Today’s guest post is by Brad Marley. 

Remember when we used to exchange business cards with somebody at a conference, hop on the plane to fly home, file the business card in the Rolodex, then forget about that person?

Yeah. Neither do I.

Thanks to this crazy digital world we live in, a name on a business card has become a call-to-action that spurs us to learn more about that person, and it’s usually done through their public social media persona.

I attended a conference last year where I met quite a few people who I wanted to stay in touch with. So when I got back to my desk, I looked them up on Twitter to see if they had public profiles. If they did, I followed them.

But as I was typing their names into Google, a thought occurred to me: Is what I’m doing only one or two levels removed from stalking? No different than when people stalk their exes on Facebook? (By the way, you should stop stalking them.) (more…)