After having used social networking sites for almost two years, it has struck me how different the types of connections that you encounter in social networking are. I think the following 6 desciptions cover the main types of contacts that I have.
Proactive
Usually they invite you before you get a chance to invite them! Enthusiastic about social networking and sometimes even open networking. However, you can be quite sure that you get an invite if you know one of these people. Some proactive users may also
Collectors
These users do everything to get as many friends, buddies connections – the more the better. Collectors may be just as proactive as the proactive user but will typically lose interest in connections once the connection has been established. These are very useful as facilitators of connections, although many of the connections they can deliver may not be of a high quality standard.
Responsive
Users who accept your invitations but rely on others to invite them rather being proactive in setting up a network.
Reluctant
People who only accept an invitation after receiving one or more reminders – either through the networking tool or after being prompted by people in real life.
Unresponsive
People who you find on social networks but who never responds to invitations even when they are sent reminders. They have probably signed up at some point by mistake or they are no longer interested.
Non-existent
People who are not on any social networks.
You may say that all this is good but what is the value of this information. Soon I will explore whether we can measure the overall quality of our network by assigning values to these 6 categories.
