One Easy Way to Grow Your Social Network
With the economy in a downturn, people are looking to build their businesses more cost-effectively. One way to do this is to grow and manage your social network.
Many successful people got their start as a result of making key connections. Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak met on a summer job while teens. Abbot and Costello met at a bar. Will Smith got his start as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when he asked the vice-president of Warner Brothers for directions in a parking lot.
To begin growing your social network, find people that sociologists call connectors. In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the importance of connectors in creating trends.
These same people can help build your social network.
Connectors come in two types – social connectors and value connectors.
Social connectors are people who are highly social and socially savvy. They are members of multiple social circles, and are often able to introduce people from different circles to one another.
Value connectors are people who have influence or access to scarce resources. This would include well-known business leaders (with influence) and politicians (with access to grants, permits, and the like).
Identify connectors within your social circle, and get to know them better. Take them out to lunch, offer to help them with a project, or just invite them to grab a drink. The key here is to offer value to them without asking for (or even expecting) value in return. Be nice. Be genuine. Your relationships with them will improve, and your social network will naturally begin to grow.
[Ed. Note: Brendan Florez is founder and CEO of Social Charm, LLC (www.SocialCharm.net), a company that uses analytical methods to understand and train people in the science of human interaction. Brendan graduated from Princeton University with a degree in electrical engineering, focusing on integrating engineering, neuroscience, and psychology.
Unsure where to find the types of connectors that can help build your social network? Meet dozens of new contacts - including some of the top wealth-building experts in their fields - at ETR's Profits in Paradise Wealth Summit this April. Get the details here.]
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