We have friends at home, in the workplace, and sometimes random friends; like those we meet at parties and events. We also have online friends. Some online friends we might never get to meet physically, and others we get the opportunity to. Friends are very important in people’s lives and we need a bunch of them.
Having and keeping friends is where the beauty is. However, there’s the difficult part of making friends, and more specifically, making online friends. Placetochat is here to help with what you might have been missing while trying to connect with people online. If you’re wondering what Placetochat is, then the lessons can begin with this introduction.
Placetochat is a social networking site available globally to individuals seeking to make online connections. The beauty of it is that it really works and has developed an online community that connects many users on the platform. This success in itself gives Placetochat enough leeway to discuss what is necessary for social media users to do to connect with the many people online, and here they are:
1. Be Available
Sometimes the work is not in the introduction. In fact, on a site like Placetochat, the introduction is very easy. Everyone is online to interact so they welcome new messages. The work you have to put in is to be available for the chats that follow.
Being available is a large part of the interaction. Avoid late responses or no responses. People come online to have conversations, and conversations are usually not meant to have stops, they are meant to be continuous and responsive. An unresponsive chat can most likely bring down the enthusiasm of the person you are chatting with and most likely end it.
2. Be Authentic
A common mistake online is trying to be the conversationalist of other people’s dreams. This is an awkward intention and it needs to stop. Online connections are looking for freshness. They want to see someone new and learn about their culture, their lifestyle, and hobbies. You give them a very lackluster experience when you pretend to be what you think they want.
Originality is one core value of the Placetochat community. Nobody is faking anything, and when you sign up, you should do the same. Be yourself and let people know you for you. There’s no need to also put false or exaggerated information in your profile. When you make a friend while being yourself, that friendship has a better potential to last a lifetime.
3. Listen Actively
There are people who make the connection online and later lose the friendship after a few moments of chatting. Though there might be other reasons, one common reason is how you listen to the person.
Placetochat boasts of initiating genuine conversations among individuals. Now, imagine that you are letting your heart out to someone and they aren’t even following. That’s going to be so disappointing. This is why we suggest the best type of listening to online users, and that is active listening.
Active listening involves genuinely listening to the information being passed by the other person, understanding it, and responding in an adequate fashion. When you listen in such a way and give the person a listening ear like that, they are bound to come back.
4. Be Emotionally intelligent
Active listening is very necessary. However, it has a tricky part. You are supposed to respond to the discussions adequately based on what you have heard. You have to be cautious with your reply, especially in sensitive situations. Your response could make or mar the communication.
One quality that could save you at all times is by learning to be emotionally intelligent. This soft skill involves being self-aware and cautious, while also being aware of how the other person is feeling and how to manage the situations. By keeping these in mind, your responses may always be around the right level. You can avoid making the wrong jokes or being “too much” for the person.
5. Give Feedback
This is a technique that works both offline and online but is usually ignored. Friends talk to each other a lot, they also have altercations once in a while, as well as memories. Friends who just tend to “ride the wave” and move on tend not to last. So what should you be doing?
You should inculcate the habit of giving feedback to whoever you are interacting with. It can be once a week, once a month, or even at the end of each year. Such practice helps you to bear your mind to your friend. Let them know the actions which you appreciate, as well as those that you are not so happy with. Inform them of how you would prefer things were and also ask for their opinions. This practice might only make the connections stronger.
In Conclusion
Making online connections and keeping them requires some effort from you. By following these 5 tips here, you stand a chance of keeping the interactions you make longer than you could imagine. One final tip is to make sure that you interact on platforms that can help your connections. Placetochat is a very good example of such a platform. You get to interact and get some assistance from the platform itself.