Two Degrees of Separation: Creating a Truly Effective Network of Contacts

Two Degrees of Separation Creating a truly effective network of contacts Sonia Fernández Copyright © 2008 Sonia Fern...

Author: Sonia Fernandez

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Two Degrees of Separation Creating a truly effective network of contacts

Sonia Fernández

Copyright © 2008 Sonia Fernández First published in Spanish as Dos Grados: Networking Cultiva tu red virtual de contactos by LID Editorial Empresarial S.L. English translation copyright © 2008 Sonia Fernández & LID Editorial Empresarial, S.L. First published in Great Britain in 2008 by: Marshall Cavendish Limited Fifth Floor 32–38 Saffron Hill London EC1N 8FH United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7421 8120 F: +44 (0)20 7421 8121 [email protected] www.marshallcavendish.co.uk and Cyan Communications Limited Fifth Floor (Marshall Cavendish) 32–38 Saffron Hill London EC1N 8FH United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7421 8145 F: +44 (0)20 7421 8146 [email protected] www.cyanbooks.com The right of Sonia Fernández to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the rights holders, application for which must be made to the publisher. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN-13 978-1-904879-92-3 ISBN-10 1-904879-92-6 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham Limited, Chatham, Kent

CONTENTS

List of figures and tables Foreword Preface 1. It’s a 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6

small world How did it all begin? Social networks Factors that decide our position in the network Social capital Two degrees Conclusion: invest in developing your network

v vi vii 1 2 8 11 16 19 20

2. Networking, or the art of building and maintaining relationships 2.1 The art of networking 2.2 Design and execute your plan of action 2.3 Conclusion: capitalize on your social network

22 24 25 50

3. How can you increase and improve your social network? 3.1 Organize your agenda 3.2 Participate actively in associations 3.3 Always be on the lookout for new opportunities 3.4 Avoid succumbing to temptation 3.5 Conclusion: network efficiently

51 53 55 64 66 69

4. New forms of networking online 4.1 The Internet: before and after

73 74

iii

CONTENTS

4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5

How can I promote myself on the Internet? How can I communicate effectively online? Are we really communicating effectively? Conclusion: use online tools to manage your network better

5. Online social networks 5.1 What is an online social network? 5.2 Why now? 5.3 What added value do online social networks bring? 5.4 Principal online social networks 5.5 Conclusion: choose the online social network that best meets your needs 6. The future of online social networks 6.1 The experts’ opinion 6.2 Conclusion: familiarise yourself with a service that we will all use

iv

77 105 115 118 119 120 121 122 125 175 177 179 185

Epilogue: Now it’s your turn

189

Notes Bibliography About the author

191 193 200

FIGURES AND TABLES

Tables 1.1 Study of degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon 4.1 Chronology of the evolution of the Internet 4.2 Estimate of blogs in different languages

6 76 95

Figures 1.2 Diagram of relationships 2.1 Diagram of relationships 4.1 The boom in blog creation

12 28 101

v

FOREWORD

The concept of networking has a different meaning in different cultures. For Spaniards networking often has a negative connotation and is seen as getting someone to do something for us. Being born and raised in Spain, my experience of living in the UK and the US for seven years taught me how these cultures see networking as a key element in reaching both personal and professional success. My interest in this topic stems from understanding how this very different approach to networking makes some people advance personally, and others fall behind or not reach their full potential. Seeing how good networkers behave and how this enriches their lives was an inspiration to write this book. The realization of how this is something that can be learnt and mastered with practice was also a good reason for me to compile information and evangelize on the benefits of devoting time to developing a trusted network. Many of the examples in the book relate to Spanish companies but I have also drawn on my experience of living and studying at Stanford and how eight years after graduating from its business school I can clearly see that the network built in those two years was far more valuable than any specific course I ever took. My perspectives on this topic both from a Spanish and an American angle also prove how improving one’s skillset when it comes to networking is invaluable in any market, in any workplace and in any environment. I have also learnt that one has to enjoy what one does in order to continue any activity for any length of time. My prime goal would be for the reader to enjoy being a good networker. With practice, devoting time to cultivating our network will become a fundamental part of who we are.

vi

PREFACE

The concept of networking has different meanings in different cultures. For Spaniards, networking often has a negative connotation and is seen as getting someone to do something for us. Though I was born and raised in Spain, my experience of living in the UK and the United States for seven years taught me how these cultures see networking as a key element in achieving both personal and professional success. My interest in this topic stems from understanding how this very different approach to networking helps some people advance personally while others fall behind or fail to reach their full potential. Seeing how good networkers behave and how this enriches their lives was my inspiration to write this book. The realization that this is something that can be learnt and mastered with practice was also a good reason for me to compile information and evangelize on the benefits of devoting time to developing a trusted network. Many of the examples in the book relate to Spanish companies but I have also drawn on my experience of living and studying at Stanford. Now, eight years after graduating from its business school, I can clearly see that the network built in those two years was far more valuable than any specific course I ever took. My perspectives on this topic, from both a Spanish and an American angle, also prove how improving one’s skillset is invaluable when it comes to networking in any market, in any workplace and in any environment. I have also learnt that one has to enjoy what one does in order to continue any activity for any length of time. My

vii

PREFACE

prime goal would be for the reader to enjoy being a good networker. With practice, devoting time to cultivating our network will become a fundamental part of who we are.

viii

1 IT’S A SMALL WORLD

A book is not just words and figures on a piece of paper, but everything that I imagine while I read it. Jostein Gaarder How often have we attributed it to chance when we meet somebody who turns out to know somebody we know? In fact this phenomenon is not simply chance but a reality that has been studied by sociologists over recent decades. The realization that everyone in the world is separated from everyone else by no more than six degrees is something relatively recent. The degrees of separation indicate the number of people through whom we are connected to another person. Graphically, we refer to these degrees as nodes that link us in a network formed by our contacts. This realization has spawned a whole series of studies on social networks and on the factors determining our position in each social network or group to which we belong. The aim of this book is to make readers reflect on the following questions: I How important to us are the different social networks we form a part of? I What is our position and what role do we play in each group? I How can we improve the way in which we relate and exert influence in these groups?

1

TWO DEGREES OF SEPARATION

I How can we broaden our range of contacts and act as a bridge so that other people can access the different groups to which we belong? I What basic practices must we incorporate in our everyday lives in order to add greater value to our network of contacts? I How can new technologies and the Internet help us, and how can we take greater advantage of the tools currently available? Reading this book will have been worthwhile if these three basic points have become clear by the time you finish it: I Who you know is as important as, or more important than, what you know. I Our lives are defined by the groups we belong to and by the role we play in each of them. I It is up to us to capitalize on and expand our contacts. This simply requires being aware of the need to devote time to these contacts and to introduce certain habits into our everyday lives. The fact that you are taking the time to read this book is a great start. The stories and examples you will read about in this book will help you realize that capitalizing on relationships and networking responds to our need to improve as individuals. The world is actually a very small place and it is our relationships and contacts that determine what happens in our lives.

1.1 How did it all begin? Until the late 1960s nobody had stopped to think about how we are connected with those around us. Various studies in the United States had determined that the maximum number of people that we can actually get to know or remember is 150. It seems that

2

IT’S A SMALL WORLD

above this number, the quality of our relationships starts to deteriorate. Thus, the management of Gore-Tex, a company that manufactures sports clothes fabric, decided that the maximum number of workers at each of its factories should be 150. If the number of workers exceeded this figure, the relationships between the workers changed and the feeling that everyone knew each other was lost. For Gore-Tex, the cost of building a new factory in order not to exceed this maximum number of employees was outweighed by the increase in productivity resulting from the better quality of relationships among the workers. Accordingly, if there is a maximum number of people who we can get to know well, and bearing in mind that there are millions of people in the world, it would seem difficult to accept that we are all actually connected by a surprisingly low number of links in the chain of connections. Stanley Milgram was a controversial psychologist at Harvard University. In addition to developing his famous theory of the six degrees of separation, Milgram performed controversial experiments that earned him a reputation as an eccentric. In one of these experiments, carried out in the late 1950s, he evaluated the capacity of individuals to follow orders, even if these were extremely cruel. He proved that the participants in the experiment were capable of following orders to unsuspected levels – shown by their administering electric shocks to patients in obedience to the instructions of those conducting the study. Although the people receiving the electric shocks were actors, the participants in the experiment were unaware of this, and the cries of pain did not prevent them from torturing their victims when ordered to do so. Surprisingly, the number of people who refused to continue beyond the limit at which the shocks were considered excessive was almost insignificant. America’s scientific community, the Second World War still fresh in their minds, found it difficult to accept that ordinary citizens could display cruel forms of behaviour if they thought they were following orders given by people who knew what they were doing.

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This reveals Stanley Milgram’s controversial personality. He was a researcher who sought to push his observations to the limit. As a sociologist, Milgram devised in 1967 the following experiment. He tried to determine how many nexuses or links were necessary for a package sent by a farmer in Omaha, Nebraska, to reach a stockbroker in Boston. Milgram sought to take his experiment to the extreme so he selected 160 farmers from one of the most remote places in America, Omaha, and a recipient with very little in common with that group, a stockbroker in Boston. Each person sending the package had to think of a person they knew who could be as close as possible to the recipient of the package and in turn ask this person to send it to the person who was as close to the stockbroker as possible. Before performing the experiment, Milgram asked his colleagues to predict the result. Most expected that as many as a hundred intermediaries would be required between the farmer in Omaha and the stockbroker in Boston. What would have been our answer? I have no idea, but probably something higher than six, I would imagine. Most of the packages reached the stockbroker within a maximum of five or six steps and this is the origin of the famous concept of the “six degrees of separation.” One interesting aspect of this experiment that is rarely mentioned is that most of the packages that reached the stockbroker in Boston were actually delivered by the same three people. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, analysed this phenomenon and argued that the “six degrees of separation” theory does not necessarily mean that everyone is connected to anyone else by six points of connection. What it actually means is that a relatively small number of people are connected to the rest by a few degrees and that the rest of us are connected to everyone else through these people. Gladwell describes these people as “connectors.” Since Milgram performed his experiment, numerous other studies have been carried out to demonstrate the “six degrees of separation” theory. One of the most famous examples is the so-called “Kevin Bacon game.” In 1997, a number of university students in the state of

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Pennsylvania, who were fans of the actor Kevin Bacon, popularized a game in which they aimed to show that all actors and actresses were connected to Kevin Bacon by no more than six degrees of separation. Thus, if an actor or actress had acted in a film with Kevin Bacon, he or she was connected to him by one degree of separation. If another actor or actress had acted with this actor or actress, they would be connected to Kevin Bacon by two degrees of separation, and so on. Sean Penn, for example, is connected to Kevin Bacon by one degree of separation because he acted with him in one of his latest films, Mystic River. Moreover, in 2001 Sean Penn acted with Michelle Pfeiffer in the film I am Sam, which means that Michelle Pfeiffer is connected to Kevin Bacon by two degrees of separation. The database of the world’s actors is estimated to contain around 500,000 people who have acted in a total of 200,000 films since 1898. Taking the Kevin Bacon game further, scientists Brett Tjaden and Glen Wasson from the University of Virginia performed an exercise in which they analysed the degrees of separation between any of these actors and Kevin Bacon. They showed that the average number of degrees of connection between any actor and Kevin Bacon was less than three degrees (2.83). Although the Kevin Bacon game was developed by a group of hardcore Kevin Bacon fans in Pennsylvania, this does not mean, of course, that Kevin Bacon is in fact the ultimate icon of America’s movie industry. There may be people who do not even know who Kevin Bacon is or who have never seen Footloose. Tjaden and Wasson continued to analyse the information from the database of actors (500,000) and, not surprisingly, discovered that Kevin Bacon was not the best-connected actor (that is, the actor with the lowest number of degrees of separation from any other actor). In fact, he ranked 669 on this ranking. Which actor has the lowest number of degrees of separation? A plausible hypothesis would be the actor who has made most films – in this case John Wayne. Yet in fact he is not. He ranks 116 and his average score is 2.72. Has anyone heard of Rod Steiger? Rod

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Table 1.1 Study of degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon Degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon

Number of actors

Cumulative number of actors

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 1,550 121,661 310,365 71,516 5,314 652 90 38 1

1 1,551 123,212 433,577 504,733 510,047 510,699 510,789 510,827 510,828

Steiger turned out to be the actor who obtained the best score, the most connected actor in the history of cinema. Unlike John Wayne, who made 179 films in his career, Rod Steiger acted in far fewer films but took leading roles, supporting roles and did drama, comedy and suspense. John Wayne developed his career overwhelmingly in the Western film genre. In contrast, Rod Steiger was able to switch between genres and act in different types of films, albeit with greater or lesser success. As a result, Rod Steiger is connected to a larger number of people than the legendary John Wayne. Using Gladwell’s terminology, Steiger is a “connector,” someone capable of interacting in different groups and establishing contacts between people from unconnected groups. Steiger could have been one of the three people who made the package reach the stockbroker in Boston. And Steiger would undoubtedly have been a link who could enable many actors and actresses from different genres to contact one another. The six degrees of separation theory still seems to be valid after analysing the community of actors, a group formed by more than 500,000 people whom we can connect through an average of three people.

