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Discontent with social networking sites

by tjgillies Prodigy(October 2007) (rank 40th)
 
 
There is one aspect of social networking that I'm frustrated with. It is that people always add other people to their "friends list" (or whatever that particular platform calls it) when they don't even know who they are actually adding. On a regular basis, I look at people's listing and see that they have a large number (in the thousands) of friends. I don't even know how it's possible to keep up with that many "friends". Personally, I only want to add people that I care about and that can help me succeed. I believe that adding only people you know will increase the amount of "relational experience", and minimize the amount of "comment spam" and other random things that you are probably better off without. Recently, I have ventured into the contact management arena with sites such as 37 signal's Highrise. This is due to my lack of faith in social networking sites. CRM (customer relationship management), or "contact management" sites are helpful because they provide a user space for each person, instead of just a generic "guest book" type framework found on most social networking sites.

What are your thoughts on this?
Do you think adding people randomly is good for your "networking"?
 
 

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Related keywords: contact, crm, friends, highrise, management, networking, social

 
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Re: Discontent with social networking sites

ClayCook
5.00 (Excellent) Vote: WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!

October 2007

so my "friends" are on linkedin, facebook, minti and now gooruze...
i am very strict on who i add to linkedin (need to personally know them), and fairly strict on Facebook, and am open to anyone on Minti and Gooruze as my homepage is open for all to see anyway (plus i guess the fact that i am a Co-Founder of both of these sites ;)).
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Re: Discontent with social networking sites

rachelcook
4.00 (Good) Vote: Interesting Interesting Interesting Interesting Interesting

October 2007

what some of these sites can do, is add another section so you can organize friends by category only displayed to you. So you would have your "real" friends you want to keep in contact with and then you would have, other categories you could assign to other groups of friends, similar to how Instant Messenger clients handle the organization of "friends"...I haven't seen this organization happen yet and most likely will occur if users pain threshold is reached and they call for this feature.
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Re: Discontent with social networking sites

mallory-smith
5.00 (Excellent) Vote: WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!

October 2007

I often wonder the same thing! I have a facebook account and I only ask people I know to be my friend. However, on Gooruze, if I only added people I knew as friends, I don't think I would learn as much. I agree with thisjenn... it depends on the site, what you are there for, also what you are comfortable with. There is a lot more of my personal information on Facebook.
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Re: Discontent with social networking sites

thisjenn
5.00 (Excellent) Vote: WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!

October 2007

Yes, good question! I think it can depends on a couple things including:
1) The site
2) Your profession

On sites like Facebook which you may use more socially rather than professionally, one may only want to add true 'friends' or those they know personally. (this may change when Facebook adds more friend grouping and networking options). 

However, if you are on a site like LinkedIn and are an 'open-networker" or a sales/lead-generation professional, you may find value in 'friend-ing' everyone.

Personally, I pick and choose who I add based on the site I am on and what I want to use the site for.
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Re: Discontent with social networking sites

jackie-shervington
5.00 (Excellent) Vote: WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!

October 2007

Yes very interesting question - funny enough one which I pondered today. Sometimes when you just arrive being invited can help you feel welcome and so maybe a good thing. It can also help to bring you back to the site - I find I'm often logging in to facebook, linkedin, twitter...prompted by an external request to be a friend. But I can also see how it might offend. I'm interested to hear people's thoughts.
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Re: Discontent with social networking sites

BrianChappell
3.00 (Average) Vote: OK OK OK OK OK

October 2007

A couple people have already contacted me whom I have never dealt with before, nor seen post on this site. I quickly rejected there offer.

If I have at least talked with you in some form or fashion first then its really not an issue but just spamming the entire network to be your friend is probably not the best idea.
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Re: Discontent with social networking sites

danlondon
4.00 (Good) Vote: Interesting Interesting Interesting Interesting Interesting

October 2007

There are some people on LinkedIn with over 900 contacts... just absurd...seems pretty pointless.

I also get a ton of emails and calls from sales people that have obviously found me on LinkedIn.
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