I just sent out a massive automated email blast to 100s of people that I’ve interacted with over the years to “connect” on the Plaxo social network site. I can imagine that most people probably don’t know what Plaxo is, so I’m writing up this description to inform people of why they might want to sign up.
I know … SO MANY SOCIAL NETWORKS … SO LITTLE TIME! Isn’t FaceBook more than enough already! Who has time to keep up with it all? Plaxo keeps us all connected while also helping us save some time while doing so.
Here is a description of what Plaxo offers (from the website itself):
Plaxo keeps you in touch with people you care about.
When fellow Plaxo members you’re connected with move to a new home, change their cell phone number or change jobs, you’ll know… and your address book will be updated automatically.
So, if everyone gets on Plaxo, it can actually save time by keeping us all up-to-date on each other’s contact information. We all know 100s even 1000s of people within our own networks, and most of those 100s and 1000s also know each other (this is the “plexus”). How many times do we all get emails from somebody saying, “I just changed my phone number, please update your records”. So then you might feel obligated to take a moment out of your busy day to open your address book, copy the new number over, etc. Or how many times do you get an email from someone asking for your mailing address or fax number because they “lost it”, or even more–they ask if you just happen to have the information for someone you both may know. This is not sustainable information management.
As an alternative: what if everybody’s contact information updated itself everywhere automatically? Plaxo aims to provide this for us with a service called “Pulse”. Plaxo will also automatically make recommendations to you of people who you are already interacting with in email and/or other social networks … so, over time, it’s fairly straight forward to build up our shared social plexus. I actually don’t use Plaxo much for general social interaction (I save that mostly for FaceBook). Yet, it is good to be on Plaxo so that my social contact information is updated regularly.
It’s the 21st century. We have the technology to move beyond the aggradation of trivial inconveniences that come with greater social connectivity–and get down to better uses of our time, energy, and attention! Let’s focus less on establishing and maintaining connections, and more on the processes and qualities of being in connection!
I also recommend that you download an extension toolbar that will keep your computer’s address book in sync with your Plaxo Pulse account.
See you on the Plaxo Pulse people plexus!
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