I believe strongly in good solid networking.  Whether it be face to face, over the Internet, or some other method.  Networking is vital not only for the portion of your professional life, but for your personal life as well.  Fostering those connections is work.  I get highly disappointed when someone who has asked to be in my network, whom I have some professional connection with, turns around and starts sending me notifications of products that they sell, or classes they give or others give.

That’s a fine line there.  Most people look to social networking as a means to get more business, as do I.  However I may be sensitive to my network connections sending or blasting me with information that is not important to me.  I have enough trouble keeping up with the incoming information that IS important.  And isn’t that what we’re all looking for, a nice stream of information that is relevant, not things that don’t matter (to me at least)?  And I’m not talking about people who I connect with on a purely social level, these are people I have connected with on a business social basis.  I know that people I connect to on a social level are at some time going to send me information I don’t need… that’s part of the deal there.  It’s all on the professional level.  It’s like people are using professional social connections as kind of a mailing list, no thanks, I’m on plenty of those already and I chose to be on those lists.  It’s like a bait and switch situation, “Hey be in my professional network!” and then the result isn’t so professional.

Recently I have connected with a few people, and shortly after connecting with these people, they have been sending me what I consider to be spam.  I was looking forward to fostering a connection with them that could be profitable on both sides… not just having a sales relationship; them selling something to me.  I don’t want to have a connection like that.  So I have decided that people whom I connect with through social networks that start sending ‘spam’… well, I have to cut the connection.  I would say it’s nothing personal, but it really is on this level.  Giving someone access to you on a professional social network, and then they act poorly in whatever means, it is personal.  Like someone who finds out where you live, or gets your phone number and contacts you to tell you about their great opportunity, and that’s it… simply annoying and invasive.

It really is time that I clean house.  Life’s too short to have to deal with that.