Lifehack’s got a really interesting post on how networking has changed, and advocates a return to old-school, in person, not-through facebook, for of networking. I agree with the premise that: “Online, you can reach more people, but the connections you build in person are stronger.” Online networking does have efficiency and a low-cost of opportunity (particularly in the forms of attention, time, and anxiety,) on its side.
What do you think?
Hi Jimmy,
ntersting post. I always keep a light Moleskine with me, in addtion to my iPhone. And I still do believe that face to face comm is the best over tech stuff.
I’m a big advocate for online presence for anybody. I’ve made it in the music bizz because of those networks. But it will never replace face to face contact. For example, recently (on the day of my final exam) l’ADISQ had ther annual business conference. Altough I had to study and I’m not trailing in trmes of online presence (this is the main issue this inductry is facing), I went. I had the chace to meet the VP of this new european streaming service called Spotify. This made me able to connect with him, get his “pitch” and ultimately get invited to their service (it is an amzing service, sadly unavailable in Canada).
Now, I spoke with him for 15/30 minutes. But since then we’ve followed up by email, connected through LinkedIn and are having talks over his own strategy to come into the canadian market.
Through the Internet, I learned about the service (there’s a lot of buzz coming from France, for example) and could go further down the line with him. But if I never had gone to see him, introduce, give him my bizz card, he would never have known of me.
Bottom line : online networking makes you able to go deeper in your relationships but face to face makes it possible to go deeper.