I’m stymied. I went shopping the other day at J. Crew in advance of our vacation. The nice and very helpful sales associate there persuaded me to give over my email address for potential personal shopping services (I know - silly, really). A few hours later I’m just about ready to close the lid when all of a sudden I see this fellow has friended me on Facebook. Yikes. This presents an entirely new situation for me. The people who connect to me on Facebook and who I don’t know well are usually work-related acquaintances, and I refer them over to my Linked In profile with hardly a thought. But what about this nice young man??
I’m the kind of Facebook user who keeps Facebook for friends, ex-friends, or people who I at one time was friendly with, even if those social circles have long faded (former school mates who I really barely know, but who I knew years ago, for example, I have no problem with on Facebook). But my newly-acquired J.Crew personal shopper guy who is a total complete stranger? Where do I place him?
I guess I need a social group for … dare I say it? “service personnel?” - As more and more of our lives seem to be outsourced, I could use a social connection larger than Twitter to stay tuned in to, let’s say, the guy who cuts my hair, my nail lady, or even the wonderful couple up the street who make the most delicious soup. Why not? I would happily follow then on Twitter, if they Tweeted, so I’d just as happily connect to them on a social networking site like Facebook - especially if I could make appointments, find out about special offers through this connection. Their benefit? My ability to virtually connect them to my friends if I wanted to recommend them. I guess I could do this on Facebook, only it seems odd to have people in this type of social circle follow updates from my “real” (former, somewhat, ok not really) friends.
Am I subconsciously channeling my English roots and assigning a different place for “the help?” I don’t think so … the circles of our lives do overlap, but when they don’t it’s often for good reason. I’m sure we’ll soon see aggregate views of social networks that can be sectored in this way … today we’re still too mired in the “YASN” phenomenon, with everyone turning to Facebook for what is often an imperfect fit to the networking requirement.
Meanwhile, I’d be happy to follow my future J.Crew personal shopper on Twitter, which I’ll advise, just as soon as I get back from vacation. One more day on Sanibel Island and it’s back to reality.
