For the last week or so while I have been planting seeds. Planting awareness about me and what I do by selectively picking people on social networks (specifically Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) that I think can either help me, advise me, or be the social lubricant to get to another level of connection (or the reverse be helped or advised by me).

This is not as callous a thing as it may first seem; I plan to give as well as get. This is the way social networks work.

It's going well. Meet some really cool people. Haven't made a damn cent or even had a whiff of currency but I consider it time well spent. A handful of these new acquaintances will become offline colleagues, or suppliers, or clients, or friends, and the rest hopefully will flourish lightly attended with an occasional check to see that all is well. Even the least attended of these online connections deserve courtesy and respect; they ask, I reply; I ask & I hope they return the favour.

It is a trust building exercise. It is cultivating relationships. And at the end of the day people do business with people they trust. That is the harvest.

Cheers