It’s interesting that in this flat world, with the Internet, social media and other digital technologies bringing us together like never before, our strongest relationships often remain the result, to a significant degree, of face-to-face interaction. They’re local.

It’s true. Research shows that our most trusted business relationships are primarily local, with people we can see personally. For example, Community Analytics (disclosure: We have a partnership with them) found that more than 75 percent of decision-makers’ critical business relationships are local.

Now clearly, we’re getting value out of going online for information – product reviews, webinars, even virtual trade shows – and marketing dollars just as clearly need to be intensively focused on these channels for many B2B product categories. But I think there’s also a powerful opportunity to go local, with a strong offline component. It’s actually not really contrarian thinking, but more about being complementary. I believe that online social media works best when accompanied by offline social engagement.

Gord Hotchkiss, a search engine marketing expert of all things, hit on two issues in a recent blog post that work better in person – building trust and establishing empathy, which I would suggest are intertwined. Empathy speaks to sharing and understanding another’s emotions, which means we appreciate and connect with each other. We often note that 90 percent of communications is non-verbal – things like facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice. Emoticons notwithstanding, establishing empathy is simply a more straightforward process face-to-face, at least until some sort of post-Singularity, high-def virtual reality world. And I would argue that empathy is a requirement for trust – an understanding that you can count on me, and I can count on you, for advice, for getting the job done, for delivering on promises.

The reason why we’re racing online with our programs is to find efficiency. I can reach so many more people online who might be relevant to what I have to say – or sell – so much more frequently. And I can also deliver more kinds of information more easily. Online is great for discovering people and it’s great for maintaining relationships. We have to do this and do it creatively.

But I would suggest taking a hard look at face-to-face channels for cementing key relationships. It shouldn’t be hard to cost-justify, considering that the net present value of a lifetime of expensive sales to a business customer can easily reach hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. So bring that customer advisory board together offline once or twice a year and continue conversations with the board online. Let’s help them strengthen those ties with peers. And hold those regional conferences or seminars, but then be deliberate about using Twitter and other social utilities so in-person attendees are encouraged to share with those who can’t be present, and to encourage conversations to continue after the formal conference ends.

In contrast, big faceless trade shows and mega conferences are the endangered channels, at least in their current form. If in-person gatherings don’t foster one-on-one relationship-building and conversations (and I can imagine how larger events can be reshaped to do that), then they deliver no trust-building and no efficiency and they must go. But I think we’re going to be shaking hands with peers and colleagues for some time.