Pulver Party Wrapup: Meeting With A Community That Makes Me Think.
Last night I went to Jeff Pulver’s “Real Time Social Networking Event” here in Boston. Jeff is putting on these events around the world with the goal of fostering interaction between his many friends and encouraging networking in a small, fun setting.
The price of admission? You just needed to fill out a name badge with your name and your personal tagline. Jeff’s is: “”I take having fun seriously.” He certainly does.
The Tagline
From the moment I left work yesterday I was thinking of my own personal tagline. My first was “I like Toast,” but I didn’t think that statement (though true) properly encapsulated my personality. What is my tagline then?
Thinking of what we do at matchmine, and what I try to do with social media I came up with something moderately satisfactory: “Connecting people with stuff they’ll love since 2007.” I don’t love it, but it is better than “I like toast.”
Is Networking Working?
The more I go to events like these the more I see familiar faces, and I think that’s a great thing now. At first I thought that seeing the same people over and over would result in the following graph:
That was a stupid idea. It’s actually the opposite.
I think the best way to think about networking within the social media community is this: it’s the difference between qualitative value and quantitative value.
What’s better?
When I started at matchmine, one of the most exciting things to me was the ability to be more external-facing. Though my previous gigs were at the intersection of web development, marketing, and social media, I never really had the opportunity to get out there and talk to people. What’s more is that I wasn’t able to talk passionately to people about a topic I believe in.
Excitement is one thing: knowing what you’re doing is another.
Since I was so new to the networking thing (and hated schmoozing), I thought that success in networking could be measured by the number of people you meet, the number of business cards you give out, and how many you get in return.
Dumb.
Instead, it’s not about the number, it’s about the quality.
It’s not about the number of dates, it’s all about the relationship.
It’s not about the size of the dog in the fight…wait, what?
Okay that last one makes no sense but I was on a roll. Sorry. You get the point: it is much more satisfying, fulfilling, and just plain more interesting to develop friendships and professional relationships with people that are passionate about the things they’re doing.
Maybe that’s the whole point. After you take away all the hype and buzzwords surrounding social media, there’s really just one benefit: connecting people. When people can connect to other people, all the rest will fall into place.
Okay, I just had an idea for another post. Time to jump on that before I forget it.
Filed under: NaBloPoMo, social media