EPTLooking at how I usually do things in my life, I find that I am really bad at upkeep. Like, really really bad. I'll spend weeks figuring out all the details of the perfect combination of hardware for my computer and build it. I'll optimize the boot sequence, get everything set up just perfectly, and then never do anything to it again. If it starts to get buggy, rather than investigate problems, and fix them as they come up, I put up with all sorts of crap until it's so bad I have to re-format. Same thing with friends - if you're not somebody that I hang out with or talk to on a regular basis, or we have some event that we happen to consistently attend together (like a class), I completely lose contact with people. These are not good traits to have, but that's just the kind of person I am apparently.
Anyway, even though it goes against my nature, I've been doing my best to keep up connections with those people I've met at live events - be they pro players, staff, casters, or fans. I'm not doing a great job with it right now - I can see a lot of room for improvement - but it's something I've been working on. One of the best ways I've found to do this, is through twitter.
I've never been one to tweet, or read the tweets of others, but a little while ago I decided to give it a shot and hop in the SC2 twitter pool - and it's great. It really is. I can be doing my normal gig at work, and just keep an extra tab open in my browser for SC2 twitter stuff, checking it a few times an hour. If something comes up, which it inevitably does, where I find I can add some constructive comments (or horribly destructive as the case may be =p) I shoot off a quick 140 characters. Sometimes the person I'm tweeting at replies, sometimes not, but that's how it goes.
Aside from chatting, another great thing to do with twitter is use the retweet system. What I mean by that is when something is going on with one of my projects, I shoot out links to people I've met asking for retweets. This has 3 uses:
1) spreads the information on what I'm doing
2) check to see how favorable my contacts are viewing our relationship (for a lack of a better word).
3) keep showing up on the radar of my contacts - both as a general reminder, and to show I'm contributing to the community.
So, the point is, twitter is SUPER useful for keeping in touch with people, especially for somebody like me who is really bad at upkeep.
Now, twitter isn't the only way to keep in touch, so I've been trying to branch out and do other things. Living in San Francisco, which has a surprisingly high count of SC2 groups (Twitch.tv, IPL, TeamReign, and SC2Ratings) provides with a few options for live interactions. IPL has had an open house, one of the community managers at twitch offered to give me a tour of their office, and I've been offered a similar tour by an IPL guy. I never actually followed up on the IPL invitation since I went to the open house, and the Twitch guy seems to have bailed on the invitation - but even so, these opportunities are present, and help maintain connections during the times between live events.
So far, things have been pretty successful, but there's room for improvement all over the place.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the SC2 community is very tight knit. All the major players in the community (by which I mean the movers and shakers, not players of the game) are not just colleagues, but they're friends. This means the big wigs are pretty cliquish, making it hard to really get close. So, the question is this: Do I approach these sorts of things with the intent of trying to infiltrate the clique, or do I treat these connections a business contacts? My answer has been the latter. You can't make people be your friend, and its a dick move to try and make friends with people just because they're influential. The people I've met at these events, I consider professional contacts. If we end up hitting it off, then sure, maybe we can be friends, but that's not the intent. The intent is to get more involved in the community - not to be a cool insider. That's why I can write about this. That's why I can analyze my relationships with these people. They know what my goals are, they know I'm trying to get more involved, and if they read this, I'm sure they'll nod along and think to themselves, "yeah, that sounds about right."
That said, I've really liked everybody I've met. I've had a great time with them, we've gone out together and done all sorts of fun stuff, but gun to the head, most everybody this blog entry applies to would classify me as a business contact first, and a social acquaintance second.
If you're reading this and thinking, "Hey, I met you, and we got along really well. I thought we were friends. Are you just using me?" The answer is a resounding, "Yes and no". Lets work to together to make SC2 better. If we can have fun along they way, awesome, lets totally do that, but don't let that distract from the primary goal here.
So that's it for keeping up connections for now. There's a lot of room for improvement, and a lot of room for fun.
