Via Denis Labelle

Via Denis Labelle 
Why are you on G+?

Originally shared by David Amerland

Why I am on G+ so much

I had to explain to a corporate colleague, yesterday, why I spend so much time and energy on G+ engaging and interacting, putting up original content (when my website should be really benefiting from it) and sharing a lot of original information and insights (which should logically be kept for my books which bring me money.) 

It was a fair question which became the initiation point for a long discussion into which were also drawn his line manager and the company's Corporate Communications expert. 

I had to delve deep into my own motivations in order to actually make sense to people who don't use G+ and see social networks only as a marketing tool. As the discussion evolved I used their Whiteboard to sketch a few connections and relationships. I began to explain that there is a high level or reciprocity within G+ that is not evidenced in Twitter or even Facebook despite the fact that the latter is mostly close friends and family.

Once I started to look at it through the prism of Trust (which is the subject of an upcoming book which has me buried in research as well as writing) things began to fall into place.

What's more, the usual 'soft' platitudes of making friends with people you have never met and actually trusting them, suddenly began to make more sense.

Everything here is a contract of sorts, running on Transactional Trust and governed by the Reciprocity Response (https://goo.gl/mPAJWc). Transactional Trust, in turn, is made up of three other different types of trust, each of which has its own key points.

Not only does this help all of us interact in ways which provide mutual gains but it allows us to interact with different people, differently, calculate 'trust' differently for everyone and differently for each situation while still understanding that it is trust we use. 

Trust is the key ingredient in establishing and strengthening connections between individuals which then begin to figure into such other concepts as identity, self-worth and the establishment of one's presence. In semantic search trust is the key value ascribed in the interaction and engagement between Entities. 

When I got home my Whiteboard doodle became the diagram you see below. Have one awesome Saturday. :)