Jan 13
5
Online and Offline Relationships
Online and Offline Relationships — It Goes Both Ways
“Online Building Offline Relationships” is the title of a post by George Couros in his blog, “The Principal of Change.” George is an innovative school Principal who writes about fostering effective relationships. I couldn’t agree more with what Principal Couros wrote:
If I know anything, whether it is as an administrator, teacher, or simply a human being, everything starts with relationships. If we can’t connect with people, it is hard for us to do anything. If technology can help that, we should be all over it.
In a post about building relationships online and some easy ways to achieve it, Leo Jackson wrote:
You see I believe the number one way to make it as a blogger is to make relationships with other bloggers… Be sure when they do status updates or upload videos etc. you are engaging with them. Answer questions when they ask, if something they posted helped you out at all, tell them.
Finding Love Online
In a previous post I mentioned examples of how Social Networking May Lead to Love:
Love begins with contact, online or offline. I have several personal friends who met strangers online, developed relationships, and have been happily married for a decade or more to persons they met online. One happy couple met playing cards online. Those relationships are worth a thousand other Facebook Friends. The key is that they turned contacts into relationships.
Non-Verbal Communication
It goes both ways — online to offline or offline to online. In another post, “Communicating Love at a distance,” I pointed out:
Love is a “many splendorous thing.” Love is best shared live and in person. Non-verbal communication enhances the whole experience. However, there are many situations in which lovers are not in the same location. Modern technology has provided many channels of communication to bridge the gaps.
Videoconferencing, Skype, and Google+ Hangouts to the rescue! See my post, Video vs. Text on Social Media:
Certainly we can get more cues to the meaning and the feeling behind content from body language, facial expression and tone of voice, etc. Especially emotion and conviction are conveyed better through visual cues than through mere text.
Dating in the Digital Age
Ken Solin writes about Dating in the Digital Age on the AARP website. Ken is a former entrepreneur turned dating expert. Although singles meet on the AARP Dating website, Ken says:
Telephones still work best
Get on the phone and be your authentic self. That way, you won’t feel the burden of living up to an image that isn’t really you… Ten minutes on the phone can tell you more than a month of emailing.
Gina Stewart is an online dating consultant and columnist who has worked with several big marketing firms but found her passion as an online dating consultant that helps her clients market themselves. As a guest on the dating blog, FrankLove.net, Gina said:
whether you like it or not, you are presenting a picture of yourself, a brand, and ultimately you’re trying to get people to buy that brand and go out on a date with you…your online dating written profile, your emails, your behavior, should all be geared with that in mind. That you are ultimately trying to get someone to do something which is go out with you, get to know you further or whatever.
So, when people are online dating, they need know that they need to represent themselves as a brand. They need to be consistent about the message that they’re sending to other people in terms of the type of person that they are. It’s also really important to identify who their audience is. Who is it that you’re actually trying to attract?
Online Marketing is Like Dating
Marketing on the Internet is similar to online dating. Here too it is strongly recommended that you ask yourself this simple question: “who exactly is looking for my content, product or service?”
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