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This topic is still studied today by sociologists of recognized prestige. Duncan Watts teaches sociology at Columbia University in New York and is the author of the book Six Degrees, published in 2004. Watts is currently trying to replicate Milgram’s experiment on the Internet. Details of the experiment are available on the project web page at www.smallworld.columbia.edu. Currently 50,000 chain messages are being sent from 163 countries in search of 18 specific people – called target persons – around the world. The objective is to test the average number of degrees of connection between any person in the world over the Internet. Watts’s study is still in progress and no results are yet available. One of today’s problems, identified by Watts, is the degree of apathy or lack of interest in chain message sending on the Internet. Due to the avalanche of spam, only 1 per cent of the people starting the exercise actually complete it. Perhaps the results of the analysis performed by Watts’s team will provide additional data on the degrees of connection between any two people in the world. The project is ambitious but the results are likely to be very similar to those obtained in other experiments like the ones we have reviewed here. Perhaps we will discover that today through the Internet we are more connected than ever. “Connectors” such as Steiger or one of the three people who made the package reach the stockbroker in Boston may today be “super connectors,” people with a great power to connect different social groups; other “super connectors” could be people with online “blogs” that are read by thousands of people all around the world, or people responsible for virtual communities who are capable of disseminating information at great speed. The Melissa computer virus unleashed in 1999 or the more recent Anna Kournikova virus spread around the world in just a few hours. Furthermore, I have discovered, through sites such as www.linkedin.com, that I am actually very close to people as influential as Pierre Omydar, the founder of eBay, from whom I am separated by just three people. I encourage you to continue reading.

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1.2 Social networks Since Milgram performed his experiment, it has become increasingly evident that we become more connected on a daily basis and that each of us belongs to different groups or social networks that define who we are. Let’s start by asking ourselves the following question: What is a social network? If we use Duncan Watts’s definition, a network is a series of interconnected points. A social network would therefore consists of a series of interconnected points, points being defined as people in this case. Each of us belongs to different and clearly differentiated social networks. Thus, we do not simply think that we have friends but rather groups of friends that form social networks in themselves. Each of these groups may have very strong connections among their members and weak connections with other different groups. Mark Granovetter was the first sociologist to introduce the concept of strong and weak links. Let’s think back to the practical case of the Kevin Bacon game. John Wayne developed strong links with his fellow actors on set after making more than a hundred Westerns. These links were forged over time and made John Wayne a very important person within the network of actors and actresses in this genre. Rod Steiger is a great “connector” between different groups of actors but his links with each of them individually are probably weak because his relationship with most of these actors stems from having acted with them in probably just one film. What does this mean exactly? Who is more important then, John Wayne or Rod Steiger? As always, the answer is “it depends.” John Wayne was a genius as an actor and a person with great power and importance among actors of his generation and in his genre. However, if an actor pigeonholed in the Western genre after making various films with John Wayne also knows Rod Steiger, then perhaps this relationship will be the key contact that will enable him to talk to a director of comedy films and obtain a screen test.

8


Every actor plays a different role within his social network. If we apply this example to ourselves, the structure of the relationships between our own friends or groups of friends is extremely important when it comes to determining the potential scope of our social network. Consider the following example. My friend John has ten friends, who also have ten friends each. Through my friend John I can reach a total of 100 people separated by no more than two degrees of connection. Let’s assume that my other friend Peter has 20 friends, who in turn have ten friends each. However, all these friends know each another. My connection to Peter only generates a group of 30 people connected by two degrees of separation. Peter’s network of friends is less effective because each connection between the friends yields a redundant link; that is to say, each person offers the same access to the other individuals in the group. If one of these individuals is excluded from the group, I can still access the rest of Peter’s friends. In the case of John, each of his friends is a “connector” to ten new friends who do not know each other and who belong to different groups. If one of these links disappears, the connection to that group of ten people, with which he establishes the link, also disappears. Therefore, knowing John will be useful to me if I want to access different groups of people. This may be the case if you want to change jobs and want to meet someone who can put you in contact with people in a different sector. In contrast, if you want to become the John Wayne of your sector, computer programming for example, and Peter is the person who has a network of friends who all know each other because they all belong to the computer programmer community, this may be the way in which you can achieve your objective. According to Professor Mikolaj Piskorski of Stanford University Business School, people with strong links and those with weak links are both important. It all depends on what you want to get out of that relationship. People with strong links can provide greater credibility to information obtained through their

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network of contacts. However, their capacity to reach a large number of people through their network is limited compared with people with weak links. As an example, if you are thinking about hiring a technology manager for your company, you may approach Peter because he is well connected among computer programmers. According to Professor Piskorski, this situation reflects an asymmetry of information; in other words, you do not have all the information to determine whether or not the person you are interviewing is the best candidate and Peter, by virtue of his position in his network, may be able to help you. However, if you are looking to increase the number of people who can contribute to your campaign to gather signatures to urge G8 leaders to keep their promises to the developing world, it is clear that John is the person whom you must approach. When it comes to defining the types of relationships that form our social networks, it is important to remember that not all the relationships we establish will have the same purpose, as shown in the previous example. To take an extreme case, where important emotional commitments are involved, we will need to develop strong, high-quality and intense relationships, since the people we select for this purpose will have a greater impact on our lives. However, we may also establish relationships with people we see once a month to play tennis. The latter types of relationships are different and may be less intense because they serve a different purpose. Consequently, we will come across people who prefer to develop fewer but better-quality contacts – “I have few friends, but they are very good friends” – whereas others maintain a much larger volume of contacts of different intensity or importance. There is no right or wrong answer. What is important is knowing how to distinguish between these different types of relationships and develop strong and relevant links when necessary with people who can have a positive impact on our lives. What is interesting, as we will see in the next chapter, is that

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people who are good at capitalizing on their contacts are able to maintain a good balance between strong contacts on the one hand, and a broad range of contacts with weak links on the other. As we will see, the contacts to which we are connected by weak links are often the ones that surprise us by opening doors, offering recommendations or introducing us to that special person who can help us finance our business. Our social networks are, in short, the groups to which we belong. We can interpret all our interrelationships as exchanges between people who belong to any of our social networks. I relate with people at work and I also relate with my colleagues from my painting class, my community of neighbours, the parents’ association at my child’s school, the association of ex-alumni at my university, the choir at the parish church where I sing on Sundays, and a whole range of others. All these different networks of people define me as a person and are crucial when it comes to influencing my decisions and my ability to access people who can help me achieve my personal or professional goals. I will refer to the same themes several times and it is important to understand the first point clearly, namely that what you know is not as important as who you know. We will now see how we can determine our role in the networks to which we belong and identify the main characteristics that define our behaviour.

1.3 Factors that decide our position in the network Each one of us has a role in the different groups we belong to. We may be “connectors,” people who are connected to a large number of different groups and have the capacity to transmit information from one group to another. We may belong to groups with huge cohesive power and have a great capacity to exert an influence within these groups. We may also be fringe actors with few relationships with other groups and a limited number of strong links within a single group.

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The best way to understand these relationships between the different groups is to view them graphically. Valdis Krebs, a consultant and developer of software for analysing social networks, is one of the researchers who have studied this topic in greatest depth. He has developed a method that provides a more accurate image of the position we occupy in each group we belong to. Let’s study the diagram in Figure 1.2 as an example. This diagram is referred to as a “kite network” due to its shape. It was designed by Krebs in collaboration with David Krackhardt, one of the most important researchers in the field of social networks. This diagram enables us to study the different factors determining the importance of each node or person within the network. Think of this network as a social network representing your group of work colleagues in your department. Two nodes, or two people, are connected if they relate frequently and talk to one another. For example, in Figure 1.2 Tom has a relationship with Peter but does not relate on a daily basis with Mary, perhaps because Mary deals with other matters in the department and there is no true relationship between them.

Mark

Lucy

Blanca Peter Tom

John Charles

David

Figure 1.2 Diagram of relationships

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Mary

Silvia


According to Krebs’ studies, the importance of a node or person within a network is determined by his/her impact on the following three factors: I activity I proximity I connection. Activity A person is important in a network if he or she has a large number of links with the rest of the people in it. This person is said to be very active and participates in the groups by establishing a large number of contacts. In this case, Peter is the person with most links. He is a person who can act as a bridge between a large number of people in the network – up to six different people. If David needs to talk to Mark, he can obtain support from Peter. The same happens if Charles wants to talk to Blanca. Peter is the classic example of a person who gets on well with everyone and who can help us by mediating in any problem. Lucy may not be speaking to David, because of a problem they had at a meeting the week before. Peter is the person that both can approach in order to obtain information. It is easy to assume that Peter is the most powerful person in the group. After all, he has the highest number of links or connections within it. However, the most influential person in a group is not necessarily always the person with the largest number of direct contacts. It is important to consider where these connections lead to and whether they really establish contacts between people who would otherwise not be able to get in touch. In the case of Peter, he has the most links or connections, but these links are mostly within a group of people who are already well connected to one another. If you try to give life to this “kite network,” you may be able to identify yourself with Peter. You may be an individual with an

13


excellent ability to develop contacts with others, but your contacts are restricted to your closest group of colleagues. You may be the best-connected person around the coffee machine in the office but not be visible in other areas of the company or may be incapable of establishing relationships outside your group. Proximity Lucy and Charles are the people in the network who represent the shortest distance between the rest of the nodes. They are important because they are the ones who can distribute information fastest to the rest of the group and have a broad vision of everything that happens due to their proximity to all the group members. Connection In the diagram, John is the best-positioned person in the group. John only has three direct links, half as many as Peter. However, he is a point of connection between all the members in the network and this gives him a position of great power within the group. Without John, Mary and Silvia would lose their connection with the rest of the network. John’s position is therefore critical. John plays the role of “connector” between two differentiated groups. This position is important in real life. John is the person who can establish contacts between people with no common links. He may be the person in the office who acts as a mediator between management and the workers’ committee, groups that traditionally have few members in common. Both groups will approach John in order to contact each other. Without John, communications would break down completely. The main conclusions presented in Krebs’s studies are that the importance of our position in the group is determined by our proximity to information and our ability to transmit this to the rest of the group, but above all, by our ability to act as a link

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between members of the group who can only get in touch with one another through us. This topic has been the focus of much debate among sociologists. For some, Peter is more important in the group because he is in direct contact with the largest number of people. For others, John is the most important person because he acts as a nexus between groups that would otherwise be unable to establish contact. On this topic, Rod Burt, a professor at the University of Chicago, argues that people who are capable of acting as bridges between nodes, where there would otherwise be a vacuum in communications, are more important than the nodes occupying relevant positions in a circle where communication is already dense. According to Burt’s studies, the most successful people are the ones who act as bridges between different groups and not the leaders of closed groups. Burt would choose John rather than Peter in our kite network. The dynamics of social networks are currently being studied in order to improve information flows in companies. Jeremy Myerson, Co-Director of the Helen Hamyln Research Centre in London, is studying the way in which knowledge of the power of social networks is prompting many companies to change the distribution of their office space and the location of different employees. Isolated offices are giving way to more open spaces, and coffee or water machines are being placed in central locations to improve communication. As we achieve a better understanding of social networks and the aspects determining our importance within each group to which we belong, one concept appears again and again: our ability to maintain connections with different groups enhances our position of influence. Just like one of the three people who made the package reach the stockbroker in Boston, or like Rod Steiger and John, we gain relevance by our ability to relate with others and diversify the groups of people with whom we have relationships. Let’s now continue to find out why it is really important to be a true “connector.”

