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• Quantity or quality?

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  Bengt Wendel    Group moderator

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  Quantity or quality?

  Hi all,
  Quantity, lots of contacts, is discussed in some posts in this forum. But with thousands of contacts - can anyone really stay in touch with them?
  
  Quality, mutual benefits, is discussed in other posts. That makes more sense to me. You get a smaller network but it will most likely be a real useful network.
  
  Can it work having a small network combined with being active in relevant groups and that way make oneself more visible?
  Kind regards
  Bengt
  
  • 17 Mar 2006, 5:28 pm
  Bengt Wendel wrote: > Hi all, > Quantity, lots of contacts, is discussed in some posts in this forum. > But with thousands of contacts - can anyone really stay in touch with > them? > > Quality, mutual benefits, is discussed in other posts. That makes > more sense to me. You get a smaller network but it will most likely > be a real useful network. > > Can it work having a small network combined with being active in > relevant groups and that way make oneself more visible? > Kind regards > Bengt
• 
  Maxim Bazhenov

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  Re: Quantity or quality?

  The age of online social networks has come.
  And my prediction is, that in a year or two such communities will be filled up with useless members trying to find as much contacts as possible without any reason. More contacts - more power.
  That's why the quality of relations is the most valuable thing in such networks. Finding the right people is a hard job, and not the question of quantity, especially in business. So I vote for the quality.
  
  Best regards,
  Max.
  
  • 01 Apr 2006, 12:25 pm
  Maxim Bazhenov wrote: > The age of online social networks has come. > And my prediction is, that in a year or two such communities will be > filled up with useless members trying to find as much contacts as > possible without any reason. More contacts - more power. > That's why the quality of relations is the most valuable thing in > such networks. Finding the right people is a hard job, and not the > question of quantity, especially in business. So I vote for the > quality. > > Best regards, > Max.
• 
  Scott Allen    Premium Member   Group moderator

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  Re^2: Quantity or quality?

  I agree that quality comes first, and by quality, I mean the quality/strength of the relationship, not some idea of "quality people" vs. "non-quality people".
  
  From a purely pragmatic standpoint, if your relationship is not above a certain "action threshhold", people are unwilling to act on your behalf, even when requested. At a higher "action threshhold", people become willing to act on your behalf PRO-actively, rather than merely RE-actively. This is what is known in social network research as "performative ties".
  
  It requires a strong relationship, "mind share", if you will, in order for people to be performative ties. The busier the other person is, the stronger the relationship has to be for you to fit into their crowded schedule. There are many people who I would gladly act on behalf of, but time simply doesn't allow -- I'd be handling networking requests all day instead of doing the work that I get paid to do.
  
  So because of that, I tend to focus on building stronger relationships with a much smaller number of people. Of course, the paradox is that I'd probably sell more copies of my book by simply reaching out to a much larger number of people. But it wouldn't serve other aspects of my business as well.
  
  See my post in the other forum about leverage for more on this topic.
  
  • 08 May 2006, 5:52 pm
  Scott Allen wrote: > I agree that quality comes first, and by quality, I mean the > quality/strength of the relationship, not some idea of "quality > people" vs. "non-quality people". > > From a purely pragmatic standpoint, if your relationship is not above > a certain "action threshhold", people are unwilling to act on your > behalf, even when requested. At a higher "action threshhold", people > become willing to act on your behalf PRO-actively, rather than merely > RE-actively. This is what is known in social network research as > "performative ties". > > It requires a strong relationship, "mind share", if you will, in > order for people to be performative ties. The busier the other > person is, the stronger the relationship has to be for you to fit > into their crowded schedule. There are many people who I would > gladly act on behalf of, but time simply doesn't allow -- I'd be > handling networking requests all day instead of doing the work that I > get paid to do. > > So because of that, I tend to focus on building stronger > relationships with a much smaller number of people. Of course, the > paradox is that I'd probably sell more copies of my book by simply > reaching out to a much larger number of people. But it wouldn't > serve other aspects of my business as well. > > See my post in the other forum about leverage for more on this topic.
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