Accidental Relationships.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about accidental relationships and the golden rule.

When I first founded VividContext in 2006, I chose to enter the field of Internet marketing, rather than website design. This was a dramatic decision for me, considering I had been building corporate websites since the days just before the web browser was released. The first site I worked on required a direct-dial modem, the user interface and menus were controlled with keyboard strokes, and the entire user experience was text-based.

Although I had joined LinkedIn in the summer of 2003, I hadn't done much with my account. To my surprise, I got involved in a meaningful conversation with a prospect on LinkedIn, who eventually became a customer. I realized that LinkedIn could help me connect with other great people, and began connecting with hundreds of other marketers. Around the same time, several companies wanted help maximizing their presence on MySpace. The same thing happened as blogging, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other such shiny platforms came onto the scene. Before I knew it, I had built a business around this new emerging industry of social media, but that's not all...

As my customers wanted to understand the buzz about each new platform, I would join the site and really use it myself to identify the best marketing opportunities I could find for them. As a result, I had connected with thousands of other marketers and had begun to form some relationships of actual substance.

When taking a step back today to recall and recount the progression of my personal social media immersion over the past ten years, many of my most valued connections are actually the result of one marketing experiment or another. For lack of a better name, I call them "accidental relationships". In some cases, I've connected with other marketers because of our shared interest in marketing, many of whom have become trusted advisors. In other cases, especially on Twitter, I've found myself caught up in some sort of contest, trying to win in a game of collecting followers to understand if volume would have any effect on results for our clients. To my delight, many of the followers initially collected for sport, on my side or theirs, have since become friends, with whom I've had many meaningful conversations.

I can say without a doubt, that the quality of my relationships, both personal and professional, with people whom I have met in-person are much deeper and closer as a result of using social media, than they were without. This has proven true for our clients with their customer relationships as well. For the thousands of people with whom I am connected through curious experiment or tactical research, I've discovered that if there's a strand of relevance existing between us, achieving a meaningful closeness with strangers can be achieved through a long-term commitment of consistency. This has also proven true for our clients with their prospects as well.

Why is this? I believe I've had success converting odd connections into meaningful friendships because I've tried to follow the golden rule. I try to treat people the way I would want to be treated. I don't always get it right, but it has always been true. It worked in the playground in elementary school, the golden rule works at work, it works with family and neighbors, and it even works with complete strangers on social media sites. The truth is, when you can align your social media philosophy to consistently giving people what they want, and treating them how they wish to be treated, the connections you'll make can be quite meaningful indeed.

Since joining LinkedIn nine years ago, I've had the privilege of forming what I consider "real" relationships with complete strangers whom I have never met. Those strangers have also introduced, and yes, even recommended me to new strangers, and given enough time, I've made new friends in new places. Still, however, with thousands of digital connections, and some being incredibly rewarding friendships, I would still have to say I agree with what today's fortune says: "Your greatest asset is not the quantity of your friends, but the quality of your friends."