A blessing from LinkedIn goes a long way with me, and after reading a press release from Passitto announcing their integration with the powerhouse professional networking site, I found myself on a half hour long research path today. Lots to say about this concept (love it!), but I thought this comment on Mashable was particularly worth sharing:
“….I know a lot of people who would love it if I were to connect them with other business providers I know. I usually don’t do this because it takes too long to make this type of connection. It looks like Passitto may make this process easier, allowing me to get brownie points with my customers for helping them find other business providers. I don’t know of any other website that does this yet.”
One of the other things I found interesting is that Passitto was co-founded by an attorney that often found himself in the position of referring clients to other specialists when their need went beyond his practice focus or if his load was just too heavy. Both are things I can relate to, but the comment above was something I just never thought much about. Simply not having time to make a proper introduction or quality connection has to be a major reason why so many referrals just don’t happen. Lack of time is an all too familiar complaint these days and a quality tool that can help facilitate connections and referrals is a welcome addition to my toolkit.
The other reason I’m intrigued is because on the company’s blog I even found a reference to social capital in this paragraph by the CEO and other co-founder:
“When exchanging referrals within a tight-knit group of business contacts, you may decide you won’t require those members to bid credits upon your referrals. One possible reason is you are probably acquaintances and familiar with these other members, and your incentive for providing these referrals is to receive reciprocal referrals in exchange. You know these people. You provide them referrals, they give them back to you, and everything is great. You gain some social capital in addition to reciprocal referrals.”
My goal is to explore Passitto within the next week and see if it’s worth my time and a LinkedIn import, and if it is, start looking for referrals from me within the system soon!