When was the last time you looked at your contact list on LinkedIn? How about Facebook? Are you brave enough to look at your Follow and Following lists on Twitter? Well, you probably need to check them out. Having non-contributors in your contact list could be a source of Energy Drain and a loss of a lot of Time.
More than likely you are like 90% of the rest of us who have not taken a look at their contact lists in the past 6 months and have blatantly added people to your Friends list, LI Contacts and Twitter Followers because it ‘felt good to do’, or ‘I’ll get around to contacting them someday’.
This casual approach to building relationships results in a list of people who obviously have little value to you and more than likely someone you Do Not Know.
Just the chore of wading through hundreds of contacts to find the person you are needing to connect with is the first sign there needs to be some culling of the masses.
Time Bandits
Over 80% of the people I talk to tell me they frequently get lost, or lose focus during the day, dealing with emails from people they do not know or only out to promote themselves. The time it takes to deal with these unwanted communications keeps them from doing things more important..like playing Golf.
Unwanted communications is a waste of time for business people and there is no doubt about it..Time = Money, for people in business. Keeping a contact list clear of distracters or Time Bandits is very important for business people.
It is very important to manage your contacts in all social spaces to keep the lists a viable resource.
So how do you manage your contact list?
My current contacts are;
- A mix of very close friends,
- Business associates I talk to frequently
- People who use to be very friendly with me but life has moved on,
- People I have met offline, spoken to a few times but not heard from in over a year
- People I have met who I probably will never talk to again
- and a large number of people I really do not know or remember how they got into my contacts.
So, whoever is in this list… a long list I might add… need to be a vital resources to me?
This is the question I ask a few times a year when I get around to taking the time to go through this growing list of contacts residing in my social networks. Obviously, since many of the contact listed in my social spaces are of people I want and need to stay in contact with, I need to make sure I can get to their contact without delay.
Wading through contacts I can’t remember who they are or I clearly do not know is a waste of time and energy. So there is a need to Cull the Herd..as I refer to it.
Here is my criteria I use to keep someone on my contact list.
In order to first know who to cull and who to keep I take each contact and ask… how did they come about being on my contact list? If I can clearly remember why and the contact is clearly a value access they get placed in the ‘Clean List’.
If I cannot remember who they are or how they came about to being on my contact list I move them over to the ‘Cull List’ to be deleted later.
No Photo, No Contact
If the contact;
- Has changed their avatar photo to something other than their headshot
- Does not have a photo with their contact information
…I place them on the Cull List.
Having a visual of a person’s face makes managing contacts you seldom speak to much easier. It also comes in handy at offline functions when you are trying to remember the person’s name. Having to search for their name can be laborious if you have memory of what they look like. It is very encouraging to see more and more people establishing the No Photo, No Contact policy.
If you want to be more social, you have to have a great headshot photo. If you don’t want someone to see who you are, or think the photo of a ‘skull and crossbones’ is your image, then expect to be Culled from people’s contact list.
Putting your baby’s photo in your avatar is also a un-social approach to getting people to remember who you are. It is cute but not very social able to place kids or pets pictures in the space that clearly there to portray who you are.
Also, placing the cover of your book, your business logo…and for you many PGA Professionals who place the PGA logo in your avatar..well, this display comes across to viewers as something to use to cover up your real identity? The question people ask when they see logos in a person’s avatar usually has to do with..Who is that person?
Posting business material in the avatar is a huge FAIL in today’s social media.
The ‘Cull List’ usually is full of these contacts that do not meet these requirements. As mentioned, many of these contacts start off with their headshot then quickly change to something else. Usually changing to an inanimate object comes about as a result of these people getting advice from others who are still using old methods of social media and telling them they are missing an opportunity to ‘Brand’ their business by posting their photo. If only they would step back and look at how foolish they look to others they would slap those misguided people.
No Response, No Contact
When was the last time you have heard from your contacts. This is another decision process to use in keeping a contact or Culling. If someone is on your contact list that has not contacted you or responded to any of your social media it probably is time to Cull.
Remember, you are after keeping valuable contacts. People who keep in touch with you through email or comments on blogs are of upmost value.
Real Names Are a Must
Come on! Does being known as ‘Johnny Appleseed’ the image you want to be known for? Real Names are becoming a must in today’s social media. Slogans, business names or unpronounceable words are not what people, consumers or other business people are interested in seeing. The days of being known by a synonym are over. Even with a name like ‘Lady GaGa’ people are wanting to know the artist REAL NAME.
Fake names or words that are clearly put together to draw attention are usually not placed in anyone’s contact lists. If someone changes their name or one slips in my list they are quickly placed in the ‘Cull List’.
Use Delete Button
After going through the contact list you may find you have a large number of people, places and things in your ‘Cull List’. This is not unusual, especially if this is the first time you have ever done a ‘Culling’. Now is the time to use that Delete button and get rid of the waste so you can enjoy your cleaned contact list.
Rebuttals Made Moot
Pundits of internet market will argue you should keep your contacts and build an even larger list of unknown people to broaden the exposure to your ‘Brand’..aka Business. Many will suggest you use tools to find even more people you do not know.
These people who suggest this method of marketing look at the internet as nothing but a marketplace and forget that over 90% of the people who use the internet or just that..are people. People have names and they are becoming very weary of being targeted by crafty marketing plans for stuff they don’t want or need.
The trend of striving for greater popularity in the social networks is waning. It only worked for the celebrities and others who already had millions of people OFFLINE following them. Today’s social media is moving more to trust building and being Real. As more case studies are made showing the popularity method of marketing failing more people will move to more trustworthy methods of social networking which consists of a true base of supporters.
Until then, you can get ahead of the curve by ‘Culling’ your contacts of people who do not care about you or what you have to say or do.
Let me know how I can help.
