Being Connected to Everybody is as Valuable as Being Connected to Nobody

Here is more for high-tech companies to consider for getting the word out in 2009.

This excerpt is from Business Strategy Review, Winter 2008, from the London Business School:  “Coming attractions:  What are the ideas which will shape business in the year to come and fill bookshelves and conference auditoriums?  We asked a collection of management thinkers what each is thinking about and working on right now.”  (Here's the .pdf.)

John Patrick,Weblog author and conference speaker

“One of the first social networks was LinkedIn, and I have been a member of it from nearly the beginning.  Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get several invitations to become a ‘friend’ or ‘colleague’ with another LinkedIn member (or Plaxo Pulse or Facebook).  To gain the real ‘network effect,’ I recommend being selective in dealing with these invitations.  Otherwise you end up connected to everybody, which is as valuable as being connected to nobody.”

“The real power is not in the numbers per se but to really know someone who knows someone who knows someone and to have the credibility with the person who knows you such that they are willing to help you to connect to someone else.”

“I have 178 trusted friends and colleagues in my LinkedIn network.  Two degrees away – friends of friends; each connected to one of my connections – there are more than 60,000 people.  Three degrees away – members who can be reached through a friend and one of their friends – is 3, 200,000 people.  If you are discerning about it, you can develop considerable social capital.”