The really great thing about online communities is that they let us connect with like-minded people along the lines of share common interests. But what good are those connections if you can’t ever leverage them? After all, like the old saying goes: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
But how do you go about calling in the chips when the time comes? You know all these people and you’ve had all these “conversations” with them. But your relationship with them is scarcely skin-deep: it’s based largely around a single, niche interest, and you rarely share any physical space with these people. So there’s something awkward about reaching out to them one day as asking for something.
So what do you do? Do you timidly broadcast a plea amid the deafening white-noise of the stream and hope it gets noticed? Or you do you risk crossing a line by knocking down doors one by one, via DMs, IMs, and email?
After all, what good is it being tapped into a niche, target network if you can’t ever call in the chips?
I say go for it. If a person is community-minded and cool, then they’ll either jump in to help you or they’ll seek to find someone else who can help you out if they’re overextended or just don’t wish to lend a hand.
Try it. Go out of your comfort zone. I’d like to hear how it goes.
Don’t blame me if it goes wrong. (Kidding)
So far, that’s what I’ve been doing, and it’s been interesting to see who has a sympathetic ear and who’s reflexively dismissive. Buy hey, if they dismiss me, I have no problem writing them off, too. [booyaka]