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5. Getting better, faster answers
Social networking sites make it easy to take advantage of the wisdom of crowds to get quick answers. Although each individual answer may not be that impressive (especially when they’re limited to 140 characters on Twitter), the big picture that emerges from dozens of replies can be quite illuminating.
For example, I asked for suggestions on Twitter and Facebook, and within an hour I had lots of replies. I checked out a few of the most popular suggestions and ended up going with SBI for web developing and BrainstormIT for WP. BrainstormIT is built into SBI though, so I can get by with just SBI. Before I tweeted about it, I’d never even heard of these applications. Being able to consult with my social network saved me a lot of time, and that same day I was already using the new software productively.
Another time I asked my social network for a good raw pesto recipe, and again I received lots of replies within hours.
In many ways this works better than a search engine.
6. Emotional support
Social networking can create a lot of loose connections, but it can also lead to some deeper connections that you may not even be aware of.
I’ve been particularly impressed by how much emotional support I receive from my social network when I’m going through major life changes.
When going through separation, you can receive a lot of support from your online social networks. Despite the separation, you feel more socially integrated than ever. You never go through a period of isolation or disconnection. There were too many people in your life who would check in with you and offer advice and encouragement. I’ve never experienced such a high volume of personal communication as I did during the past month. I even bought a new Android smartphone last week to help me keep up with it. (I really love that phone by the way.)
In some cases the support I receive from my online friends is greater than what I receive from my in-person friends who don’t connect with me online. My Twitter and Facebook friends see my daily updates and have a good pulse on what I’m up to, but my in-person friends can actually drift more out of touch if I don’t see them that often. This has really shifted my understanding of relationships. In some ways I feel like certain people I only know online are more like family to me than the family I grew up with.
7. Activity partners
Finding activity partners is fairly easy to do with social networking sites, especially a site like markethive.com.
Pretty much anything I want to do now, I can use social networking to find at least a few people who share that interest, so if there’s something that interests me, I know I don’t have to do it alone.
I think it’s especially great to meet people through social networking who offer to teach me new things that I’ve always wanted to learn. It can be a lot faster to learn from someone in person than to sign up for a formal class or read a book about it.
"Republished from StevePavlina.com"
