This is a viral note I created for a recent campaign. It doesn’t make as much sense here as it did inside of Facebook. A lot of great discussions were started because of this note and a lot of friendships were solidified. Enjoy!

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You’ve been tagged in this note because I think we are friends. To share it with your friends all you have to do is Cut and Paste this text into your notes and tag your friends. This is a great way to show your appreciation to all those great friends you’ve made online and to say thanks for the support. ***Remember to include these instructions when you cut and paste the note*** ______________________________________________________________________________

Social Networking is a great way to expand your network, but sometimes the lines are blurred between connections and friends.

When I first started I was focussed on the number of connections I made, it didn’t matter who they were. After meeting Simon U Ford I realized this approach was all wrong, he preached Quality over Quantity. It took me a while to get it, but when I finally did my experience on social media changed. Simon calls this the paradigm shift. Before meeting him I thought it wasn’t possible to make real friends online.

Since I’ve been a part of Social Traffic I realized that you can really make friends online. Not just faux friends, but people who are there to support you, help you grow, and push you when you need it. I am grateful to have learned how to use social media to make real friendships and I want to thank you for helping me grow both online and offline.

When I speak about social networking I often stress the idea of making real meaningful relationships. Often times people ask me, “How can you make real friendships online?” My response to them is, “One at a time.”

I’ve written this note for two reasons,

1. To say Thank You to my friends who I’ve met online

2. To provide social proof that you can create meaningful relationships online

What I wrote above covers part one. Part two is up to you, my friends to provide social proof that Simon Ford and Social Traffic can teach anyone how to make real relationships with nothing more than a computer and an internet connection.

Are we really Friends?

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How many friends do you have on twitter?

How many friends do you have on facebook?

Are you sure?  Do you REALLY have friends, or are they just another number?

Do you really think that any human can maintain the number of friends they list in all their social profiles? I’m not sure when social networking became a popularity contest, but one thing I know for sure is most of us have more “friends” than we can handle.

I was talking to my friend Simon U Ford just the other day about how people are using these social networking platforms and he mentioned something interesting to me.  Have you ever heard of the monkeysphere?  Basically it states that the human brain can only sustain 150 real relationships.   Anything above that is superfluous.

I bet you’re wondering, “What the Hell is a monkeyspshere?”

First, picture a monkey.  A monkey dressed like a little pirate, if that helps you.  We’ll call him Slappy.

Imagine you have Slappy as a pet.  Imagine a personality for him.  Maybe you and he have little pirate monkey adventures and maybe even join up to fight crime.  Think how sad you’d be if Slappy died.

Now, imagine you get four more monkeys.  We’ll call them Tito, Bubbles, Marcel and CrapTosser.  Imagine personalities for each of them now.  Maybe one is aggressive, one is affectionate, one is quiet, the other just throws crap all the time.  But they’re all your personal monkey friends.

Now imagine a hundred monkeys.

Not so easy now, is it? So how many monkeys would you have to own before you couldn’t remember their names? At what point, in your mind, do your beloved pets become just a faceless sea of monkey?  Even though each one is every bit the monkey Slappy was, there’s a certain point where you will no longer really care if one of them dies.

So how many monkeys would it take before you stopped caring?
That’s not a rhetorical question.  We actually know the number.

The fact is that we are all wasting our time building these huge “friends lists.”  Trust me, I know.  When I started social networking I did the very same thing.  Our monkey brains can’t handle all these “friends.”

Rather than wasting your time on these social networking sites building up your friends list, why wouldn’t you take that same time to build up real relationships that could lead to real opportunities?  Popularity contests should be saved for High School.  Social Networking allows us to transcend all barriers of space and time.  It would be a shame to let this technology go to waste by building meaningless friend lists.

Watch this video to see what Seth Godin has to say about social networking and “friends.”

The Real-TechGuy Podcast Episode 2

The old days of interrupt marketing are giving way to conversation marketing.  Anyone who approaches business social networking with the old school tactics is bound to fail.  New media requires a new mindset.

Today more than ever social networking should be used in your business.  With millions of people joining social networks each day the possibilities to meet new customers and contacts are endless.  Business social networking is no different online than it is offline.

I’m constantly amazed at how people are using social networking.  Sometimes it’s good, a lot of times it’s bad.  It seems that people get online and somehow loose all inhibitions.  Promoting your business through social networking takes careful planning and commitment.  If you go in with a good game plan your bound to get good results.  If you’re not fully committed to doing what it takes to build your presence, don’t bother.  A half hearted performance is far worse then no presence at all.  People will see right through you.

If you’re serious about business social networking then this podcast is a MUST listen.

In this podcast you’ll learn:

• The Secret to building a presence in social media
• How to get INTO the conversation
• What viral marketing REALLY is
• How Google’s “Friend Rank” works