I just discovered a bunch of Twitter 'Replies' from people who may (or in some really obtuse cases - don't) follow me.

My first thought was 'Why don't these replies appear in my timeline ?'

My second was 'Who the heck are these weirdo stalkers and can they ever get hold of my home address ?'

My third was 'Does Twitter etiquette really oblige me to follow these people just because they follow me ?'

Steve: I recently read the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, that really put the concept of “networking” into perspective for me. I finally think I understand what it's all about.

I've never wanted to be a “master networker”, circulating around in a party (or jumping up and down to try to get DWiner to notice me), because it felt more like manipulation - becoming friends with someone to get something out of them. Ferrazzi turns this concept on its head: he says that the real power of building a network is to try to help others - to try to find ways to connect others to their (mutual) benefit, to try to make things better for everyone whenever/wherever you can; and in the end, he argues, the network in turn will help you.

That approach makes more sense to me. Since then I've started connecting with more people, whenever it feels easy and natural - and I find that folks have helped me without my even trying (or asking).

So the real power of these social networks may be in making contact with others and figuring out ways to share/interact/help them (perhaps in some small way) - eventually, we can all benefit!

I have a lot less “friends” (477) on Flickr and have really only designated those people as friends who I really know or people whose photography I really really dig.

With Flickr when you look at your contact's most recent photos it pushes the most active contacts to the front of the queue. Because when I add someone I don't always know if they are an active photographer on the site or not, this helps me to stay on top of the most active of my contacts in the community.

I get a lot of faves on Flickr, but I try to give out as many as I get. In fact I've faved over 27,000 photos on the site by others that I really do enjoy and like. Frequently I'll go to my recent activity stream specifically to see who has been looking at my stuff and I'll make a point to go look at theirs.

Sometimes there are tools built into a site like Flickr that allow you to use the adding contacts functionality functionally. Sometimes it's more than just a numbers thing.