Wabash Always Connects SOME TIPS ON MAKING GREAT CONNECTIONS.
I’m a connector.
There are few greater joys in my life than introducing two or more people and letting the magic happen from there. Seeing people from completely different circles of my life have meaningful (or humorous) exchanges on Facebook energizes me.
When I connect two people, perhaps one traveling to a city where another one lives (Patrick Stroud ’14 to Aurelio Rio, a friend in Madrid whom I met through my friend Christopher from Austin when we were all living in London), I remind them of the “transitive property of friendship”— whatever commonality and basis for friendship that Aurelio and I have had, since Patrick and I are friends, I would expect them to have some connection.
These types of connections happen readily through Wabash men. Some of this is from the shared Wabash experience (which we all love to talk about), some is from the commonality of what attracted each of us to Wabash, and some is from the networking that I think Wabash teaches men to do well.
I try to model good connection-making when I make introductions between students and alumni by mentioning each person’s name a couple of times (so it isn’t easily forgotten), and then sharing two or three things about each that may spark further conversation as they get to know each other.
Other colleges envy our network. If I see someone in Seattle, WA, wearing a Texas sweatshirt, I am unlikely to run across four lanes of traffic to introduce myself … but it happens to one of Wabash’s best friends, Bill Kirst, on a regular basis around the world when he wears a shirt from our school.
Part of connection-making is engagement. There are some specific things I recommend:
• As part of my daily cadence of “read and respond,” I look at the New York Times and other sources of information. I regularly come across something that a friend or colleague will be interested in. So I grab the URL of that article and I paste that into a new posting on Facebook. I will put, “Hey @David <and his name comes up>, I think you’d find this interesting,” and I likely also pull a quote from the article that would grab David’s (and others’) attention. David will then be notified of this.
• In LinkedIn, the process is roughly the same. In Twitter it also is similar, but you have only 280 characters to work with.
• With YouTube, the key is to get people to subscribe to a channel so they are notified of new content. I generally paste the URL into Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
I tend to aim for quality over quantity, more wheat than chaff, and more light than heat. I have some themes that I intentionally promote more often because of personal interests, things I’d like for my friends to know more about, or things that I know various groups of friends would find interesting. Several of my non- Wabash friends have noted the civility and intelligence of discussions, often involving Wabash men, on my Facebook wall around emotionally charged topics. That is a testament to our shared experiences at our alma mater.
These simple actions can raise your visibility and eminence in social media. They deepen existing connections and lead to new ones, and make it possible for others to see your interest in a topic and then engage you on something they find.
When you start doing this you will get notes such as “Thanks for connecting me to this golden opportunity to gain initial experience,” or “I got the offer—the feeling is unbelievable,” or (one of my favorites) “Thank you for believing in me.”
My response to notes such as those? First, it’s what we do for other Wabash men; we’re wired for it. Second, all I did was make the connection and raise your visibility; you are the one who got the job. Third, you can pay this back by doing the same thing for others.
Wabash always fights. And we always connect.
— ROB SHOOK ’83 President, National Association of Wabash Men