Middle Man.

I recently had a drink with friends and work colleagues and the conversation moved to discussion on my middle man skills, in helping them move on, connect or reconnect and find information that they could not find themselves.

I wasn’t sure I liked the description initially, as we generally disparage that image of the middle man who in old days, got in between the buyer and the seller. The middle man has often been described as those who have nothing to sell and everything to gain. They were often ill considered and portrayed in politics and TV as the shady character who knew things about everybody and used that to their advantage.

So I got to thinking how that perception has changed over the last few years. The whole time poor perception of today’s society wrapped in a need for speed of information, along with the collection and reconnection of relationships has evolved an entirely different middle man. A middle man with unusual names like Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and Google. A middle man who ends up being an aggregator of knowledge and relationships.

Now more than ever it is important to have your relationship and information channels defined and structured in such a way to enable you to stay ahead of the trends. Your brand, your integrity and your credibility need to be entrusted with channels that rise to those heights and never compromise those pillars of being.

It’s important the above are the driving force to build that platform of trust based on never selling out the relationship and never compromising the high standards you aspire to.

There is a technology landscape littered with so called middle man sites that have not upheld the required standards to engender the trust required for longevity. It’s too easy for sites to promise and intrude but so hard to deliver and exist by the standards required. How many people do you really trust? How many sites do you really trust? Find the good ones and hang onto them because it’s only going to get more crowded and confusing with new players promising to keep you connected, informed and in charge of your life.

For individuals it’s even more important as you are the keeper and trustee of all that your friends hold dear about their relationships and integrity. It’s a line that some may cross for their own advantage but those that hold the line are the true middle men, not looking for advantages but looking to make a difference.

I feel better about being a middle man but I’m thinking of changing my name, what about Oface or Ospace or my favourite Ooogle. Do you think they’d go for that?