What If You Aren't (yet) My Friend

I suggested in a blog post yesterday that you could read this blog in Facebook. Well I missed a big point with that suggestion.

You can read this blog in Facebook if you are my friend in Facebook, but not if you aren't.

I've taken the approach with Facebook (and LinkedIn) of only accepting friend requests from people I actually know. But there are tens of thousands of readers of this blog who are people I want to have a relationship with but aren't technically my friends.

I've said this before on this blog. We need a second kind of relationship in social networks.I want people to see my profile who aren't actually friends. Maybe fans followers? Or something else?

Comments

[Megan]

My greatest complaint of social networks is the absence of nuance in the connections that are established. Why none of the big networks have formed an "acquaintance" or "colleague" label is beyond me.

Establishing levels of intimacy are vital to the social/professional world. If you meet someone at a conference and form a great bond over a set of conversations or meals, typically you exchange business cards and commit to see each other next time you're in town. Next time you meet, you might meet with them at your office, or have a drink with them. But you wouldn't invite them over to your personal dinner party or to have their family stay with you.

The idea of inviting everyone online into your life with a level playing field of access is really silly --and a bit ridiculous. It would be so easy to establish "tiers" of access (1st level/intimate, 2nd level/professional) and associate those tiers with a multiple choice list of types of interactions (view family photos, request job openings) through any of these networks, and for my money it would greatly improve their value.