Online Connection Tools: Beware of The Pitfalls (Part One)

I am sure if you are like me, you get these seemingly random emails from various contacts asking you to update their address book for them. Plaxo is one that is famous for helping its users keep connected with their contacts. But does it and other similar services work?

I recently received a random email from (what I thought was) a fairly good business connection of mine. The email announced that she had moved and wasn't even in Austin any longer. The kicker....the message contained within the Plaxo message was "Hey, your a good friend of mine and I want to stay in touch!" or something equally unrealistic. Iam not a good friend but if I were, I might question whether I was since I didn't even know she had moved.

Plaxo and other similar services make it easy to communicate by offering form letters (email messages) to accompany your email so you can hit all of your contacts at once. The service is neat right? After all they are doing all of the work for you. Wrong! In my opinion they may very well be undoing the hard work you have put into making a connection or building a relationship.

Now I just know that a lot of my readers will respond by telling me, "Stevie boy, you don't have to go with their custom made messages; you can type in your own." That is true and some use that with some effectiveness but most do not and that is where the problem is.

Plaxo and other type services assume we all fit in one bucket. That is simply not true.
Take my business contact I mentioned earlier. Her message does two things that I think creates a pretty serious problem. First, it automatically places our relationship on a level that it is not. We are not friends, we are business associates and nothing more. Some could and would take offense to this automatic elevation in relationship standing I can assure you. Second, and more importantly, it takes the personal connection we might have had. How? It basically says I am too lazy to keep up with your information therefore you must do it for me. What? Who is wanting what from whom?

Plaxo and other social networking geared services like Linked In and Friendster are making it easy to connect and stay connected with one another. I will explore whether these type services are benefiting us all or not in part two.

In terms of staying in touch and/or connecting with my clients and prospects, I am about to engage in a new campaign on my book's website. I think at minimum, this little experiment which is being run by someone with far more experience than I, will prove interesting material for my BLOG readers. Stay tuned!!!

Ripple On!!!!