How do you convert a sterile click-to-connect contact into a meaningful relationship?
The tag relationship implies shared interest, value, and trust. You are more likely to go to bat for a relationship than some random contact. Here are two factors:
You start by connecting with those with whom you have shared interests and history – including career interests, served in the same branch of the military, attended the same graduate school, belonged to the same sorority or fraternity. A contact is just one click away. A relationship requires a foundation.
Second, quality, not quantity, is crucial in selecting connections. The Dunbar rule is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. That number is 150.
More tactical details tomorrow.