If you want other people to care about you, then tell them who you are.  Your name, photo, a short personal description and an indication of what you are doing will help others. In social media too!

How would you react if a stranger blasts up to you in the supermarket and say “hey, do you want to come along and chat for a while”? What would you think if similar things happened all the time on the street, during the conference, at the countryside etc? Most probably you would avoid that type of encounters. We have so many other things and people to think about.

Hi, my name is Richard Gatarski and I have a passionate interest for media development and social innovations. How can we together create the world’s best start in life for our children?

At physical meetings (meat meets) it is common in our culture to present ourselfes to strangers by giving our name and reaching out a hand. Fairly soon the parties then start a conversation around  anything that might lead to a common interest. Sometimes the result is the exchange of contact information, so that we can meet again. We make contact.

Like most others I like being acknowledged. We humans want to be seen. It is another story that we simply do not have time to care about everyone around us. Especially in social media, where it is all about potential contacts worldwide.

For my part, I get many notifications every day that Twitter users started to follow @RichardGatarski, people want to be friends with my profile in Facebook, connect to Richard Gatarski in LinkedIn, and so on. Typically I spend 5-30 seconds on each of those pock-on-my-attention-situations. So, it’s up to anyone to quickly identify her/himself and suggest what our common interests might be. Because I quickly decide wether to follow back or just go on.

In the case of personal Twitter accounts, a good idea is to publish your full name, a brief personal description and, preferably, a URL where one can learn more about you. It is also often useful to have a profile picture that is a more or less creative portrait of you. Even for organization’s accounts, it is a good idea the tell which persons do the twittering.

If you want to be anonymous in social media, you’re welcome. But few will care about you, and it is hardly a social presence.

Im LinkedIn I have chosen to cultivate my professional contacts only. In FaceBook I also befriend more or less closer private friends. For both services we must have had more than just a brief encounter before I connect. Regarding Twitter, I follow back a small number of users: those working with media development and children (including schools); are my private friends, or supply a service that I find useful. Since I want to have decent idea all my twitter friends doings, my solution is to follow no more than 200 accounts.

We are all different, and you do what you want. Please try to be social, that helps us all.

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