Say that you are on a quest to raise capital, get an audition with an impressario, get a job, or, in general to access a third party who has something (or who has the discretionary or signatory power over something which you want or need).
Way that you do not personally know that third party, but you know a second party, personally, who is friendly with that third party. That puts you at one degree of separation from your communications target, and puts your friend at zero degrees of separation from your target. Your friend is the logical strategic communications liaison, or the AGENT OF INTRODUCTION between you and the person to whom you wish access. If this is done properly, it effectively eliminates a great deal of credibility issues, defensiveness, distractedness and other obstacles that would normally be otherwise associated with meeting a relative stranger.
An introduction or endorsement by your friend of you to the third party in the form of a perfunctory telephone call or a fast email is generally useless. Even having your friend talk about your or your proposition to the third party is terribly feeble.
The proper way to recruit and deploy and Agent Of Introduction is to arrange to have either a formally-scheduled (to invoke feelings of anticipation and seriousness) three-way teleconference, virtual web conference or an in-person meeting comprised of you, your friend and the third party.
Done properly, this gives you the optimal positioning with the third party, to communicate your message or to propose the arrangement in which you are interested. The crucial communications elements of focus, dedication, credibility, adequate time, implicit endorsement and rapid familiarity are all all there to make you communication that much more effective.
Someone who sends an email introducing you to a third party and suggesting that the two of you should meet (even giving each of you the others' communication coordinates and inviting you each to 'get in touch' with the other) has wasted an email, and possibly created a spambox item. The invariable outcome of these remote, "hands-off" introductions is unproductive.
Use an Agent Of Introduction as an active component in your messaging and communications to optimize the effectiveness of a 1 degree of separation relationship.
Douglas E. Castle for The Sending Signals Blog
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