12 Comments to “Social Networking: It’s Not Who You Know — It’s Whether You Know Yourself”

1. June 18th, 2008 at 8:51 am
   Easton Ellsworth said

   Great point, Liz. If you can’t identify what skills or experiences or missions make you singular, good luck trying to stand out to prospective customers at online watering holes.

   Especially when the lack of face-to-face interaction usually means we all start out looking and sounding pretty much the same - plain text on white, a two- or three- column blog, an email signature with URL and phone number, etc.

2. June 18th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
   ME Liz Strauss said

   Hi Easton!
   Knowing who you are gives you something to tell folks who meet you. Then when they have a friend who needs expertise, they can pass along your name because they know exactly who you are and what you do.

   Self-knowledge makes us stand taller and show a more confident face to the world.

   Your point about not being face-to-face on the Internet makes it even more important.

3. June 19th, 2008 at 9:44 am
   Strong One said

   The internet is a wonderfully scary place. I love the friendships and social networking that is out there, but at the same time I stay ‘grounded’.
   I unfortunately keep my identity ’slightly’ hidden for the ’scary’ reason of the internet.
   I belonged to a social network (that has gone belly up) that did an experiment on internet identity safety. It was disturbing how easy you are to find and locate on the internet just by simply sharing one or two meaningless pieced of information.
   I by far am not afraid of the internet and it’s opportunities, but I still have to exercise some safety, even if it’s just a facade!

4. June 20th, 2008 at 3:52 am
   Ways To Drive Traffic Using Social Media « Social Media Clippings said

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5. June 20th, 2008 at 6:06 am
   Shirazi (Your SOB) said

   Rightly (and nicely) said. Now my ’social capital’ is all on the Internet.

6. June 20th, 2008 at 8:23 am
   ME Liz Strauss said

   Hi shirazi!
   Great to see you. You are more than what we find the Internet. I’m certain of that.

7. June 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
   My Vision Of Social Networking: Burning Problems « Follow the passion said

   [...] “Social Networking: It’s Not Who You Know — It’s Whether You Know Yourself” by Liz Strauss [...]

8. June 26th, 2008 at 10:36 am
   Vladislav Chernyshov said

   Hi Liz!

   Your post helped me to create summary of burning problems of social networking. Thank you!

   You can read it here on my blog: http://tinyurl.com/3me6c3

   This is first post in my series about my vision of social networking.

   I’ll reply you an email soon.

   Take care,
   Vlad

9. June 26th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
   Tiffany said

   Having just recently jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon, I have to say that I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue lately. As an early adopter in most other social networks like Facebook, I’ve seen the evolution of this firsthand. Facebook, for example began as an interesting relational tool – you were basically relegated to your own real communities to find people to connect with at first, and that felt safe, and somehow, real. I was friends with my real friends. I could connect with them in real and valuable ways. It was great to be able to stay in touch, peek into their lives. But as its popularity grew, it’s been growing further away from that as more people started to pop online and build their “friendoms.”

   Why?

   To me, the promotional power that beckoned had something to do with this. We saw people we knew become famous overnight. People we went to school with chumming with intnernet superstars. So everyone hopped on board to harness that promotional power, and in the process the underpinning element that made the promotional power so – well, powerful – began to disappear. The relationships. The real connections. Sure, they’re not gone, but they’re different, somehow. Because the larger an individual’s personal social network gets, the less intimate it is, the less real, in some senses, it becomes.

   So knowing yourself is important, but it’s also important to know what you want. Because amassing thousands of “friends” or “connections” isn’t acaually valuable to everyone. It can be too time consuming, and I’ve seen lots of people starting to abandon their connections all together because they’ve gotten too cumbersome to manage.

   So back to Twitter - I’ve decided to grow my network there organically, and see just in one new thing if maybe small could be better after all.

10. June 27th, 2008 at 9:02 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Vladislav!
    Thanks for the link to that. I think what you’re working on is important and deserves to be noticed!

11. June 27th, 2008 at 9:04 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Tiffany!
    I see your point and lived the same experience. I wonder how your “small” approach to Twitter will work out. I hope you’ll keep us apprised of the progress.

12. June 27th, 2008 at 9:13 am
    Vladislav Chernyshov said

    Hi Liz!

    Thank you very much! I’m looking forward to continue our discussion via email.

    Take care,
    Vlad.