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1.4 Social capital The study of social networks, and the position we occupy within each of them, has become an extremely useful tool for identifying certain problems in the flow of information and for proposing solutions to improve the degree of connection between the members of a given group. Rob Cross, in his book The Hidden Power of Social Networks, analyses how classical corporate hierarchical structures do not provide a view of the real power that certain people, with apparently less weight in an organization, may have. Identifying people like John in any organization can represent a great step forward for the development of a company and may help to improve communications between different areas of an organization. Similarly, identifying Silvia may help us act in time in order to achieve a stronger connection between Silvia and the rest of the group. Above all, as I mentioned before, it is important to study social networks, mainly because they can generate value. Professor Wayne Baker from the University of Michigan, in his book Achieving Success Through Social Capital, defines social capital as the set of resources available to us through our networks of personal and professional contacts. Human capital refers to the value of what we know ourselves. Social capital measures who we know and the size of our network of contacts, as well as who we do not know but may get to know through the contacts provided to us by our own network. The word “capital” incorporates the concept of value and the word “social” attributes that value not to us but to our network of contacts. Social capital is indeed the key to our professional and personal success. In 2000, Bonnie Nardi, an anthropologist from the University of California, Irvine, performed a study to determine how numerous people at different American companies performed their daily work (Nardi, Whittaker, and Schwartz, 2000). The

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main conclusion of this study revealed, perhaps surprisingly at the time, the importance of personal relationships in the daily work of each interviewee. The people observed in the study often called an acquaintance or friend to resolve a problem at work or to ask whether they knew anyone who might know something about a specific topic. The hierarchical source of knowledge inherent in each company was of secondary importance and people used their own network of contacts to resolve problems or to access information. Furthermore, the people interviewed in the study attributed great importance in their professional success to their personal contacts and to their ability to relate with different groups of people. Many companies are now realizing that their own employees have networks of contacts of great value. Companies developing virtual social networks, such as Spoke or Visible Path, base their platforms on enhancing the visibility of the personal contacts of each employee for the overall benefit of the company in which they work. Many companies have also launched incentive programmes for their employees, offering economic rewards to employees recommending individuals who are eventually hired by the company. The company for which I work – Match.com – is now running one of these programmes. In fact, I learned of the opportunity to manage operations at Match.com in Spain through an employee of Match.com in France. According to Ron Burt’s studies, the people who are able to generate most value through their social capital are younger employees or new recruits. This value is generated through their network of contacts and their ability to establish contacts between people who would otherwise not have connected. Providing a connection in the presence of what Burt calls a “structural vacuum” generates value, and people with this value-generating ability are the ones who are most highly regarded at a professional level. The analysis of social networks is also helping to explain why different phenomena occur in the transmission of information or

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the acceptance of fashions. Duncan Watts has analysed the Harry Potter phenomenon in children’s literature. Various publishers rejected the book before Bloomsbury acquired the publication rights. It may seem that those publishers let something important slip through their hands, but in fact for every Harry Potter-type phenomenon there are thousands of high-quality books that are never successful and which are perhaps just as good. Watts attributes much of the success of Harry Potter to the composition of people who started to read the book. A Rod Steiger, or a John, or perhaps various people with these characteristics, read this book at the same time and, by recommending it to such a diverse group of social networks, unleashed an exponential effect that prompted the immediate propagation of the adventures of this young English magician. Finding people with the capacity to transmit information to such a diversity of groups has undoubtedly been of incalculable value for J. K. Rowling, even if she was not directly aware of this at the time. Another interesting phenomenon observed when studying the connections between members of a social network is that when a person is seen to have a large number of good contacts, the rest of the group also wants to be connected to this person. This phenomenon has been referred to as the “law of increasing returns” or “the rich get richer.” These people now face the challenge of handling their network of contacts because, at the end of the day, there is a limit to the number of relevant contacts that we can maintain. We will study this aspect in depth in the next chapter. This brings us back to the same idea, namely that we do not depend on ourselves to achieve personal or professional success but on others. It is through our contacts that social capital is generated, and the generation of social capital translates into our personal success. When Sigmund Freud was asked what he thought the keys to happiness were, he replied work and love. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a psychologist at Chicago University

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who bases his hypothesis on 25 years of study of the keys to happiness, there are two factors that exert more influence than any other: “motivating work and quality of our relationships with others” (Baker, 2000: 16).

1.5 Two degrees All the people I know belong to my direct circle of acquaintances and I am connected to them by just one degree of separation. The acquaintances of my circle of direct contacts are connected to me by two degrees of separation. Successively, the acquaintances of the people connected to me by two degrees of separation are connected by three degrees. And if Milgram or Watts are right, we are all linked by a maximum of six degrees of separation. Through online social networks, which we will analyse in the following chapters, we can easily identify the number of people connected to us and the number of degrees of separation. It is useful for me to know whether I am close to knowing Pierre Omydar, the founder of eBay, as I mentioned earlier. However, if I am separated from him by three people – that is, four degrees of separation – contacting Pierre becomes more complicated. If we are separated by two degrees instead of four, then my direct contact will guarantee that I can, in turn, contact Pierre Omydar. It is difficult to think that we are really connected to somebody if we are separated by more than two degrees. The friends of the friends of my friends (three degrees) do not know me because their direct contact does not know who I am. My friends’ friends are close because we both have a direct contact in common. And this common direct contact is the key for generating trust in this new relationship. Duncan Watts, in his book Six Degrees, claims that “in order to get a job or be invited to a party, being more than two degrees from that person is equivalent to being a complete stranger” (Watts, 2003: 299).

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Other experts on social networks agree with Watts. According to Andy Oram, “any relationship that is based on a distance of more than two degrees is equivalent to anonymity.” danah boyd (who changed her name legally to lower case) argues that “beyond two degrees of connection, relationships become irrelevant and lack any type of context’, and Andrew Weinreich, former General Manager of Six Degrees, believes that “you are never separated by more than two degrees from someone who you (realistically) want to know. The problem is finding the person who can put you in contact with that other person” (all cited in Teten, Fisher, and Allen, 2004: 29). It is perhaps pretentious to think that we can be in contact with an almost infinite number of people, but we do not actually need to be. We can change our lives by simply focusing on expanding our network and increasing our visibility within the groups we belong to. The online social networks studied in the following chapters can help us enhance the visibility of our relationships and identify, by simple means, the people we can contact through our direct contacts. Hence the importance of the two degrees of separation. These are the most important relationships for us. We can use our direct contacts to establish quality relationships with strong links. These direct contacts will, in turn, offer us the opportunity to have access to many more people. All the advice provided below for efficiently capitalizing on contacts is geared towards expanding networks and knowing how to access people who can make such important contributions to our lives, and to whom we are connected by no more than two degrees.

1.6 Conclusion: invest in developing your network We live in a world in which we are becoming increasingly connected to one another. Since Stanley Milgram first referred to the six degrees of separation, we have realized that even fewer

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degrees separate us from most people who we can reasonably aspire to know. We are also defined by all the social networks to which we belong. It is important to be aware that we are not only important for what we know but particularly for our ability to access other people who can pass their knowledge and experience on to us. Each of us has a role and position in these social networks. The analysis of our importance within these networks can reveal aspects about the way in which we relate to others, and help us increase our relevance within the groups we belong to. Lastly, none of this would be important if we failed to realize the fundamental value of social networks in the creation of social capital which, in short, enables us to become better professionals and better people. It is time now to provide some advice and a practical guide on how to capitalize on our contacts, how to devote time to our own networks and how to incorporate new habits in our everyday lives that can help us become better “connectors.” We already know that this is important. Let’s now see what we have to do.

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2 NETWORKING, OR THE ART OF BUILDING AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS

Value your relationships, not your possessions. Anthony J. D’Angelo Interestingly, the use of the word “networking” tends to have a somewhat negative connotation. The immediate reaction of a person who thinks that someone is “networking” is to think that this person is using a contact for his or her personal gain or profit. It is also considered that the contacted person is being used for the exclusive benefit of the person making the contact. However, what we are probably unaware of is that we all engage in “networking” – expanding our circle of contacts and strengthening relationships – every day of our lives. Whenever we talk to someone on a plane, go to a wedding, arrange to meet a friend for lunch each month or chat with someone while walking the dog, we are making contacts with people who broaden our social network. Without realizing it, we all network every day. However, we all know people who are better at keeping in touch, remembering birthdays, talking at parties and involving others in conversations, or getting jobs through recommendations. In short, we are all open

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BUILDING AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS

to relating with other people, but some people are better at establishing relationships and making the most of their contacts than others. The fact is that there is nothing wrong with networking; in fact we all do it, but in most cases not very efficiently. The good news is that we can all learn to network and there is a huge amount of advice and practical information available that we can follow and that will enable us to develop thanks to the people we know now and will meet later on in life. More good news is that it is becoming increasingly easy to engage in networking at any level. The Internet opens up a world of possibilities for reaching people who would otherwise be very difficult to access. Thanks to the new platforms of online social networks, today we can find jobs much more efficiently, we can use “weblogs” or “blogs” to make ourselves known and contact people who share our interests, gain access to thousands of people who practise similar hobbies, or even find a partner! These chapters provide tips on how to develop habits that can help us expand and improve our network of contacts and also provide a modern approach to using the Internet to help in this task. Learning how to network effectively can change our lives, particularly if we look at the following statistics: I Between 75 and 95 per cent of jobs are never advertised. I The so-called formal or advertised job market only represents 20 per cent of available jobs, despite the fact that 80 per cent of people seeking employment only use this resource. I Therefore, the 20 per cent of people who also use the informal, unadvertised job market are much more likely to succeed in finding a job. I In general, the likelihood of being able to contact a person through a personal recommendation is 70 per cent, compared with 20 per cent if we try to access that person by cold calling. Capitalizing on our networks can help us in different aspects of our non-professional lives: we can find good schools for our

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children, obtain financing for a business, get a good deal on a house we want to buy, sell a car or contact a good electrician.

2.1 The art of networking We can start by defining what networking is not. Networking does not mean: I I I I

finding a job selling a product obtaining financing extracting information.

Networking is the art of building and maintaining relationships that entail mutual benefits for both parties. The definition of what networking does not mean includes the final result that may be obtained from a good relationship; effective networking never starts in that way. In order for networking to be effective, both parties must give and receive. The relationship cannot be unidirectional or solely benefit one party. The people who are most effective at developing their contacts are those who think about what they can offer others. The concept of reciprocity works in an extraordinary fashion. When we involve a person in our lives, we must think not so much about what they can give us as about what we can give them. Accordingly, networking involves: I sharing information with other people I receiving help from others, having helped them first I developing relationships before we need something from that person I playing an active role in meetings instead of just attending. One of the keys for making networking work for us is that we must

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remain active. This is not something that we can delegate or outsource. Diane Darling, founder and chairwoman of Effective Networking, a company that develops networking techniques for professionals, uses an anecdote to start her classes. To begin the class, she asks the participants whether they like to use dental floss. This question relaxes the audience. She then asks them to tell her who thinks they are good at using dental floss. Nobody knows exactly how to answer this question. Finally, she asks them to tell her who outsources the use of dental floss. At this point the audience gets her point and starts to laugh. We all have to use dental floss. It is not difficult to use and is beneficial for our teeth in the long term. It is in our own interest to use it and it is not something we can ask someone else to do for us. Similarly, we are also responsible for being active and controlling how we can develop personal relationships that enrich us as individuals and to which we can contribute. It is interesting to note that the word “networking” appeared for the first time in the Merrien-Webster American dictionary in 1966. Before this people probably travelled less, lived and died in the same city or district, and all the members of the community knew each other very well. Today, people change jobs on average between three and ten times in their lives, move to different cities, study away from their hometowns and have opportunities to work abroad. Given the greater geographical mobility in recent years, the opportunity to meet different people and establish a broad circle of contacts acquires greater importance.

