The Internet: a Great Connector of People

Remember at the turn of the century when everyone predicted that the advance of the Internet and social media spelled the end of “real” personal communications? The theory was that, since you could connect online, there would be no need to connect in person anymore. Over the years, we have seen that this is simply not true. While the Internet makes it easier to connect with someone you cannot see in person, it has also strengthened our resolve to connect in person with people we meet online.

We see every day here at the Indie Business Network, it's not just online dating sites that help form the foundation for meaningful relationships. It's organizations like IBN … and those relationships are often every bit as strong, or even stronger, than relationships that start in person. Case in point, our members Rhonda Hodge and Robin Walthour, pictured here, with Rhonda in the pink sweater. Robin, in New York, and Rhonda, in Murphy, Texas, first met through the virtual events and Secret Facebook Group at the Indie Business Network. I'll let Rhonda tell the rest.

I had already booked a trip to NYC in the spring and was delighted to have someone to meet up with while there. Meeting a sister-Indie Business member and soap maker was one of the highlights of the trip. My Bestie and I meet up with Robin at the Ground Zero area, sharing Sprinkles Cupcakes – admiring their marketing and branding strategies. They were quite delicious also!

The few hours we spent together was short but it seemed like lifelong friends being reunited after the briefest of separations.

We are so excited to be a vehicle for personal and professional connections that transcend space and time. This is a perfect illustration of my personal vision for IBN: to connect people together so they can build their businesses in community.

Entrepreneurship can be scary and isolating. No one should ever have to face it alone.

Meet Rhonda and Robin

Meet Rhonda at RBellah online and on Facebook. And read more about her in this post.

Meet Robin at Savon Cafe Soaps on Facebook.

Best and success,

Question: Have you met people online (not dating sites), and couldn't wait to meet them in person? Have you found that those relationships are often at least as strong as the ones that start in person?