The Economist recently had an article titled: "Primates on Facebook," which suggests that even with social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter they still don't change the fact that 'the size of the human brain allows stable networks of about 148. Rounded to 150, this has become famous as “the Dunbar number”.'

I first became aware of the Rule of 150 after reading about it in Malcolm Gladwell's book: The Tipping Point (a great book that I highly recommend by the way). When I mentioned this article on Facebook one of my friends quipped: 'Said the man with 455 "friends."' Sure I may have a lot of connections on Facebook and LinkedIn, but I see the Rule of 150 as being a description of your core network. Certainly we've all met more than 150 people, we may even have quite a few more legitimate relationships than this theoretical 150 person limit. However if you really boil it down to the truly meaningful relationships I would image that you, like me, would come up with a number really close to 150.

Your core network in my opinion is your real network. These are your family, close friends, co-workers that you're close to, etc. The people you spend most of your time with, and have really solid relationships with. This certainly wouldn't include that guy you see a couple of times a year at this event or that event. It probably doesn't even include people you've had lunch or drinks with once or twice. These are the individuals you really spend time with, and who spend time with you where you have much deeper relationships.

So here's an interesting exercise I've been playing with. Exactly who makes up your core network? Who are these 150 people? Are they the right 150 people? There's also the theory that says you're most likely to be like the people you spend the most time with. It's probably a smaller subset of the 150 that this theory applies to, but it's an important concept to pay attention to.

Consider making an actual list to get a better understanding of what your own core network looks like.

That's just my 2 cents. What do you think? I'm very interested in your thoughts and comments.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com

P.S. I'm considering writing a follow-up post. Something along the lines of: Beyond the Rule of 150 - The Impact of Social Networking Tools on Network Size. I have some definite opinions, but don't want to taint your thoughts with mine... yet. :)

The number of social/online networking tools is, to put it bluntly, overwhelming. From Business Blogs to Twitter, LinkedIn to Facebook, Plaxo to MySpace and everything in between the choices are astounding. Hopefully you're using at least one of these tools, even if it's only casually.

The trick is to develop your own strategy in how you utilize these tools so they don't take over your life. If done incorrectly the time you spend on e-mail and your social networking activities will consume ALL of your available time. That would be bad, unless that's your business.

So how do you develop this strategy? First an understand of what you're trying to accomplish would be very helpful. Personally I have three primary goals when utilizing these tools.

1. Maintain or deepen connections with people I've already met.
2. Build visibility for myself and the things I work on and am passionate about, and attract other like minded people to me through these efforts.
3. Find appropriate contacts and make connections through referrals/introductions.
4. Initiate new professional relationships that make sense.

Once you're clear about your goals you can start to think about how you'll use each tool.

I'll share with you 2 of my own examples:

I've already written about My LinkedIn Networking Philosophy I encourage you to read that. Very generally LinkedIn is a way for me to maintain contact with people I have a genuine connection with. That way if they change jobs or move I don't lose track of them because all of their other contact information changed. I have a way of being in the loop. It also helps me see relational connections. For example if I want to meet the CEO of a prospective company and they're on LinkedIn I can see our mutual connections and potentially ask those individuals to make an introduction for me.

Twitter is quickly becoming my new favorite tool. I avoided this one for a long time because from the outside it sounds just plain goofy and like it will be a colossal waste of time. Turns out it's the best relationship deepener I've ever seen. People I know well who I follow on Twitter I now know really, really well. Even more impactful are those that I kinda know, and have the ability to get to know at a much deeper level. It's a little hard to explain just how this works. I highly recommend you just quickly create an account, follow a few people and see what you think. You're welcome to start with my profile just to get an idea: www.twitter.com/scottingram

Over time I will go deeper into the use of each of these tools (stay tuned!). In the mean time your best bet is to just begin to play with a couple of these sites. Here's a little bit of generic guidance on the order in which you should explore these sites and why.

If you are a business professional this is my opinion of the order of importance of these tools:

1. LinkedIn - If you're a professional you MUST be on LinkedIn.
2. Facebook - It's less geared toward professionals, but it's much better at helping you reconnect with people in your long ago past. High School, College, etc.
3. Twitter/Business Blogs - In terms of priority these are tied. However, what they each bring to the picture is very different.
4. Plaxo/Myspace - For the professional I think these are fairly irrelevant. Plaxo doesn't really add any value beyond those listed above (it used to in the past when it was about keeping contact information up to date). As for MySpace it's maybe not my place to say this since I'm not even on it, but I don't see how it adds value for the professional. Please feel free to comment if you disagree.
5. All others - Beyond these core tools there are probably hundreds of others. The learning curve and critical mass is typically steep enough that unless there is something in a very specific niche that would be helpful to you it's probably not worth your time to explore these. Again, I'm open to suggestion and hope you'll comment if there are other tools that have been helpful to you.

I encourage you to look beyond this post. I've written at least a little bit about most of these tools, especially business blogging (as that's what you're reading now) and you can navigate these topics using the categories listed below.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com

As I get closer to writing my series of blog posts about social networking for the business professional based on my own recent experiments I thought you might like to read a great post by my friend Liz Handlin. She wrote a post called Social Networking for Professionals where she gives 6 tips to keep you out of trouble.

The most important thing you need to realize about social networking is that it's public. Anyone, and I mean anyone can see what you've written now and in the future.  You have to consider what you're posting ALWAYS.

For example I would love to Twitter about who I'm meeting with; prospects, clients, etc. This would be a huge help to those in my network who follow me who could benefit from an introduction to some of these folks for reasons I might not have even thought about. But two things stop me from sharing this much detail. #1 the privacy of those I'm meeting with. Without their permission I'm not sure that this is appropriate. #2 If my competition were smart they would follow me, and this information would incredibly useful.

That's just one example of a present tense situation. Where it gets really tricky is considering how something you post now might create a problem 5 years from now. You just never know. I don't say this to scare you away from the great online social networking opportunities for professionals right now: LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, etc. Just tread very carefully and make sure you consider each and every action.

Now go read LIz's post, you'll thank me.

Happy Networking!

Scott Ingram
NetworkInAustin.com