2.2 Design and execute your plan of action Bill Clinton, twice President of the United States, is one of the public figures most people use as an example of a person who is capable of capitalizing on his contacts. The story has it that Bill Clinton started to develop a list at high school in which he

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included the names of all the people he met. This list was known as “FOB” or “Friends of Bill.” In December 2003, I attended a charity concert on Capitol Hill in Washington, organized by the World Bank to promote peace in the Middle East. Bill Clinton turned up at the concert unexpectedly. After the concert I decided to take advantage of a lull in proceedings to ask him if he would mind having his photograph taken with me. He agreed and he introduced himself personally to us, saying “Hi guys, how’s it going?” Here was the former President of the United States greeting three Spaniards totally intimidated by his presence. When he left the hall, he stopped to say hello to the cloakroom attendant. The former president was not at an election meeting, nor was he looking for anything in return, but he was visibly active in every movement and gesture. Obviously, we are not Bill Clinton nor do we have his outstanding personal charisma. However, we can all make a list of the people we know and try to talk with them, remember their birthday, or send them a Christmas card. These are small details that Bill Clinton probably took care of since high school. The key to effective networking is starting to network. Your circle of contacts will not grow significantly unless you dedicate time to developing these relationships. And time itself is the scarcest asset in all our lives; we do not have time for our families or ourselves for that matter, and it is difficult to find time to do more things. However, we can eliminate time we waste in front of the television and in non-productive working hours at the office. This is why it is important to acquire habits that help us get ourselves organized in order to improve our networking capacity. These habits will be a great investment in our future success. Design your plan of action According to André Maurois, “Action is the only thing of value. Dreaming of playing tennis is nothing. Reading books about playing tennis is nothing. Playing tennis is a great pleasure.”

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The first step in creating your plan of action is to take hold of a pen and paper or turn on your computer and open a blank document in Word. You may think that you really do not need to do any networking right now, and you may have purchased this book simply because you were curious but not because you are looking for a job at this precise moment in time or needing someone to open a door for you. The fact is that you have to start now, precisely when you think that you do not need to. If you are currently looking for a job or have been doing so for some time, you may be starting a little too late. Jeff Taylor, the founder of Monster.com, a world leader in job seeking on the Internet, says that “many people start networking when they are looking for work. This is a mistake. You shouldn’t be creating your network at this time, you should be putting it to work for you” (quoted in Darling, 2003: 119). Prepare your chart of relationships We all know different people who we can group into categories: I I I I I I I I

friends family alumni (school, college, university) work colleagues clients/suppliers people with whom we share common interests or hobbies people in organizations we belong to neighbours.

You are the centre and all these people belong to your network. The following exercise will help you classify and identify the people you know. Note down the names of these people and some relevant information about them, such as

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Casual acquaintances

Others

Friends

Neighbours

Family

You

Organizations

Alumni

Charitable

School

Religious Political Educational

College

Hobbies

Work

Sport

Colleagues

Music

Clients

Travel

Suppliers

University

Figure 2.1 Diagram of relationships their hobbies, how you met, birthdays, or addresses. This will take time but it will provide you with a clear map of your circle of relationships. However, the question is: How can we limit this list? This exercise may seem too extensive. Various studies in the United States affirm that each individual knows an average of 250 people. In your case it may be more. The key question that you have to ask yourself in order to determine whether you really know someone is: would that person return my telephone call? If the answer is yes, that person belongs on the list and you must include him/her in your inventory.

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And now what? Try answering the following questions: I With how many of these people have you had no contact in the last six months and how many of them would be glad to receive a call from you? I When making the list, how often have you thought about people who would benefit from knowing each other and who you could easily put in contact? I Which people on the list would you like to meet again for professional reasons? I How many people on the list have got married, had a child or changed jobs and now could be a good time to get back in touch? When answering these questions, you will start to identify the following groups: people to contact again; people you can get back in contact with; people you can introduce each other to. I am sure that you can already see how this exercise is proving to be useful. If you realize this, it means that you have already started to network. Starting is precisely the key to networking. Now you have to continue. One frequent mistake is to immediately get in touch with someone to ask him/her to do something for you, for example, to offer you a job or help you get one. Networking is clearly a two-way process, and it is not so much a question of thinking what you can get from a person but, more importantly, what you can offer him or her. Now make a list of the people you can do something for: I Who can I introduce to someone else I know? I Who can I invite to a conference that may be of interest to him/her? I Who can I send an interesting article to on the sector in

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which he or she works from the online magazine I am subscribed to? I am sure that certain opportunities will arise. This is also a good way of getting back in contact and doing something for someone else. I am investing: Where is the return? At this point, you may think that this exercise is going to take a long time and that basically you are devoting time to something that will benefit someone else. Your ultimate goal, and perhaps the reason why you decided to read this book, was to learn to obtain benefit for yourself from your own social network. Perhaps everyone knows a “John,” or “Juan” in my case. My friend Juan Díaz-Andreu is a good example of a person who naturally engages in the art of networking. I met him many years ago. He is the older brother of a friend who was our link. Over the years I came across Juan on various occasions: as an organizer of activities for MBA students at American universities, as a speaker and professor at the Instituto de Empresa (Business School) in Madrid, and as an adventurous businessman during the Internet hype in the late 1990s. Juan is an example of a very well-connected person. However, when I analysed how Juan was able to have so many contacts, I realized that the reason is because he offers something to people who know him through his numerous activities and interests. Juan is different because he is active and thinks about how he can help the people he knows, and also because he is visibly present in everything he does. In 2002, Juan promoted an online association called the Ryder Club España Association. Juan and Ángel Álvarez, dean at the Escuela de Ingeniería de Telecomunicacones (Telecommunications Engineering School) in Madrid, are members of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Fulbright Alumni Association, which groups together Spanish students at North American universities

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who come from all academic fields (which is why the Ryder Club is named after the golf team which groups together the best players from each European country). Their common characteristic is that they have all received grants from the Fulbright Commission. Ángel had spent quite a long time trying to create an umbrella association that would group together the associations of exalumni from each university, and had put a lot of thought into the ways that would need to be organized. Juan’s contributions revealed a practical spirit and explored the possibilities offered by new technologies. The Ryder Club Association consolidates and transmits the information on events organized by each association belonging to the Ryder Club. Thus, the president of each association informs Juan by email (Juan being the co-ordinator of this online club, about the activities planned by the association) and Juan, with the support of the Secretary of the Fulbright Association, passes this message on to the other presidents who, in turn, decide whether to inform their associates. At the end of a process, which may now only last five minutes, hundreds of associates in relevant posts regularly receive more invitations to more diverse and interesting events. Thanks to Juan, the presidents of the associations ensure a critical mass and are grateful to him for this, speakers find larger audiences, and participants always discover new faces. Juan has also organized dinners sponsored by the Ryder Club España, which are attended by members from each association. At the last dinner in Madrid, Juan sent invitations to these associations and invited the US ambassador in Spain to attend as the guest speaker. Anyone who has organized a small dinner with ten friends knows how complicated it is to co-ordinate the date, place and guests. It requires a huge amount of effort on the part of the organizer, and the ones who benefit are clearly the guests. Juan achieves something very important with these initiatives: he becomes a point of reference, a true connector, as defined by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point. I touched

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upon this concept in the previous chapter, when analysing the kite network, and the name I chose for the position of the most important node was also “Juan” or “John”; as you can see, it was not purely by chance. Over the years Juan has gradually drawn up a list of headhunters with whom he has established contacts. This is one of the longest lists that I have ever seen, and Juan can make precise comments on the field of specialization of each person on the list. He came into contact with these consultants due to his leadership in the CABE (Comisión de Acogida de Becarios Españoles – Welcome Committee for Spanish Grantees) of the Fulbright Association (www.asoc-fulbright.es and http://luna.dat.escet.urjc.is/ cabe/). Juan works as a volunteer on this commission to help Spanish Fulbright grantees find work in Spain after completing their studies in the United States. Thus, in order to help these grantees, Juan contacted these headhunters to identify opportunities for them. As a result, after a number of years Juan has managed to build connections between brilliant people and headhunting companies. Following this initiative to help Fulbright grantees, Juan has become a person whom the headhunters approach when they are looking to fill a post. Juan is the connector who is capable of distributing information and does not seek any immediate return. Juan is also the type of person who would send you an email containing a link to an interesting piece of news about a competitor, inform you about a job opportunity he thinks you would be right for, or send a personal letter to his contact at a company to call you for an interview. Juan’s gain is all too clear. By being generous and sharing information, he becomes a “connector,” a person who keeps in touch with a huge number of people. One basic concept works in all areas of life – reciprocity, and here are two examples to illustrate this. To encourage MBA students at Stanford to complete utility surveys for the university, an envelope containing the survey

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questionnaire and a one-dollar bill was placed in each student’s locker. For some reason, none of the students considered keeping the dollar bill without completing the survey first. In this way, Stanford business school had found an attractive way of ensuring that these surveys were completed by all the students in the class. Now let’s look at the second example. A study performed in the United States revealed that the incredible initial success of the Hare-Krishna group was due to the fact that they would give a flower to everyone they met. When people received this flower, they spontaneously felt obliged to dedicate some time to listen to the group’s message. As a result of the success of this initiative, airports in the United States decided to ban the handing out of flowers! By helping his contacts, Juan helps himself. His contacts will return his calls and will do what they can to return what they have received. Juan was one of the people who gave me access to his contacts so I could find a job when the Internet business I had set up in Spain closed in November 2001. Since then, I never think twice about collaborating in his International MBA classes at the Instituto de Empresa Business School as a speaker, or about taking a call from someone who tells me they are calling on his behalf. The plan is perfect, now put it into practice Seneca said that “the true profit of virtuous deeds lies in the doing.” So far, we have made some important progress: I We know what networking is and why it is important. I We know that in order to network efficiently, it is important to be active and, above all, to get started. I We have made a list of groups of people that form our social network. I We have limited this list to include only people we think will return a telephone call.

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I We have written down the details of each person on this list and thought about what we can do for them and who we can introduce them to. I We are aware of the importance of giving in order to receive and that is our prime objective. I We want to try to gradually become like Juan because we value his role as a connector and the benefits that this brings. In this plan, we have deliberately not defined certain objectives; we have started by considering how we can add value to our network. The objectives will be different for each person and, I repeat, they will not only be focused on getting a job in the next two months. Take a few minutes to describe your main objective for improving the way you network. Objective:

Your objective may be to find a job within the next two months, to be accepted at a business school, to get your child admitted to the best school possible or to improve your ability to capture customers for your company. Dale Jones, a partner at the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, says that many people looking for work mistakenly think that submitting a CV is the best starting point for getting for a job at a company, and forget that the most important thing to do is to build relationships they can use later (Krattenmaker, 2003). Executing your plan and spending time building on your relationships will be much more beneficial to you than pursuing the immediate objective you wrote down on the two lines above. Let’s see what you need to do this. In order to carry out your plan and achieve your objectives, you will need to do things that you may already do but also

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think about how you can do them differently. You will need to make certain preparations so that when an opportunity does arise, you are ready to take it. The hardest thing to do is to change habits and adopt new ones. The easiest thing to do is to have the things you need ready and available. Let’s start with the easy stuff. The easy stuff: prepare everything beforehand Just as you would never consider going out without an umbrella when it is raining, there are certain things that you cannot afford to forget if you want to start networking effectively. As the word “easy” indicates, these are things that we can all do today, immediately, like buy an umbrella in case it rains one day. BUSINESS CARDS

I remember that when I started my MBA at Stanford University in 1997, one of the first things I ordered were some business cards. Initially, this may not seem to be something obvious, but how else can a student promote him or herself to conference participants visiting the business school to give presentations or organize seminars? The business card itself was easy to produce. It carried the university’s coat of arms instead of a traditional company logo, my name, Stanford MBA 99 (year of graduation), address, telephone number and email. You should always carry a business card with you, whether you are working or not. Having a business card is particularly important if you are not currently employed. A business card shows people who you are. If you are not working and already have a business card, invest some money into printing good-quality cards that show your name, profession or academic qualifications, and contact details. Many people believe that if you are not in their business card holder, or electronic diary as is more common nowadays, you do not exist. Whatever the case may be, being in someone’s Palm Pilot will depend on you giving them

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your business card first. As yet, few people actually exchange their contacts via infra-red transmission from one electronic diary to another. It is not only important to have business cards, it is also important to keep them in the right place. Imagine your impression of a person who offers you their business card but takes more than a minute to find it while fumbling through their jacket pockets, delving into the bottom of their bag or searching through a wad of cards they have collected from other people. When the card eventually appears, it will probably be in less than optimum condition and the recipient will think that you may be just as disorganized in your everyday life. So, invest in a decent cardholder and remember where you keep it. This may seem like a trivial piece of advice, but if you identified yourself with the previous example, bear this tip in mind because you will find it useful. BRIEFCASE

