Critt Jarvis

Strong ties

Though we’ve never met in person, I have a high level of Trust for friend, Rob Paterson; and I read Rob’s Twitter stream daily, then. It’s reasonable to say that, within my social network, I have a strong tie to Rob.

This morning, one of @robpatrob’s tweets led me to Jacob Morgan’s post on Social Media Today, Why Dunbar’s Number is Irrelevant, a title which betrays Jacob’s conclusion.

Let Rob tell you why

Jacob reports, “I recently finished reading Morten Hansen’s fantastic book on Collaboration in which he states that the real value of collaboration and of networks doesn’t come from strong relationships and networks but from weak one’s. In fact one of Morten’s network rules is actually “build weak ties, not strong ones.” According to Morten: “[ ] research shows that weak ties can prove much more helpful in networking, because they form bridges to worlds we do not walk within.”

Thus Jacob concludes, “We shouldn’t be trying to figure out how we can maximize the number of strong relationships we can build or how we can beat Dunbar’s number; that task is as fruitless as it is irrelevant. Build weak ties where you can because they are extremely valuable, more so than strong ties.”

However, as Rob comments, illustrating the leverage inside the parameters of Dunbar, “[although] you are correct about the value of weak ties – they are as you say very useful.”

“But if you wish to have influence, the Trust is the key.”

Disclosure: I knew Chris Brogan *before* he was famous

That is, before the first Boston PodCamp, anyway.

Once upon a time, we’re in Austin, on the way to San Marcos and Blogtoberfest. After lunch, with @conniereece and @Pistachio, Chris and I are walking across the parking lot to my rental, and I tell him, “I think you–what you do–is more important than Scoble, what Scoble does.” Why did I think that, then? Because Chris was busy walking in worlds Scoble did not walk within, leveraging his strong ties to include networks of weak ones.

And that’s how, now, in a world of worlds–influencers influencing influencers–Trust is built. And, evidently, it’s working out well for all of us :)