Harry Caray may be one of the best networkers ever, moving thousands of tone-deaf Cub fans to stand and sing at the top of their lungs. Harry had no issues with his own terrible singing voice, using his presence to connect many of us in ways which extended beyond our fandom.

During my recent sojourn in Chicago, I got a glimpse of the Chicago blogging scene with Mr_Electrico, aka Driftglass (warning: Driftglass’ blog is R-rated and politically progressive, so don’t go there if that’s not your cup of tea).

The topic of the blogger meetup we attended was SEO, so of course there was a lot of talk about social networking’s role in generating blog traffic.

Afterward, Mr. Electrico reflected,

“I went to a blogger meetup in my city but outside my comfort zone and, lo and behold, had quite a fine time. I blog in the progressive/political sphere, occasionally spilling over into literature, history, policy, current events and media, but since I’m pretty diligent about maintaining my anonymity, finding a support network has always been borderline impossible.

At the event I picked up some very practical advise and some fine contacts, but mostly it was just so energizing to be in the company of so many writers who blogged across a whole spectrum of interests (minor league hockey to sassy travel to low carbon living) but shared a real DIY passion for their causes and craft.”

The usual etiquette of not blogging or Tweeting while in meetings didn’t apply during the meetup; interestingly, many were online and were actively sending links to one another as we talked, or blogging about what was said, or just Tweeting the meeting’s details. It made sense to use our connectivity productively during that kind of gathering.

Two Lightbulbs Are Better Than One

This got me wondering: most of us Tweet or blog in isolation. What if we intentionally partnered up to explore the the various social networks we inhabit? Mr. Electrico and I sat down together later, and tried that with LinkedIn and Twitter.

As we chatted, we discussed the process we each use to find information, and we suggested topics and potential places to look for new contacts and follows. I found this tandem networking opened my mind to paths I hadn’t considered AND it also resulted in a sizable increase in followers in just a matter of hours.

Newsweek’s article (February 16, 2009) “Will the BlackBerry Sink The Presidency?” explores the conditions of information overload and continuous partial attention and the detrimental effects these can have on our brains. One example is an inability to quickly and fully re-engage in important work and decision-making following interruptions by one’s device alerts.

The notion that being always connected may cause cognitive damage is enough to make me shut it all down periodically.

However, it felt like Mr. Electrico and I were using our partial attention to great advantage during our Tandem Social Networking experiment. I think I’d like to try it again!