This is another basic element within your reach. Of course it is important not to pretend to be someone you are not. Perhaps you have never owned a briefcase and feel silly carrying one around. You may prefer to use a more informal canvas briefcase. Buy something you feel comfortable with but take it with you if you have an interview, or when you visit someone and think perhaps the visit will turn into an informal interview, or if you go to a conference or seminar. You can use a briefcase to store a pad for taking notes, your business cards and useful information you have gathered and can use and keep handy. Once again, you may think this is not important. But consider the following scenario. You have finished your Master’s in Finance and are going to see someone who works for a venture capital firm where you would like to work. He is the father of a friend of yours, and has agreed to have coffee with you. It is not an interview. You want to ask him about the sector and don’t know whether the firm is looking to recruit new staff,

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but your contact has given you this 20-minute opportunity. You have two options: you can either take nothing or take a briefcase. There is nothing wrong with taking nothing, if you’ll forgive the repetition. You can give a business card to your friend’s father and try to make the most of the 20 minutes you’ve been given to get information and make a good impression so he remembers you in the future. Taking a briefcase will give you more options. You can give him a folder containing a copy of your CV or subtly show him all your handwritten notes to show just how much time you’ve put into preparing for that make-orbreak “coffee’, and at the same time ask him for permission to note down his comments. Also remember that all the people at your dream firm probably use a briefcase. It is important to project the image of belonging to the group you aspire to join. If, instead of a briefcase, you take the Nike satchel you used at university, your friend’s father may continue to view you as a college student and not as a person who could start working at the firm the next day. If you are a woman, you have more options in this regard. Apart from the usual style, you can also choose a bag with enough space to carry folders or an elegant slimline briefcase. THE RIGHT SUIT

Perhaps this is also obvious, but bear it in mind. Just as with the briefcase, remember it is important to dress properly for each occasion. If you go to an interview for a job at an advertising agency, maybe you should consider wearing something more informal or modern, something in step with the culture of the people you will be meeting. If you’re going to have lunch with a strategy consultant, try wearing more formal attire because you’ll feel more comfortable wearing something similar to the person opposite you. I do not want to suggest that you should give up your own style or personality. That may be what makes you different and

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you do not want to change it. Simply bear in mind that your appearance reveals things about you and your image matters, not just to other people but to you as well. Diane Darling, the founder and Chairwoman of Effective Networking, has a story about how one of her colleagues told her one day that she was unable to telephone a client because she had not come to work wearing the right clothes. In many telephone customer service departments, the employees have mirrors in their cubicles and they are asked to smile and look at themselves in the mirror. This makes them feel more relaxed when they talk to callers and they are more friendly when dealing with customers while they continue smiling. This may seem ridiculous, but maybe it is not. The confidence you get from wearing your best suit or having your hair done the way you like it is important when it comes to transmitting a positive image of yourself. Think about one of those days when everything goes wrong and you do not understand why until you remember that you woke up late and had to rush out of the house in two minutes without having a shower, and threw on the first thing you could grab out of the wardrobe. For some reason, few good things happen on days like these. If you have never had one of those days, then congratulations, you’re lucky! Susan RoAne, a specialist in training executives on communicating in public and the author of several bestsellers, comments on the importance of how to dress in her book How to Work a Room. Whenever she has to go to a conference, she never wears a navy blue or black suit, because most women choose these colours. Instead, she opts for something formal but a little different. The comment about the “lady in red” will perhaps make someone remember us at an event attended by dozens of people. Motifs or details on our clothes and accessories can also help to start a conversation. We will remember a person who uses the same pen as we do or who is wearing the cuff links of an association we belong to. That’s the easy part. We can all, in our own ways, pay more attention to such details.

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CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)

What would happen if a contact, a person identified in one of our relationships diagrams, calls us one day because he or she has heard about a job opportunity that we cannot afford to miss? One of two things would probably happen: 1. No problem! You have a copy of your CV that you can email to the relevant person and wait for your dream company to take an interest in you. 2. Your have a sleepless night because the latest version of your CV is more than three years old and does not include details of your last job. Thank God you still have some paper in your printer! If you identify with Option 2, don’t wait for that moment to arrive. I’m sure you can save yourself a sleepless night or two by quickly updating your CV if you just take a minute to do it right now. And it’s something you can do straight away, so do it. My advice is to make sure you present your CV in the most up-to-date and professional way. If your latest version dates from when you finished your studies and you have already been working for four years, you may realize that you do not have to include everything from the last conference you attended to the course you took in the summer. Focus on your latest experience, the most relevant aspects of your post and the type of company you would like to join. If you are unsure, ask someone in your network who you think has more experience in these matters to give you some pointers. And remember, there’s nothing more flattering for someone than being asked to give advice. The likelihood of that person being delighted to help you is very high. The aim of this book is not to give you examples of CVs or provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to prepare one; many books have already been written on this subject. In this case, my recommendation would be for you to take some action and ask your network for help. This will give you an excuse to 39


start, or continue with, your own networking. And remember, once you have asked a person for help, you have to think about what you can do to help them. BUSINESS PLAN

We understand the value of capitalizing on relationships and we know that our network will return what we have put into these relationships. In order to achieve this, we must ensure that the tools we need to achieve our objectives are available at all times. For example, nobody will finance our project if they do not have access to our business plan. Before asking for help, ask yourself the following question: If they want to see me tomorrow, do I have everything I need? If the answer is yes, go for it and good luck! I recently had dinner with an Irish friend who was at Stanford with me. He was in Spain for a wedding and we decided to meet up while he was in the country. We reminisced about our times in Palo Alto, California, and I asked him about his company. Peter is a co-founders of one of the Internet companies that has managed to survive since 1999 in the Internet-based B2B (“business to business” refers to transactions made between companies) car sale sector, and that’s no mean feat! We talked about what we learned on the Master’s course, about the teachers, the classes and how the college stays in touch with us so that we make donations. Peter told me about his intention to contribute to the university’s donation programme. Going to Stanford had not only enriched him from an academic and personal standpoint. It had changed his life, simply because he is a former Stanford pupil. At a critical moment in the life of his company, when its survival depended on whether or not it sealed a contract with Ford, the links of the founding team of Peter’s company with Stanford were crucial. Arjay Miller, the former Chairman of Ford and former dean of the Stanford Business School, agreed to an interview with the founders due to his connections with the university. It was a one-off opportunity and Peter and the other two founders were prepared; they had their business plan defined

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right down to the smallest detail, their presentation was ready, and they had perfectly rehearsed their arguments for promoting their company as the best partner for Ford. They convinced Arjay and he personally intervened in the decision-taking process, which guaranteed the company’s survival. Yes, Stanford changed his life, but if he had not had the business plan ready that morning when Arjay Miller was able to receive them, Peter would perhaps now be in Madrid on holiday while searching for a new job. If you have a one-in-a-thousand opportunity to reach somebody who can take a decision to invest in your company, sit on your board of directors or support your project, make sure you are prepared. Making sure your business plan is ready; preparing it professionally and rigorously, and paying attention to detail can determine whether you capitalize on, or waste, an opportunity. Do not waste an opportunity because you’re not ready. And if you need to improve a business plan that could change your life, start today. PDA

Finally, I recommend you purchase a personal digital assistant (PDA), even if you think you will never use it. It will give you huge control over your schedule and allow you to note down everything you have to do whenever you need to. It will also allow you to keep your list of contacts up-to-date. PDAs can remind you of friends’ birthdays and other important dates. If you are like most people, once you start using a PDA you will wonder how you ever lived without one. I hope these examples help you to understand that a number of aspects, namely the ones you have great control over, are easy to improve and you can start on them today. There is nothing very surprising about things that are easy. They should be things that we do because they are easy and because we are familiar with them. If reading about them has made you realize that you have to spend tomorrow afternoon doing some of them, they can’t have been all that clear in the first place. What is important is that if you have a free afternoon, you can make a lot of

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progress and be much more prepared to start concentrating on things that you find difficult, by focusing on changing habits and routines that you may find hardest to change. Nevertheless, remember that you also know a “Juan” (John), and that much of what we are going to define as “difficult” is what this person does naturally. Just as you know a “Juan,” you now know that you can do these things easily if you learn how. The harder part: learning how to do the more complicated things One of the characteristics of people we see as being well connected or most skilled at establishing relationships, and therefore most capable of having an impact on others, is that they enjoy doing it. This book does not aim to change your life or suggest that you should let it be dictated by a PDA that optimizes how you spend your time. Nor am I trying to convince you that it is good to do certain things that you may see as an obligation or a lesser form of torture. Nothing we start doing unenthusiastically and half-heartedly will become a habit in our lives or develop into something we are able to maintain over time. Many dieticians recommend starting a diet only when you are prepared and in the right frame of mind. We know that maintaining a healthy diet is good for our health, and losing that extra bit of weight will make us feel a whole lot better. But how often have we abandoned a diet and gone back to junk food without a second’s thought. Think for a few minutes and then write down the things that you see as obstacles or that make you feel that carrying out your action plan and improving the way you network is some form of torture. 1.

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2.

3.

Let me put myself in your position and try to guess your answers: 1. It’s too much effort and I don’t have any time ... 2. I’m not much good at introducing myself to other people, I’m shy ... 3. I don’t see myself as a leader and I really don’t know what I can offer ... There may be many other reasons and each one will be valid in it’s own way. As the title of this section indicates, the first step in learning how to network is to transform these reasons or, less ambitiously for now, put them to one side. For now, think of this process as a little like arriving at a dietician’s clinic. You’re there because you’ve decided to start and follow a diet that will help you achieve your ideal weight. You’ve read up to here and you want to get the most out of your relationships. For the moment, forget about the reasons that make you think that this is really not for you and that you are no good at it. At the dietician’s you’ve managed to forget your fears about not completing the diet. This time you’re going to do everything that has to be done to achieve some positive results. Adopt the same mentality now! ... and continue reading. IF ONLY I HAD MORE TIME

...

Interestingly, we sometimes think that there are things that only happen to us until we share these experiences with other people and realize the same thing happens to them. You may also have had the feeling that when you are most busy, your ability to do things increases and you do more than during more slack periods.

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When I was asked to write this book, my initial reaction was that I simply didn’t have enough time. How could I possibly find time to write a book if I already didn’t even have enough time for everything I had to do? I was arriving home late every day with just enough time to have supper and go to bed, and with thousands of personal issues to sort out over the weekend. However, in the end, I managed to write the book, and didn’t die in the process! One of the most useful recipes for successfully controlling your time is to establish priorities and value your time. Once you have identified the most important things you need to do during the day, do not try to do all your week’s work on Monday. By valuing your time, you will learn to organize yourself and be efficient. If I do not control the agenda of a meeting and the meeting takes three hours instead of one, I won’t be able to go to the gym in the afternoon or get home in time to read a story to my son. From now on, try to value your time. This will enable you to do more things that are important to you, including finding time to improve your social network. I hope you find the following tips useful: I Start the day with a blank piece of paper and write down the date. Make a list of the things you have to do today. Be realistic. If you don’t need to do something today, don’t fill the list with tasks that you can easily do during the rest of the week. I Include both professional and personal matters (going to yoga class, calling your friend to congratulate her on her wedding anniversary). I Underline or use a colour pen to highlight tasks you have to do that day (you will be implicitly establishing the day’s priorities). I Set start and end times for complicated tasks or ones that take time to complete. Normally, if you think you are going to read a complex report but are only going to dedicate two hours to it, it will be easier for you to concentrate than if you think about devoting all your time to it.

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I If you are unable to control the duration of your meetings, prepare an agenda beforehand and stick to it with your watch on the table to guide you. Remember that if you are efficient and value your time, the people who work with you will be grateful for it. I’ve never heard anyone complain about an effective meeting that finished on time. I If you remember a person for any special reason, call them straight away. If you don’t, then perhaps you won’t call them at the end of the day and you never will. How often do we say “I thought of calling you.” Call straight away, because “thinking” won’t get you anywhere. I Don’t waste time doing activities that give you nothing. If you watch junk television due to inertia, try switching off the television at night and read one of those novels that you are always saying you don’t have time to read. At some point, you probably thought about going to bed an hour earlier and getting up with enough time to have a relaxed breakfast, go to work earlier when there is less traffic and have time to start the day in more relaxed fashion. You may have succeeded in doing this for a day or two, but you probably gave up for some reason, basically because it is difficult and requires discipline. Try doing it again this week with renewed enthusiasm and see what happens. Valuing your time means respecting yourself and being able to doing more things every day, things that are beneficial and that you enjoy doing. Days still have 24 hours, but you can get more out of them if you remember to: I identify the things you can do that day I incorporate things that are personal and important to you in your everyday life I set a time limit on certain tasks. With practice, you will be able to start to plan your week and

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your month in the same way, by learning to make the most of your time and devoting more time to things that interest you and that you like doing. IF ONLY I WEREN’T SO SHY

...

