more social in the four years I’ve been actively engaged in the social media community that I ever was before, even in college. Getting engaged online is just a catalyst for quicker and better interpersonal and business relationships.
Do you have some social networking advice? Share it on the Herald site–they take comments!
For the record, in reference to my shirt, I actually rarely deny friend requests on Facebook. If I don’t really know you, I’ll only give you access to my limited profile. All you’ll get is my email address and a few other harmless bits of relatively useless information. 
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 8:11 am and is filed under PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
July 20th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Todd I would invite you to visit my startup social networking website http://www.socbut.com. I’ve coined a phrase, “Social Butterfly Networking”, which you can read about in our blog, http://socbut.com/wordpress/?p=12. I specifically came up with this new proximity based networking because I felt that social networking needed to be re-localized and used to share information between people in the same community.
Thanks,
Craig Manganello
Founder of SocBut.com
craig@socbut.com
http://www.scobut.com
July 20th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I am the community manager at a new social network that is based solely on people and not this “followers” business. I totally agree with this post. It’s a proximity based network based on helping people.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Good piece in the Herald, although you have more comments over here.
I agree that all this electronic networking leads to more face-to-face contact. We saw this with videoconferencing which I think actually caused an increase in travel as it made it more feasible to run projects that included distributed teams.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:37 am
Craig and Jay: Whether you call it proximity, presence or just “mobile social networking,” it’s clear that things are headed in that direction. Last night’s AMA Boston / Social Media Club event focused on social networking, and it closed with a discussion on mobile.
Christopher, thanks for commenting on the Herald. They need it!!