Ages ago points were awarded for being added to someones associates list. The idea behind this was, that if someone was willing to associate with you then they were giving you a vote of confidence. In addition it was a way for ActiveRain members to interact and get to know each other.
In practice what happened is that many members decided that it would be best to add everyone they could find to their associates lists, which didn't exactly seem to facilitate a useful form of networking.
I would encourage you to take a look at the associates list feature and to have you utilize it in a manner that helps you to keep in touch with and see what's going on with professionals that you can create meaningful relationships with.
With your associates list you can check quickly through a list of every body's blogs to see what they've written about lately, and you can quickly, contact or send a message to someone you haven't spoken to in a while.
Have a list of the people you have meaningful relationships with and an easy way to stay in touch is a very powerful tool. There are many ways to use it. I encourage members to take a look again at their associates list. Edit them for meaningful or potentially meaningful relationships, and use the list to your advantage.
How could you envision using the list? Do you have more suggestions on how to implement it or how ActiveRain can make it better for you?
My associate list is basically a quick guide for me if I need to refer a client. I've met some outstanding realtors in other areas of the country that I wouldn't hesitate referring clients to. Hopefully, they will keep me in mind should they have a client moving to Las Vegas. Long term, these relationships are gold for your business. I've received several referrals from the same person over the years and am sure I'll receive more in the future.
As for improvements, perhaps an easy to communicate with everyone on your associates list, like a mass email or something (with an option on a per member basis to abstain from receiving communications). Perhaps the communications could be rated by the person sending on an importance level. That way members could filter on an importance basis as well.
I can the associates list becoming more important as the group gets bigger and becomes more active. As the network expands smaller niche groups will be necessary just to weed through the "noise."
Right now I enjoy reading mostly everything that is forwarded to the agents, as well as the comments. Our personalities are beginning to show...
I appreciate the guidance in how to best use groupings and categories for my associates list. It's given me the ability to find like minded associates and the gems of wisdom shared by each in blog form.
Caleb,
Thanks for bringing this post to my attention. I will certainly reevaluate my use of the associate feature.
i havent really developed an associates strategy yet...
guess i need too