Think about the following situation. You’ve been invited to a conference which will be attended by all the companies in your sector and which represents a great opportunity to capture new clients and promote your company. The conference has been structured in such a way that there is time for participants to meet and talk to one another. You arrive alone and you feel uneasy about starting a conversation. You are shy, you don’t know anyone, and you want to leave. From childhood we are taught not to talk to strangers. Other mothers tell us that we shouldn’t stare at strangers let alone talk to them. But we are no longer children and, more importantly, the people at this conference are not strangers. You’re there for a reason, just like the rest of the guests, and you have a lot in common with them. Basically, you’re in no danger whatsoever. Nevertheless, you find it hard to strike up a conversation. It would be much easier if someone introduced you to another person. Susan RoAne describes this phenomenon as the “Scarlett O’Hara syndrome.” In the past, we were taught that someone else should formally introduce us before we could address or talk to another person. That’s the way it was in the days of Scarlett O’Hara, but that’s not the way it is today. In fact, there would be no scandal if we approached someone and introduced ourselves by name, followed by a few phrases describing who we are. Even so, you still find it hard to make that all-important first step and to start talking. It may make you feel better to remember that you’re not the only one who feels that way, that most people think they are shy by nature. Now look around you. There is probably someone doing nothing more than clutching a glass of Coca-Cola. If you see such a person, try practising with them.

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They are alone and will be shy like you. The difference is that you are learning to know yourself and are able to make that first step. After approaching this person and talking for a while, you will realize that nothing has happened, or, more to the point, many things have happened: I You’ve started to change your attitude. I You’ve realized that it wasn’t so hard after all and that it hasn’t had any harmful results, quite the opposite. I You’ve done the other person a favour by going up to them because s/he was also alone and now is grateful for your gesture. I You’ve practised and with practice you start to improve. I hope this example shows you that in most cases there is no reason to feel shy. If you analyse the situation, you will realize that your fears were unfounded. Even so, you have to practise because, in a similar situation next month, you will feel more relaxed and approaching other people will come naturally to you. IF ONLY I KNEW WHAT TO SAY

...

Another attitude you should try changing is the misconception that other people know more about a given topic than you do, have a better idea of what to say or have more to offer than you do. Let’s go back to the example of “Juan.” He may not be the most intelligent person we have ever met in our lives, nor the person with most knowledge or the best professional position, nor any of the things we think we lack. And yet he is our example of a person who knows how to contribute value to others. In order to be able network efficiently, we have to convince ourselves that we can do it and that we have a lot to say and offer to others. And yes, the reality is that – regardless of certain people’s egos – there is always someone better at persuading an audience or playing tennis, or who never loses at board games.

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In the same way, we are capable of influencing others, giving advice, introducing ourselves in public, or acting as a host at a party. As I have already stated on repeated occasions, the important thing is to be prepared and to practise. The first time I had to give a press conference in front of journalists was at the presentation of the on-line auction company I launched in Spain in early 2000. This was the height of the Internet boom and we had to convince people that MercadoLibre, the fourth auction site to present itself to the media that year, was in fact the company of reference in the sector. I still remember that presentation today, not so much because of the way I performed in front of the media but because of the time I spent at home in front of the mirror, repeating my presentation over and over again, looking for a way to communicate clearly and make my presentation more fluid and concise. Never before had I devoted so much time to preparing a public presentation. I knew that the more I practised in my head, the more relaxed I would be that day. Since then, I have given many press conferences and had more opportunities to be interviewed by journalists, and the recipe for success is to be very well prepared. Since practice is important, think about the opportunities that can come your way in the course of an ordinary day. For example, how do you introduce yourself when you meet someone for the first time? If already know the answer, that’s fine. If you don’t, put the book down for five minutes, look for the largest mirror you have nearby and perform the following exercise. I Introduce yourself at a work conference. I Introduce yourself to someone you meet at a wedding. I Introduce yourself to someone you meet at a reunion with friends. What have you observed? Did you take longer than you thought you would? How often did you stop and start again? What happened in your final attempt at this exercise?

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It was probably harder than you thought. Nevertheless, it is something that you do, or have to do, very often. After practising in front of a mirror, you may now feel that next time you will know how to introduce yourself “properly,” what aspects of your life you have to highlight in each context and, most importantly, you will be relaxed and know what to say. After performing this simple exercise and seeing how you have improved with a little practice, think about other opportunities you have to continue practising. Look for opportunities that will help you position yourself as a person with things to say, and broaden and improve the quality of your network. If your mind is a blank at the moment, don’t worry; here are some examples to get your started. I You have the chance to speak about your sector at a seminar. Don’t think twice, do it. I Your company or college offers courses on communicating and how to speak in public. Put your name down. I You company is collaborating in a programme to inform students about the firm. Volunteer and describe your duties in the company. I You’ve been thinking for some time about hooking up with your university buddies. Organize a dinner and prepare a short speech, reminisce about old times, and thank them all for coming. I Volunteer to read a prayer or one of the readings at mass one Sunday. I Send an article to the university paper or company magazine and test your ability to express yourself in writing. “Doing” is the most important part of feeling that you have things to say and offer to other people. Make the most of every opportunity. You’ll get much more out of the time you put into doing it.

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2.3 Conclusion: capitalize on your social network We all have different barriers to overcome and attitudes to change. It is very common to hear an inner voice telling us not to take risks. When it comes down to it, the people who are most effective at capitalizing on relationships are the ones who do not feel bad if someone says “no.” They are the ones who take risks. With that attitude, they never lose. They can only achieve one objective: improve. If you don’t try you’ll never get a single positive reply. These examples illustrate how we can overcome the fears that prevent us from maximizing our potential. Some of the most frequent excuses are lack of time, shyness, or underestimating what we have to offer. There are more, and perhaps you identified different ones earlier. What is important, however, is that, regardless of the reasons, you must believe that these are barriers that can be removed and attitudes that can be changed. Changing these attitudes may seem just as difficult as going on a balanced diet, but it is not impossible. It requires the desire to change and, as with a diet, being aware of the things that we should eat or, in this case, the habits that we must put into practice.

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3 HOW CAN YOU INCREASE AND IMPROVE YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK?

If you want to make a friend, let someone do you a favour. Benjamín Franklin By now you should be prepared: I You know how important devoting time to capitalizing on your relationships can be. I You have identified the people in your current social network. I You have prepared the easy stuff, the tools that enable you to be prepared. I You are working on the harder details, namely overcoming the excuses that prevent you from getting started. Now let’s take a look at some specific things you can do to broaden your social network and improve the way you capitalize on your current relationships. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point, affirms that we can increase our networks of contacts through people

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we may define as “acquaintances” and not through our network of close friends. This is mainly because we tend to spend a lot of time with people we like from our closest circle, such as work colleagues, friends, and family. These people are very similar to us and tend to belong to a circle that is very similar to our own. Normally, we are more likely to find a job through an acquaintance than through a close friend, colleague, or relative. The people we refer to as “acquaintances” have different interests from our own, work in different industries, and have the capacity to expand our social network more directly. Moreover, the people who are closest to us are often the ones who know least about our jobs or have no idea that we may be interested in, for example, changing from one industry or sector to another. Different opportunities may present themselves through our direct contacts’ acquaintances, such as the opportunity to write a book, get those concert tickets that were impossible to find, or obtain a letter of recommendation from a former student of the university where your son or daughter would like to study next year. Therefore, in order to expand your social network, it is important to access people from areas of life that are different to your own and who, with their experience and contacts, can broaden your network of contacts. If we return to the relationships diagram we created in the previous chapter, the aim now is to: I expand this diagram to include people we can make contributions to and learn from I improve the quality of our relationships with the people we have already identified. To achieve this, consider adopting some particular habits. Look back at the steps you considered in the section on designing your plan of action in the previous chapter and use them to suggest habits you should develop. Write them down, keep them visible, and remind yourself to put them into practice.

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IMPROVING YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK

3.1 Organize your agenda I Organize a meal every week with someone you have wanted to see for a long time. Don’t forget to make a note of that meal in your diary. To make the meal happen, you have to take the initiative yourself and contact this person. By doing so, during the year you will have contacted approximately 40 people who you would otherwise not see or not share quality time with. I Devote time to attending lectures or events that interest you. Every event of this type is an opportunity for you to meet new people and engage in passionate debate about a topic that interests you. If your day-to-day activities prevent you from dedicating time to these types of activities, you are not investing in yourself. Try to identify at least two events each month that you would like to attend. Also, if possible, try to do more than simply attend; participate as a speaker or help organize the event. A simple way of finding out about these types of activities and including them in your diary is to look at the events listed in the leisure and entertainment guide for your town or city every month. In this way, you can decide whether to attend that conference on bossa nova or the seminar on direct marketing that is being organized at your university that week. Perhaps you can volunteer to take part next year and offer a presentation on new direct marketing techniques on the Internet. I Avoid wasting time doing non-productive activities. Try watching one hour less television everyday. Get used to reading purely for pleasure at least half an hour every day and try to at least flick through the newspaper everyday. These habits will help you acquire greater knowledge and understanding for speaking in public or participating in conversations at meetings. I Devote time to your hobbies. In your diary you must include time for doing things that you

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like. When you do the things you like, you can also meet interesting people and share common interests. Be disciplined when organizing your diary so you can go to the gym, yoga class, choir practice or painting class. Perhaps the tenor who sings with you in the choir can provide you with the contact for that interview you are after. Arrive just before the choir practice, yoga class, or other activity, and make the most of the time to get to know these contacts better. Doing what you like is an enriching experience and it is not good to give up this time due to lack of discipline or simply a poorly organized diary. I Be a host. Whenever we invite friends to dinner or organize a barbecue, coffee or party, we are improving the quality of our relationships with these people by dedicating our time to them and welcoming them into our homes. The important aspect of being a host is that we stop worrying about ourselves and worry about making sure our guests have as pleasant a time as possible. Think for a moment about the way in which you would react in the following two situations: a. You’ve been invited to a party at the house of a friend or acquaintance. Perhaps you only know a couple of people who are going, apart from the host. Reaction: You know it will be good to go. You’ll meet different people and are sure to have a good time. However, you can’t make up your mind. What happens if the only couple you know decides not to go, who are you going to talk to all night? You’ll have to make an effort to strike up a conversation. ... You start to feel those old fears again. b. You’ve organized a party at your house. You’ve invited different people from your network of contacts; many of them are very different and do not know each another. Reaction: Your concern is that your guests have a good time. Spend time introducing them to the rest of the guests,

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mention any common interests they may have, make sure you establish contacts between people you know may be interested in meeting. You have your eye on everything and are enjoying watching others have a good time. When you act as a host, you put to one side your fears about not knowing how to get on with new people and become the protagonist and display generosity to others. You are also a connector for people in your network who can benefit from meeting others thanks to your mediation. It is a good idea to invite different groups of people you know may be interested in meeting one another. When you introduce them, try to mention something they have in common, because this may help them start a conversation. I Make a note in your diary of opening your house and organizing one of these meetings or dinners at least once a month. I When you remember a person and think about calling them, do it straight away. I Call and send greetings to people at Christmas, on birthdays, make a note of the wedding anniversaries of the people who mean most to you. Let them know you remember them on the special occasions in their lives.

3.2 Participate actively in associations Participate in ex-alumni associations These are excellent forums for keeping in touch with people from different sectors and contacting interesting people. Organize conferences for former students, arrange interesting activities such as dinners or paddle tennis or golf tournaments, or meet informally with your friends from school, college, and university. These activities will take time to organize but will make you visible and help you become a reference and contact for members of the association.

