Tend The Farm

February 21, 2008 · Comments

New England Farm Social networks are a great place to meet people, to connect, to add “friends,” and to have conversations. One element that I need to focus on, and that you might consider as well, is how to “tend the farm.” As we connect to people, and have a great interaction, we feel good about ourselves and feel that we’ve made a good new connection. What we do next, often times, is forget to reach out and say hi, and see how the other people are doing.

For one, as our networks grow, it’s harder to find time to reach out. For another, we sometimes mistake reading people’s blogs and seeing their Twitter stream, or seeing their updates in Facebook as being a connection, but unless you actively comment or say something back, the other person doesn’t necessarily know or “feel” that you were there.

I’m going to pay attention to tending the farm a little bit, and reaching out to people in my social networks that I maybe haven’t said “hi” to in a while. It shouldn’t take up TONS of time, and I bet the results will be a nice warm feeling, and potential new adventures. If you want a strong community, tend the farm.

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  • At the risk of appearing mercenary, you’re referring to a discipline that one must define for their own objectives in the context of social networks.

    Like taking 3-5 minutes to welcome someone to your network, or thank them for a LinkedIn or Facebook invitation. It’s your first chance to be “real” in the context of socnets. And then there’s the next interaction, and the next and the next, all on the path of creating a valuable, collaborative or perhaps simply a collegial relationship.

    It’s also the reason I lamented last Monday about the proliferation of reading material being dumped into my feeder every day. I am physically unable to provide the level of tending to the farm that I personally believe will be adequate to help me stay above all the noise unless I am judicious about the number of connections I choose to cultivate.

    A quick review of your blogs over the last few weeks, Chris, reveals your personal struggle with time management, quality of conversation and prioritization.

    Right-size your farm, or bring on some help to milk the cows while you feed the chickens.
  • jonnygoldstein
    I hear ya. Good idea to take a little time to tend the farm. A little tending goes a long way. I don't necessarily agree with Don that you need to either scale back or hire help. Keep playing with the formula and see how the farm responds.
  • I know how you feel. It seems that the online "farm" is taking more time to get some crops. The question of course is what gets bumped as there are only 24 hours in a day. Plus, decisions have to be made on which tools to use in order to "till the farm". Still trying to figure it out...
  • This is where DiSo could truly lend a hand in your farm tending, Chris. One of the many integral working parts being discussed would be a "presence" widget that you, the farm owner could place on their blog. When I, just a once a week milk buyer stops buy to see your rolling hills, this presence indicator would let you, and more importantly, others know that I had been there. Much like the MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog widgets do. The main difference here being that these "friends" are directly "your" friends.

    So, helping farm hands are coming in the inimitable web 2.whatever version we're up to now way!
  • I love the analogy - and my farm. And it needs tending in a big way. I think the challenges of different, diverse and expanding networks/services is that you start to lose sight of the people and the conversations that you want to keep track.
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