With social media and social networking finding an increasing place of prominence in the world of home business, people are starting to redefine their relationships. I mean, thanks to Facebook, I’m "friends" with people I’ve never met.

If you are looking to grow your home business network, though, it can help to know the difference between contacts and connections. Here is a definition of both from a posting on Sparkplug CEO:

She said that contacts are those people who you may have talked to or
met once and you know each other but not well. A connection is a person
who you have a mutual solid relationship (more so as a friendship) with
and a person you can count on as a resource.

I like these definitions. They set up some relationship boundaries, and provide workable definitions that can help you in your social networking efforts. The goal is to turn contacts into connections who can be used as resources. And, of course, in the reciprocal world of social media, you are expected to act as a good connection as well.