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In fact, I am writing this book precisely because of my involvement in the Stanford ex-alumni association in Madrid. One of my first initiatives was to update the website on the association’s network. To do so, I contacted the members of the association and asked them to send me a recent photograph and information about what they were doing so that I could update the web page and provide more content. Through this initiative, I got to know many former students, fascinating people from a wide variety of sectors, from consultants or bankers to businessmen, teachers or entrepreneurs in new technologies. One of these people was the publisher who encouraged me to write about this topic. Collaborate with or chair a non-governmental organization Choose the cause you identify with most and which you would like to devote time to. These types of organizations attract people from different backgrounds, united by a common interest. For example, today many companies collaborate with the Junior Achievement organization. Junior Achievement promotes the personal development of adolescents and seeks to provide them with an insight into the daily ins and outs of working in different sectors. Collaborating with Junior Achievement may involve having to devote two hours per week for several months. The people in your company who decide to collaborate with the programme probably come from very different backgrounds, and this activity enables you to develop special links with all of them. The example of Junior Achievement shows that the degree of dedication to the organization may vary according to the time you have available. What is important is being aware that there are many opportunities for becoming involved in organizations at different levels and that whenever you do this, you will receive more than you put in. Form part of a business initiative Explore the possibility of participating or collaborating in a specific issue with the boards of directors of associations grouping 56


together companies from your sector. These types of associations organize interesting conferences and attract the attention of groups of entrepreneurs seeking advice and financing. The opportunities for meeting interesting people with common professional links are enormous. In the late 1990s, a group of entrepreneurs founded the First Tuesday association in London, with the objective of organizing meetings of businessmen interested in financing Internet projects and entrepreneurs engaging in the field of new technologies, who were invited to talk about their projects. The meetings were held on the first Tuesday of every month in public places, such as restaurants or bars, with the appropriate facilities for staging these presentations and also for discussing ideas in an informal atmosphere. The participants were divided into two groups at the entrance according to the colour of the sticker they were wearing: red for investors and green for entrepreneurs. In this way, at an informal level the entrepreneurs were able to identify the investors and vice-versa. In six months First Tuesday spread to 120 cities around the world and virtual contact sites were also launched. The First Tuesday initiatives in each city were developed by people with enormous networking capacity aware of the value and importance of being able to achieve personal enrichment by meeting every month with young, intelligent people with new ideas. In 1982, Josep Espona, the founder of the business group Pastas Gallo, decided to invite the heads of other Spanish family-owned and food firms to meet on a regular basis. Every six months, a different company would organize the meeting and use the opportunity to show its state-of-the-art factory, exchange opinions on current issues and discuss in depth topics relevant to the group. One of the best-known results of the growing friendship and knowledge that has gradually developed within the “Club of 20” (the club has a maximum of 20 companies, to make contact easier and guarantee confidentiality) is the Instituto de Empresa Familiar (Family Business School), the idea for which arose during one of these meetings.

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Collaborate with associations that develop young talent Financial institutions such as BBVA, Banco Santander Central Hispano or La Caixa, provide financial support to outstanding students in Spain in order to help them pursue their studies at American universities. This enhances their visibility within this group of young talented individuals, who, in turn, acquire excellent training. Other associations, such as the Fulbright Association, through the Fulbright Commission, also award scholarships to top students and monitor their professional development by creating a network of Fulbright grantees around the world. The Fulbright Association in Madrid organizes a lecture every month, which is followed by an informal dinner attended by a famous person. The speakers range from politicians to philosophers, psychiatrists, actors or entrepreneurs. Each monthly lecture attracts a different group of people who are interested in the specific theme, and offers an interesting opportunity for them to broaden and extend their circles of contacts in very different areas. Your company may be interested in supporting the training of young talented individuals and you could propose collaborations with some of these associations. The vast number of interesting people you can meet by participating in these types of organizations will directly help you enrich your social network. Join specialized associations You may also find international organizations such as the Rotary Club or the Lions Club interesting. These groups are formed by people from different professions and hold regular meetings on set dates and in specific places. The meetings offer the members of these international clubs the opportunity to attend functions organized in different cities around the world and to meet important people from different business environments.

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Contribute to associations in your community We often prefer to delegate responsibilities for matters that affect us in our daily lives. It is unusual for anyone to volunteer to be the president of their neighbourhood association or to send a letter to the town council complaining about a problem affecting the community of neighbours as a whole. Few of us volunteer to collaborate in initiatives embarked upon by our religious community or in parents’ activities that have an impact on life at our children’s school. It is a fact that the people we see as model networkers are the ones who devote time to their closest community. Their involvement enhances their visibility and broadens their circle of contacts in a very interesting way. We often completely ignore the people who are closest to us – our own neighbours. After all, we did not chose them and we want to preserve the intimacy of our own home. Make an effort to contribute more actively to your community and in the community closest to your children. This will bring you into contact with interesting people you already have a lot in common with. Participate in the parent–teacher association at your children’s school Parent–teacher associations can be a good way of expanding your circle of contacts and also allow you to participate actively in your children’s education. Among other functions, the various school organizations requiring the involvement of parents enable many women who have interrupted their professional careers to focus on their children’s education and to meet other mothers in the same situation. They also allow them to make new contacts at different levels, reaching people working in different sectors who may be able to help them return to employment in the future.

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Create your own networking group In 2001, two years after graduating from Stanford, I returned to San Francisco to attend a friend’s wedding. It was great to be back and meet so many friends who had stayed behind to work in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. My friend Verna told me she wanted me to join her reading group that Saturday morning. What is a reading group? Verna and a friend had set one up in San Francisco. It started off as a group of four friends, and different people gradually joined them. They would meet every other Saturday for breakfast and talk about the book the group had read during the previous two weeks. This group had managed to bring together people with very different profiles and professions, from consultants to stockbrokers, computer experts or writers. Verna’s reading group enabled her to meet fascinating people around the same table while they exchanged impressions of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. In networking speak, Verna, through her reading group, managed to imitate Juan and enhance her role as a connector in her social network. María García, an American citizen and consultant for McKinsey in Spain since 1989, decided to form a reading group in Madrid in 1995. The group was a mix of men and women with different academic and professional profiles. Every month, one person would propose a different book to read and meetings were called once a month to talk about the book. According to María, one of the most interesting aspects of this group was the skill each member acquired in learning to talk about different topics and to explore books they would never have chosen to read otherwise. At some meetings, certain people who were more knowledgeable about a specific subject felt more comfortable talking about the book; on other occasions people who were experts in one field listened attentively and learned from other people with more knowledge about another subject. This gave the members of the group a huge amount of freedom to

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express themselves and be transparent when airing their opinions. This forged strong links between all the members. María’s club continues to meet today. María also belongs to “Club 26.” This club is formed by 13 women who meet for dinner once every two months in Madrid. These dinners are normally attended by a speaker and a specific topic is discussed. The common link binding these women is professional, since most of them are company directors. The contacts made during these small but consistent group meetings, in which a high degree of trust has been established (the same women will see each other again in two months’ time), are extremely valuable for the members of the group. Isabel Estapé, a well-known Madrid notary and wife of the famous psychiatrist Enrique Rojas, organizes coffee at her house every month. The group is formed exclusively by women. A female or male speaker is also invited. Isabel maintains this group by contributing value through the organization of debates on current affairs topics and inviting people who will interest the rest of the group. Isabel is also aware of the value of establishing quality contacts. When she holds a celebration for her husband’s birthday, she divides the celebrations into various stages so she can maintain a certain degree of intimacy between the guests and really build on her contacts. Other people who actively form groups when they arrive in a new city are so-called expatriates or “expats” – employees of multinationals posted to different countries for specific periods of time. In Madrid there are, for example, groups of English, American, or Scandinavian expats who meet regularly and who are bonded by their nationality and their status as foreigners in their country of residence. These organizations offer professional and personal support to all these people. A very useful source of information on existing groups or for promoting the formation of new ones is the Internet magazine The Broadsheet. You can find it at www.tbs.com.es. The American expats group became an important target for

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the political candidates at the American elections in November 2004. This was particularly true in the case of the Democrats, with the Kerry camp organizing meetings to reach Americans residing abroad and capture their votes. Since polls predicted a very close election result, and there were more than 2 million American citizens living overseas entitled to vote, the need to carry out those networking activities and call meetings was crucial for the campaigners. In October 2004, Juan Verde, the President of “Americans Overseas for Kerry in Spain,” called a meeting for members of the Fulbright Association in Madrid specifically for this purpose. The journalist Susan Parker, in her article “Are You Ready to Get Serious About Networking?” comments on these groups, which are formed on the initiative of a certain person and which manage to bring together various people who contribute value to the rest of the group. In her article, she writes about the La Alianza group in Houston, which was created mainly to help members of the group through the network of contacts of its individual members. In this way, a member who works in the legal business can help another member who needs legal advice, and in turn receive help about how to structure the computer network at his/her law firm from another group member who is a computer expert. These groups work because they are independently controlled and prohibit forms of conduct that favour only one member of the group if this person is not contributing anything in return. The way in which these groups acknowledge the collaboration of each member stimulates the other members to look for ways to help in order to be helped themselves. But these networking groups are not a new phenomenon. Benjamin Franklin belonged to a networking group that included many different people, including a shoemaker, a lawyer, and a writer. This group met every Friday for many years to discuss political, moral, philosophical, or business issues. As we saw in the case of Juan, and as remarked by Wayne Baker, a professor at the University of Michigan, the people who

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are most successful in these types of groups are precisely the ones who do most to find ways of contributing. In the long run, these are the people who give most and consequently receive most from the rest of the group. These groups also do all they can to ensure their members get know each other better. At the end of the day, people do business with other people they know well. Meeting with a group of people once or twice every month generates a level of proximity and knowledge that strengthens these types of business relationships. The writer and networking expert Donna Fisher says, in her book Power Networking, that these networking groups, apart from contributing value at professional level, play a very important social role. According to Donna Fisher, we, as human beings, all have a basic need to feel useful and feel that we are contributing to others. This makes us feel valued and strengthens our desire to be connected to other people. Donna Fisher belongs to a networking group herself, the Windsor Club, which meets every two weeks for breakfast. For her, one of the keys to the success of the group is the fact that the members appreciate it’s efforts to work for others and this public recognition is what keeps the group together. So, if groups are meeting in Houston and authors like Donna Fisher have formed their own groups, and my friends Verna in San Francisco and María García in Madrid have also done the same, it really can’t be so difficult for you to start one too! Think about these basic steps for creating your group: 1. Make a list of people you know who you would like to contact for this initiative and who have contacts in different spheres of life. 2. Limit this list to a maximum of five people. 3. Meet with these people, discuss your idea with them and determine the group’s objective, how often and when you will meet, and what role each member will initially play within the group.

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4. Establish the following six-month objective: each member must bring two new people into the group who they consider may contribute to and complement the group. The chances of success are greater if the group feels it can contribute value to its members. At personal level, you will be able to relate with the contacts of your initial friends. These people will contribute to your network of contacts and enhance your social capital. You have nothing to lose by trying this; you will learn a great deal in the process and the results, if you are successful, will mean that all the effort has been worthwhile.

3.3 Always be on the lookout for new opportunities Look for opportunities to write Perhaps your company’s journal is looking for people to write articles or your university’s magazine is after articles on a topic you are interested in. There is sure to be a magazine for your professional association or sector that needs news stories or collaborators. During my time as an entrepreneur running the MercadoLibre auction website, I offered my services to the editor of e-Comm, a monthly reference magazine on the Internet. I thought it would be interesting to collaborate with it by writing an article every month. Of course, I was not doing this to promote my own auction site. I wanted to write articles on different Internet-related topics of current interest, and the articles would carry my name and indicate my profession or post. I drew up a list of topics that I thought would be of interest to readers and proposed the idea to the chief editor, submitting the first of the articles. He thought it was a good idea and agreed. Thereafter I had a one-page article in every issue on different topics, such as the importance of models for paying for content on the Internet, C2C (“consumer

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to consumer” refers to transactions on the Internet between private individuals) business or the role of businesswomen in the Internet. At the time, I was frantically trying to keep a business afloat and writing for e-Comm every month meant extra work. However, the personal reward of gradually making a name for myself as a person with knowledge in the emerging market of new Internet business models was worth all the extra effort. Moreover, by collaborating on the magazine I met other editors and contacted other collaborators and Internet entrepreneurs with whom I already had a common link. Collaborate with a university by giving classes Participate in seminars on your sector, give courses, or attend classes as a guest. This is an excellent way to continue expanding your network of contacts among people from the university world or other colleagues or professors. It will also give you experience in public speaking and allow you to help students and act as a mentor. Try meeting new people One practical tip on how to increase your network is to speak to strangers. You can do this on a flight, walking your dog in the park, or standing in a queue at the cinema. Why not? Bob Metcalfe, the founder of 3Com, justified flying in first class because of the types of people he met on those flights and the volume of business he had captured simply by talking with the person sitting next to him on the plane. Tomás Pascual, the founder of Leche Pascual, also gave the same reason for flying in business class and has developed a custom that has now become famous. If he sits next to you on a plane, he asks you for your business card so he can send you a very generous selection of his products. You will continue to receive samples whenever the Pascual Group launches a new range of products.

