Optimizing The Value ??? of Your Social Network

David Teten, in Balancing strength of relationships and number of relationships says this:

You can spend all of your time with your close friends and family (Strong ties with those people, but a low Number of relationships), or spread yourself thin across a wide number of people (high Number, low Strength). However, maintaining both high Strength and high Number is physically impossible. How do you optimize the value of your network? How can you find the proper balance between Strength and Number? The way to optimize the value of your network is to determine the necessary level of Strength required to accomplish your goals, and then maximize Number at that level. For example, if you are selling investment banking or strategic consulting services, you need a high Strength level for someone to buy your services. These are big-ticket items which require a high level of trust in their provider. Your Number will likely be small. Ideally, you have a small Number of close relationships with senior executives who are in a position to buy these services.

I see a number of variables worth considering a bit closer. I would argue that the value of your personal "extended" aggregate network, beyond your "first degree" relationships, is much greater that of the sum of the "value" of your "first degree" strong and weak ties. In fact, you can have a large number of "Strong" ties in family and friends, and have a pathetically weak extended network due to its homophily and lack of distance.

And since I'm currently reading Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson, I'm trying to look at things these days from the "ant colony" point of view, instead of from the "ant" point of view. From the "ant" perspective, I cannot possibly perceive the true value of the colony. As an ant, I would have limited insight into my actions and relationships, as I would not have the proper scope. My only "clues" to actions are what other ants are doing around me at the given time guided by pheromones, and how often I come into direct contact with other ants. From the "colony" perspective, I can see the clusters of active ants performing duties for the good of the colony, even though there is no central control guiding the individual actions of the ants.

I have seen some people hesitant to "connect" to people as a "time management" issue. It seems that some people try to limit the size of their "first-degree" network, because they perceive that they don't have the time to manage additional relationships or a larger network of relationships. Or maybe they're holding out for the "pristine" network, one that is of the utmost in quality. It may be that this "pre-emptive pruning" may cause more harm than good, especially when it comes to developing new relationships or strengthening relationships with weaker ties. The truth is that network growth, and its inherent value, occurs at the "edges" and can explode with only an incremental individual time management requirement. On the other hand, refusing a relationship has a potential "negative" impact on the value of your network, especially if you have overlapping relationships.

The beauty of social network software such as LinkedIn, is that it allows you to explore a vast and growing network for new opportunities, not just for "business", but for broadening and strengthening relationships. One of my first connections in LinkedIn now works for Nokia Ventures, and connected me indirectly with a previously unknown vast cluster of Finns! Now I know that if I'm ever stuck in Helsinki, I won't be alone.

I agree with David that you can optimize the value of your "first-degree" network through strategic planning and time management. But that can be accomplished with a Palm or other contact management software. People have been doing that for years. The emerging revolution in social networking software is now the realization and activation of the "yet to be determined" value of an extended network, a personal network that can't be controlled or crafted by any single member. As tools are developed to mine these growing networks for contact optimization, the value to individual members who are "tuned in" will wax apparent.

A problem for some, is that people have to close deals TODAY, and can't wait for the value in these powerful networks to emerge. But, like the worker ant who forages for food or buries his comrades, one might get caught up into the day-to-day routine of life and miss the relational opportunity of a lifetime.