The social media non-believers occasionally will scoff at the idea of “Facebook friends.” That is, people you’ve never met in real-life.

Somehow, those relationships just don’t count in some of their minds.

Once upon a time, we relied on our existing network of known friends to introduce us to other friends and so on and so on.

Now, however, as we congregate around ‘social objects,’ we can identify people of ‘like-minds’ with whom we share something in common, even though we don’t have any similar members of our network.

The ‘social object,’ can be a blog we read (as in the Fred Wilson meet-up I organized).

It can be a music group.

Or it can be a book.

That was the idea behind the Bunko Breakfasts, for example.

And it was around the idea of Johnny Bunko that I first met Venkatesh Rao about a year ago.

I don’t even remember our first exchange, but we started reading each other’s blogs and communicating by email.

At some point, he relocated to the DC area and we agreed…we had to meet.

It took another few months and only on the day of our meeting, did we actually speak to each other on the phone for the first time.

An hour long chat, a cup of coffee, and a meeting of the minds and we both walked away feeling much richer.

Venkatesh is, by far, one of the smartest people I’ve come across in a LONG time. If you can read this post of his and understand it (no small feat…and I’m not saying I could), then you will see why.

His insights on Decision Theory, how a blog is basically a program that I write that runs on the OS of your brain, and the concept of using compression algorithms to effectively communicate in a Web 2.0 world have already changed the way I think…and I’m looking forward to reading his forthcoming book. (Didn’t say I’d comprehend it, but I will read it…though he assures me it is less Ph.D like and more story-like!)

I call the in-person meeting after a prolonged social media-based relationship the last mile of networking.

The in-person is even more critical in a networked world to solidify relationships, but don’t underestimate the power of identifying potential like-minded individuals and cultivating those relationships via social media.

Because, when you do meet in person, it’s like you’ve known each other for a long time. And' that’s powerful

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