I am going to share with you my views on trust and relationships. How does this relate to business or social media? It absolutely does, because in the social media world, people like to create an image of themselves and build a personal brand. We now have to question motives, agendas, and have the intelligence to decipher when the truth is being stretched or manipulated for the purpose of making things “sound better”. In the brick & mortar days of business, all we needed to build trust was to look into someone’s eyes, shake their hand, and build a rapport from across the table. Today, we sometimes hire or work with people who we only know through their online presence, or never get to meet which presents issues.
Do we truly know them? Or do we just know what they want us to think of them?
For me I am an artist and creative first, entrepreneur and business person second – so my priority is always in authenticity and connecting with others in a profound way. I don’t want to have surface relationships with people and I find it is easier just to be myself and work with those who I connect best with. I am a living, breathing, emotional, thinking, feeling, person – so I don’t need to position myself in any way. Because I just am who I am. The people who work with me and build relationships with me do so because they feel a connection with me, and I feel one with them. We can work well together because they feel good about me as a person, what I bring to the table, and know that there will be a mutual trust and respect there.
Some of the best relationships I’ve formed (both in business and life) are based on trust and mutual respect. If I can’t trust someone, chances are, I can’t work with that person. And if I do trust someone – I will give them the coat off my back. I don’t want to have artificial relationships with people in business or life. Some of the best clients I have feel more like family than they do clients. We hug when we see each other, can share a laugh and have meaningful conversations outside of work. I know their family’s names. In some cases, I even know what their daily struggles are. Why? Because I care about more than just their business. I care about the people in my life.
Because social media is filled with positioning, pretending, and the art of the illusion – here are some tips to build strong relationships with people that you meet online and want to begin working with or just developing a relationship with.
1. Develop a relationship OFF line
It’s great that you connected through Twitter and friended each other on all of the relevent networks discovering a mutual synergy, but now you need to take it one step further and meet in person. Take your conversations off line, and see how your relationship transpires in real life. You need to look into someone’s eyes to know that you can truly trust them and rapport is best built in person.
2. Don’t Believe the Hype
Keep with you an ounce of healthy skepticism when reading bios, press releases, blog posts, or anything published by people in the space. Not to say that it isn’t true, but online presence and personal branding is more like building a resume these days. So twitter followers, friends, and number of posts have little to do with how much value a person brings to your business or how genuine of a person they are. Anything can be positioned.
3. Be a human and share your feelings
Believe it or not, you are not a robot. Business is formed on relationships. You don’t have to be a robotic person who is all business to do a good job or win the respect of others. In fact, your relationships will be far more meaningful and personable if you actually share your personality and open yourself up a little. Don’t be afraid to be human. You will find that your clients and colleagues will appreciate this and will share themselves more readily with you too.
I am all about being real. I love that I can write a VSS (very short story) on Twitter one day, talk about something that is pissing me off the next, and then post a link to a great article the next day. We live our best lives when we embody the person that we are inside in the external world. Our relationships are richer and more rewarding, and we create tons of positive karma when we are our authentic selves.
Beautiful sentiment.