There is something you notice when you start meeting a lot of people indiscriminately though. You open yourself up to what I call “toxic networks”. These are people who always manage to ask you or your network for favors but offer none in return. Or my favorite technique–they’ll give you a favor even though you didn’t ask for one and then expect that they can ask you for whatever they want. It’s like they are some sort of New York City window washer at a street light.

I don’t think people intend to impose. They often do not see that when they ask you for something that is easy for you but hard for them, they could be one of 50 people doing just that at that very moment. It’s not cool that it pans out this way but that’s just life.

So how do you protect against this?

1.) Don’t “network” for volume–network for quality. Having one good designer in your network is worth more than eight mediocre ones.
2.) Slow and steady wins the race. Network through existing networks you trust. Good people tend to attract good people.
3.) “Big” doesn’t mean quality. Some successful people I know also seem to ask for the most and give the least. It’s irritating but the way of the world sometimes.
4.) Don’t be afraid to cut someone off. The time you spend with people who drag you down could be spent with people who are actually quality.
5.) Don’t think of what a person means to you. Think of what that person means to your network. If you are ashamed to introduce someone to others, they are not worth your time.
6.) If you initiate a favor with someone, don’t be that window washer expecting a favor in return. Help people because you want to support something good. Then it’s easy to feel positive about life.

Introducing two people into what is a mutually beneficial relationship is a very satisfying feat. Introducing a good person to what I would call a succubus is not. I’ve done a bit of both in my time. Keep good company, play smart instead of fast, and you won’t have anything to worry about.

What did I learn at SxSW Interactive? Although I saw some interesting speeches, particularly from Frank Warren and Charlene Li, what struck me most was being able to meet the people I see online. Technology is amazing. It connects people. But if you sit behind your computer all day, you will not understand the subtle nuances to human interaction that you understand by meeting and interacting with people at a face-to-face level. That is what South by Southwest Interactive offered me.

At one point, I ate dinner with Dave and Erik from Nashville, Cian and his girlfriend (argh, name escapes me but she was a jeans designer) from London, and Graham from New York. It was a great time sharing with people who appreciate technology but use it to reinforce connections made in beyond a computer screen. We did not know each other before SxSW, and yet our use of Twitter, the internet, and a bunch of good jokes ensured we always had something to talk about.

If anything, it taught me that we have a long way to go in this world if we want to truly use social media effectively. At this point, we are a bunch of early adopters communicating with other early adopters. We are the elite. It is good to connect with early adopters to build and exchange ideas. As social media becomes easier to use and more accessible, we will see more “non-techie” people contributing their ideas to our lives with ease just by using social media tools. What tools will we use ten years from to ensure that people from all circles can communicate effectively? We are already seeing every social media site seeking to be the de facto standard social media site in its niche. How do these varying standards create social cliques on the web? How do these cliques raise the level of our collective knowledge by the forces of collaboration, and how do they take away from it by pigeon holing us into one group?

Five out of six people at that table use Twitter. Would I keep up with these people as easily if they only sent updates via MySpace? Probably not. They are thousands of miles away and communicating with them quickly would require me to login regular to a site I do not frequent often. Will we all be on Twitter in ten years? I have no idea. Did I have fun and do I think they are worth following? Yes I do.

Apparently the fortune cookie was right. We live in very interesting times.

Rather than give you a play by play of what you can read on the slides from the workshop, here are some cool people I met:

Giovanni Gallucci: Marketing Guru with Jordan-like Digg/YouTube/Twitter/Flickr skills. Yes, he can crash your site by getting you tons of traffic, but will we soon see his more artistic side?

Ed Schipul: Schooled us on the three motivations of people. Able to pimp your non-profit better than Galpin Auto Sports or Huggy Bear. Intrigued (or somewhat disgusted)? It doesn’t matter–check back later this week for my interview with Ed.

Chris Bernard: My last SxSW interviewee. Contended that there did not have to be blood in Web 3.0 if the community actively polices itself. That’s quite a relief to me, as I am not a fan of Ultimate Fighting or slasher films.

Aaron Belafonte (Aaron M. Baxter): My accountabilibuddy as designated by Kelsey Ruger‘s game I will title “Get Off Your Duffs and Network, People”. A CSS obsessed web designer with a talent for drawing on actual paper. Will be present (unlike me) at BarCampTX.

Paul Chaney: Contact from Practical Ecommerce. Blogger/Blogging Consultant/Twitterer and Internet Marketing Director for Bizzuka. Have a safe trip back to Louisiana!

Snax, will see you at Nuclear Tacos!

I also met some other SxSW panel speakers, who will hopefully make their michellesblog/Geek Austin debut soon.

OK, so how crazy is it when people want to know what you read? I can only assume that the good people at Practical Ecommerce 1.) needed content, which I can certainly understand and 2.) figured I am geeky enough to have an ecommerce bloglist primed and ready for their audience (which I did). Regardless, I hope their readers learn something about the social media scene and how they can use it to better reach their audience. Look out for my interview about social networking sites and ecommerce with PeComm in future posts.