Deep Friendships: Building Community Series

by Seema K K on flickr

There’s a line in one of my favorite films, Boiler Room, that goes something like this: “If you increase the value of their portfolio by even a few points, they’ll let you babysit their kids for the weekend…”

The context? This is a film about stock brokers. And if you help someone become richer, you suddenly become their best friend. People make “friends” in business all the time. Especially if you perform good works. But that’s not what I am talking about here.

I am talking about COMMUNITY. Real friendships. Relationships. Where people take the good with the bad. The process of building community is working to form deep relationships with new people, people that you might not ordinarily connect with. At the end of the day, they just might become some of your best friends.

Case(s) in point: I connected with Stephanie A. Lloyd on Twitter. We dialogued for months and months, mainly about our Alma mater, Florida State. Finally, we met at a TweetUp, and now she is one of my very good friends. She helps me, and I help her when I can. In fact, we’ve even launched a little venture with ambitious long-term plans: He Said, She Said…

I also met Taryn Pisaneschi on Twitter. She is one of those cats who is making a name for herself helping people, connecting people. She and I finally met, and we decided to have a great time helping people together – at events LIKE THIS…

And through my community building efforts, I also met Stone Payton – my co-conspirator in all things High Velocity. He and I didn’t meet on social media – we met through another business networking opportunity. A year later, we are in business together.

I NEVER would have met these people if I wasn’t looking to do so. You have to keep an open mind, you have to be open to allowing people into your world, open to allowing them into your circle. You just never know, but some stranger you bump into on Twitter might possibly have a profound impact on your life.

But don’t just look to my examples in how building community and forming deep relationships can help you. Here are other ways this might manifest itself:

1. Community might help fill your seminar.
2. Community might put you up for the night when you are on the road.
3. Community will probably buy your book.
4. Read your white paper.
5. Comment on your most recent blog post.
6. Retweet something of yours on Twitter.
7. Dialog with you and/or become your fan on Facebook.
8. Recommend you on LinkedIn.
9. Invest in your start-up.
10. Tell their friends about you.
11. Forgive you when you make a mistake.
12. Give you honest, heartfelt feedback – when you want it…
13. …and when you don’t (but that’s a true friend).
14. Support a non-profit you care about.
15. Defend you when you are attacked by competitors.

You get the idea. Yeah, it is true. You won’t form a deep, lifelong relationship with someone ONLY by dialoguing on social media. You will want to – at some point – meet your new friends face-to-face. And I promise, the trust established online makes that personal relationship much stronger. When I finally met Stephanie and Taryn in person, it was like I had reunited with long-lost childhood friends.

Trust me, a strong community is good for your soul. And your business! What does building community mean to you?

[Intro post in this series]

Tagged as: Atlanta Networking, Boiler Room, Building Community, Facebook, Small Business, Social Media, Stephanie A. Lloyd, Stone Payton, Taryn Pisaneschi, Todd Schnick, TweetUp, Twitter, Under The Hood