Social Awakening
This week began with a warm reception to my introduction on ABestWeb, got fun when Vincent Wright LOL’ed on My Linkedin Power Forum, became flattering when Carter Smith marked my Linkedin answer as best in thread, and turned downright inspired when Jason Alba reconfigured the way I think about the web.
I grew up on computers, playing Gertrude’s Secret before I could read and editing autoexec.bat files before I could do long division, but I was slow to use email and instant messenger. I barely messed around with AOL during its hey-day, didn’t grow up checking a particular forum or chat room, and got closest to blogging by reading articles.
But something changed over the summer. I was working on TableToss, and despite success, for reasons that I’ll write about here more in the future, it was clear I needed something new. I began building up my Linkedin profile, inviting friends an coworkers (and getting flagged at one point by loose connections who didn’t recognize me). It was slow-going hitting that 50 contact mark, but then things started to change. Here and there, people began to invite me; I got a recommendation from a former manager and then an interview at an awesome company from a Linkedin posting.
Although the position I chose came via a recruiter finding my profile on Career Builder, the momentum continued. What started as adding a connection or two a week turned into adding just about everyone at my office. I began answering Linkedin questions and asking them. Cross-over began with Facebook.
And then there was a week like this one where people really began responding. Admittedly, my conversation with Jason Alba began with an email, then phone call, but I commented on his blog and then followed him on Twitter. I finally noticed him posting on MyLinkedinPowerForum. It was a cross-media, cross-platform conversation occurring at a number of different levels.
I am sure the psychology of why I want to be recognized online runs deep, but this process of WEB CONNECTION is very exciting to me.
Like many people I am finding here, not only is it fun, but it’s good business. The connections we are making help us in business. Yes, some people get more immediate business benefit than others. But connecting is an absolute good, and we can make of it what we want.
My eyes are opened. I’m excited to see where this online journey takes me.
