It’s been addressed before, but every now and then, it’s worth going back to investigate it, now that some time has passed and we all have more experience in the social network world.

I was inspired to do this by an excellent post of Chris Brogan “Friending and Reputation,” where he shares his approach for managing relationships on social networks.

I like a lot of it, but I think, for me, the key point is “don’t get caught up on the word ‘friend.’”

You are connecting.

You are linking.

You are opening the door to a deeper relationship (or not).

If you have even mild filters in place (be it Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn), you can weed out the lame 10% right off the bat and let almost everyone else in.

Then, over time, you let others earn your trust (and vice versa) so that you are comfortable “endorsing” them in whatever way you feel comfortable.

You owe it to yourself and your “Global MicroBrand” (ht: @gapingvoid) to recommend/introduce/endorse with the appropriate caveats. That’s critical.

You must always remember…no one cares more about your MicroBrand than you do, so protect it and don’t apologize for doing so (respectfully and politely, of course).

You are not doing anyone any favors when you don’t.

My approach?

1. Unfollow people on Twitter who offer more noise than signal (no link as I’m on a plane), but this topic has been addressed ad nauseum
2. Connect with almost anyone on LinkedIn, but only write genuine recommendations
3. Friend pretty much anyone who asks for it on Facebook, then
   1. de-friend those I don’t know (in real life) if they send me invites to irrelevant groups/fan pages/etc.
   2. de-friend those I know (in real life) after more than 2 offenses of the above
   3. hide the status updates of people whose messages are irrelevant
   4. de-friend people whose profiles,comments, or pictures are either offensive or would REALLY reflect poorly on me
4. and on the flip side
   1. recommend friends on LinkedIn at least once per week
   2. Retweet really good content from people I respect
   3. comment on the status updates of people in facebook who are truly trying to start a conversation

I’m sure there are others, but this is for starters.

What are yours?

Subscribe to this blog by email.
Enter your email address: