As part of #BeMyGuest (a month of guest blogging), today I bring you a guest post from Laura Click. Enjoy!

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Imagine you’re in a crowded bar. The music is pumping and the atmosphere is electric. You spot a guy (or girl) across the room that catches your eye. Your pulse quickens. You want to meet this person, but how do you strike up a conversation without feeling awkward?

Sound familiar?

If you’ve ever tried meeting new people in a bar, you know how difficult it can be. A bar is crowded. It’s noisy. How do you connect with people like you? And strangely, this analogy applies to social media as well. While many have deemed Twitter and Facebook to be a “virtual water cooler”, I tend to think of it as crowded bar.

While social media can be an incredibly useful way to develop relationships, it can take a bit of work to cut through the noise and find the right people to talk to. And, once you find those people, how do you get to know them without tossing out the cheesy pick-up lines?

Social media offers the incredible opportunity to connect with people we never thought possible, such as industry leaders, potential employers and even our favorite celebrities. However, the real value of social media occurs when online interaction translates to relationships “in real life”.

As with any solid relationship, it does not develop overnight. Whether you want to connect with business prospects, colleagues, mentors or simply other totally awesome people, it’s important to invest time in cultivating relationships.

So, how do you get started? Here are some tips to developing relationships online (sans pick-up lines):

1. Listen. If you’ve identified some people you’d like to get to know, follow them and listen to what they have to say. Their posts can give you a great insight into the person’s interests and ideas.
2. Introduce. If you want to connect with someone, introduce yourself and say hello. After reading about the person, you can mention something that you have in common or compliment them on something you saw on their blog. This is a great way to start up a conversation.
3. Retweet. Retweeting is one of the best ways to compliment someone on Twitter. Essentially, it’s like forwarding an e-mail message. It allows you to share someone’s tweet with your followers. So, if you like what someone had to say, retweeet it! Oftentimes, they’ll send you a thank you in response.
4. Reply. As you follow people, respond to posts that interest you. Using Facebook, you can “like” or comment on posts. Sending an @reply on Twitter is a simple way to show you’re listening to what the person has to say.  Over time, this may lead to a more in-depth discussion or even a conversation offline.
5. Comment. If the person has a blog, join the discussion and comment on their posts. This is a great way to provide value to the blogger, while also highlighting why you are someone the blogger should get to know. And, you might just learn something in the process.
6. Repeat. Because of the large scale of social media, it’s important to repeat the process. It can be hard to grab someone’s attention if the person has thousands of followers or fans. Continuing to participate will help the person recognize you when finally do make the ask.
7. Ask. After you’ve communicated with the person for a while, it will be much easier to suggest meeting the person for coffee or even having a phone conversation. Because you’ve taken the time to get to know the person a bit first, they will be much more likely to oblige.

This approach has worked well for me. After getting to know someone online, I’ve not had anyone turn down the chance to meet up for coffee. And, because of that, I’ve met some fantastic people in the process.  Yes, there’s a little risk. And, there’s always the fear of rejection. However, I think you’ll find that once you’ve done it, you’ll be glad you did.

How do you develop relationships online? What have you done to connect with people you’ve met online?

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About Laura
Laura Click is a marketing and public relations professional in Nashville, Tenn. She works in state government by day, and is a blogger and marketing consultant by night. You can find out more about Laura at www.lauraclick.com, or by following @lauraclick on Twitter.

Image Credit: opacity

I read an article on Gawker today that said New York Times reporter Raymond Hernandez, who covers members of Congress from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, is dating Shrita Sterlin, the communications director for Rep. Edolphus Towns, a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn.

According to Gawker:

“Sterlin gets paid to make Towns look good, a task that’s presumably made considerably more easy when the guy who’s supposed to cover him for the most important newspaper in local politics is your boyfriend.”

…and I got to thinking: Is it ethical for a reporter to date a PR pro if the reporter covers the same topic(s) the flack is pitching?

IMO…you can’t help who you love! Of course, that’s not to say that I can vouch for the relationship at hand. However, if it’s real and true, then I’m on board with it! And apparently, the Times is too…as long as the relationship is disclosed and the reporter doesn’t give special treatment to the flack (at least regarding news coverage).

But let’s talk in general here…is it ethical for a reporter and flack to date when their job directly intertwine? And what would need to be done to make the relationship work?

I can’t speak from personal experience here, but I still default to the idea that the heart wants what the heart wants and nothing (like a job) should come between that. But of course, I’m a romantic : )

I just think that this is a situation where your job and your personal life need to stay separate and there are a few things you shouldn’t do. Essentially, the flack shouldn’t get special treatment. But he/she also shouldn’t be denied coverage. The news outlet needs to review pitches in the same way it would from another flack. After all, lots of us have relationships with journos (not just romantic ones), and that often helps us get coverage…so the in-love PR pro shouldn’t be denied coverage either.

For the relationships sake, it would also be important not to bring work home…at least when both parties are involved. I could see situations where someone’s feelings could get hurt. I assume the whole scenario would work best with some ground rules set out right from the get-go.

But as I said, I have no experience with this…so my opinions could be completely wrong. (I’m just tossing around ideas in my head.)

What do you think? Are you a flack who has dated (or is dating) a journo? Let’s discuss…