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The reason why we tend to be reticent about talking to perfect strangers is our fear of being rejected. We can take that risk once we accept that the worst result of trying to start a conversation is that the person in question does not want to talk to us. We may only learn how to say the numbers in Arabic, or that publishers generally meet in Frankfurt in October, or the name of a good restaurant in the city where you will be staying. Try this out on the next flight you take and see what happens. You may meet someone interesting! You must also bear in mind that once you do all these things and make these practices a daily habit, you’ll have fun in the process, learn from others, and also pass on your knowledge and experience to many more people.

3.4 Avoid succumbing to temptation It is important not to succumb to the temptation of using other people once you have put these new habits into practice. Always remember that the key to networking is giving, and not looking for something in return. To avoid succumbing to these temptations, the best thing is to identify them first. Read the following examples to learn about the things you should not let become habits. Putting someone in a compromising situation When we ask someone to do a favour for us, we must be simple in our approach so that the person in question can say “no” without feeling bad about doing so. For example, I have asked an acquaintance to get me an interview with the marketing director at the company where he works and I have done so during a social function in front of three other people. The likelihood of this person feeling obliged to get me this interview or finding it hard to refuse is very high. The result may benefit you in the short term, because you may obtain the marketing director’s telephone

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number and be invited for an interview, but you will probably have lost your contact and this person will probably not be around to help you in the future, nor will s/he have a very favourable opinion of you. Showing you’re desperate When we ask people in our network to help us find a job, we must show our enthusiasm about changing, improving, or finding that first job. Nobody likes to recommend a person who comes across as being permanently unsatisfied, unhappy at work, lacking enthusiasm, and harbouring a negative attitude. It is precisely this defeatist attitude that will work against us when we want to change jobs or have spent time seeking a new one without success. In late 2001 and during 2002, many Internet entrepreneurs lost their jobs. The bursting of the technological bubble caught many of them unawares and the supply of talent searching for work boomed in a matter of months. In Silicon Valley, many brilliant professionals found themselves looking for jobs at the same time. Undoubtedly, what separated the people who managed to kick-start their lives again from those who took more than a year to find a new job was their attitude towards this new situation. Many of these people had a large number of contacts with important businessmen, venture capital companies, or professors sitting on numerous boards of directors. However, given their change in fortunes, some became desperate very quickly and their networks of contacts were unable to help them. The most positive and dynamic people who panicked least about the lack of work managed to use their contacts more efficiently. Remember that it’s easier to help someone you know will respond and make you look good. If you come across as being trustworthy and have a positive attitude, the person who recommended you will be more confident about recommending you and will do so more enthusiastically in the future.

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Forgetting the person who helps you When people help us, we must always thank them for their time and collaboration. Otherwise, the ones who have made the effort to help us will feel we have used them. They might not feel offended by our forgetfulness and might still be there next time we need something. However, the opposite may also occur and we may not even notice. Normally when we do a friend a favour, pass on a contact, or open doors for someone to get an interview, we do so because we like to help, because we know that if we give first, we will receive later. If we expect anything at all, it is probably nothing more than for that person to let us know whether, for example, they landed the job they were after or were admitted to the university where they wanted to study. Yet, we often hear nothing more from that person, who was initially so insistent when they contacted us. Whenever you use a contact to help you, remember them and thank them for their time. Call them to let them know how you are doing or send them a thank you note by mail or a small gift. Remember that very few people bother to do this. If you do it, you will be improving your relationship with that person and increasing the likelihood of that person being there to help you again in the future. Promising something you cannot give Sometimes we succumb to the temptation of committing ourselves to doing something for someone else when we cannot actually do it. Our desire to help can lead us to create false expectations in others. If you do not have time to contribute to a group that is counting on your time, you must be able to say no in time. If you have promised to put one person in contact with another and you realize that you actually do not know the person in question well enough, be honest and admit you cannot be of any help. Honesty and being able to fulfil promises are worth more than trying to

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take on too much and letting down the people with whom you have some obligation or commitment. Bear this in mind when committing yourself to other people. Making someone feel unimportant How often have we had the feeling that someone is talking to us at some function or event while looking distractedly over our shoulder to see if the person s/he is really interested in talking to has walked into the room? Perhaps the only reason you are there is to meet the human resources manager of the company you are interested in working for. If that’s the case, then great, don’t miss that opportunity, but let whoever you’re with at the time know your true intentions. In this way, they will understand that you want to talk to a specific person and will not feel uncomfortable and think that you are dying to rid yourself of their company at the first opportunity that comes their way. They may even introduce you to that person themselves. It is deeply unpleasant to feel you are not important when talking to another person. Learn to respect everyone you meet, show interest in what they do, and ask questions that are not compromising. In fact, you never know what someone may be able to offer you, and many people you think you will never meet again end up providing you with a contact or offering to help you unselfishly in the future.

3.5 Conclusion: network efficiently Finally, remember that although we can all learn to network efficiently, there are certain characteristics and good practices that differentiate the people for whom networking holds no secrets. The following list summarizes the 50 elements that I feel are most important for efficient networking. Please read them carefully and decide whether you are already putting them into practice. Mark

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the things you already do. When you reach the end of the list, read it again and note down what you are going to do next week in order to start putting into practice the things you are not yet doing. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

17. 18. 19. 20.

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Don’t wait until you need help to develop your contacts. Start today. The most important thing is to start. Know who is already in your network of contacts. Note down what you know about each one of these people and think about the people you can put in contact. Remember that it is more important to think about what you can offer than what you can receive. Share your knowledge and your contacts. Let people know who you are and let people help you, comment on your objectives and concerns. Ask for advice from the people you admire. Do favours for others. Be active and take the initiative. Never regret having risked talking to someone. Assume they may say “no.” Make sure you are ready to take opportunities to meet other people. Buy a PDA even if you think you will never use it. Besides, they are no longer expensive novelties! Invest time in your physical appearance. Respect the time that people give you. Remember to say thank you. Call and send a written thank you note. Don’t make the mistake of thinking someone is not sufficiently important (remember, Bill Clinton greeted the cloakroom attendant). Don’t claim you have a very close relationship with someone who is only an acquaintance. Always do what you say you are going to do. Always return telephone calls. Never ask for favours that compromise another person.


21. Never compromise your personal ethics. 22. Be polite at all times. 23. Prepare yourself mentally to go to a function where you will meet other people. 24. Eliminate the barriers that prevent you from building relationships with new people. 25. Don’t wait to be introduced, introduce yourself. 26. Prepare your presentations. 27. Learn to converse. 28. Ask other people questions (we all like people to show an interest in what we do). 29. Never monopolise a conversation, involve others. 30. Approach and talk to a person that you see is alone at a social event. 31. Don’t take the easy way out by talking to people you already know at a social function. 32. Keep up to date with current affairs and read the newspaper. 33. Look for new opportunities. 34. Always listen closely. 35. Smile when you talk on the telephone. 36. Maintain your curiosity. 37. Don’t hang around waiting for things to happen. Good things don’t happen to people who remain seated waiting for something to happen. You have to make your own luck. 38. Control your agenda. 39. Spend time doing things that are important to you. 40. Include personal matters on your list of things to do every day and don’t stop doing them. 41. Don’t think you cannot do something. Often, the more things you do, the greater your ability to do more. 42. Be generous with your time and devote time to others. 43. Contribute to the community. 44. Be a host. 45. Don’t forget to have lunch or coffee with the people who are important to you.

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46. Take part in activities you like doing. 47. Participate in associations that allow you to meet different people. 48. Talk to strangers. 49. Enjoy networking and ... 50. Don’t stop practising! At the end of the day, it’s just like learning to ride a bike. It may seem very difficult and daunting at first, but you will quickly discover that it is easy and start to enjoy it. It will also open new doors and take you on exciting adventures.

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4 NEW FORMS OF NETWORKING ONLINE

When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the World Wide Web. ... Now even my cat has its own page. Bill Clinton So far we have analysed how to network but we have not looked at the tools offered by new technologies and the Internet. We have already seen how we can capitalize on and expand our relationships. The Internet offers even more communication channels and possibilities for maintaining contact with our networks of contacts. New technologies are available and within everyone’s reach, and they are revolutionizing the way in which people relate to one another. It is up to us to capitalize on the opportunities the Internet has to offer. In the following chapters, we will look at how these new forms of communication are developing, how we can use them to make ourselves known and how we can incorporate these new methods to increase our networking possibilities, but this time by “networking online.”

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4.1 The Internet: before and after The Bill Clinton quotation I used at the beginning of this chapter is indicative of what the Internet has meant for this generation. When we tell our children or grandchildren that we were born without the Internet, they will probably ask us how we coped without being able to communicate by email, how we met new people without online chats and how we kept in daily contact with our friends without instant messaging. We will probably just shrug our shoulders and not know what to say. During my two years at Stanford, I was fortunate to have Andy Grove as one of my teachers. Andy Grove was born in Budapest in 1936 and founded Intel in 1968, together with Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. He was Managing Director (CEO) of Intel from 1987 to 1998. In 1997 he was named Time’s “Man of the Year,” a year after publishing Only the Paranoid Survive. At that time, Andy Grove was teaching strategy and technology to Stanford MBA students. During one of his lectures, he told us that “in five years’ time nobody will talk about Internet companies because they will all be Internet companies.” His prediction seemed so distant in time that we probably paid little attention to it. However, his words stuck in my mind because this meant that all companies would have incorporated technology in their processing systems and would be unable to operate without Internet-based systems to transmit data. A decade has already passed since Grove made his prediction and although it has not been entirely fulfilled, few companies today refuse to accept that the Internet can improve their systems and processes. Besides, the Internet has enabled the creation of hugely successful companies that would never have existed otherwise. Yahoo, Google, eBay, Amazon, and Expedia are some of most well-known names around the globe. Trademark valuation surveys award similar ratings to Google and Coca-Cola. Google, however, did not exist when Andy Grove made his predictions. It was founded by two Stanford students, Sergei

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NEW FORMS OF NETWORKING ONLINE

Bryn and Larry Page, in 1998. When it went public in 2004 it had a share price of $85 and a market capitalization of $23,054 million. Companies like eBay have enabled over 400,000 people around the world to leave their jobs in order to sell products on a full-time basis on this Internet market. The whole idea, it is often said, began with Pierre Omydar, who was looking for an online market on which to exchange Pez sweet dispensers, which his wife collected as a hobby. Today, millions of people operate as travel agents from their own homes, book hotel rooms, rent cars, and buy airline tickets, comparing prices and using Internet Portals like Expedia. According to its 2003 annual report, Amazon invoiced $5300 million and employed 7800 people to make buying a book faster and easier for everyone anywhere in the world. These are just some examples of companies that have gained a level of worldwide approval and prestige that firms like General Electric, Coca-Cola, or BMW took decades to achieve. One of the truly amazing aspects of the significance of Internet access for society is the speed with which it has become part and parcel of everyday life, so much so that we can only shrug our shoulders if our children ask us how we ever lived without it. Table 4.1 summarizes the speed of the Internet’s development. Little over a decade has passed since the World Wide Web officially came into existence in 1994. The Internet is the phenomenon that has had the greatest impact on lives of millions of people worldwide since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Many of us went to school or university without the privilege of access to the vast universe of information afforded by the Internet, yet today we would find it unthinkable to do many of our daily activities without an Internet connection. There is a clear “before” and “after.” Let’s now see how the Internet influences the way in which we relate to one another and network, but this time online.

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Table 4.1 Chronology of the evolution of the Internet 1969 Birth of Arpanet, the computer defence network of the United States of America. 1972 Arpanet reaches 40 nodes. 1973 Launch of the TCP/IP protocol. 1980 Arpanet separates from Milnet (the latter becomes the strategic defence data network). The name “DARPA Internet” begins to be used in this period. 1984 Implementation of DNS. Adoption of TCP/IP as the standard networking protocol. 1986 NFSNET handles research-related net traffic. It eventually becomes one of the backbones of Internet. 1990 Traffic control is liberalised. The US government’s presence diminishes. ARPANET and NFSNET disappear. As a result, the following year (1991) may be considered as the birth of the Internet. 1992 The Internet Society association starts to play a more important role in the management of the Internet. During this period, Minnesota University develops the Gopher system, the true beginning of Internet information systems. 1993 The United States’ Administration issues the NII (National Information Infrastructure), known as the “Gore Report,” which outlines the guiding principles to be followed in what has become known as the “Information Society.” 1994 In Geneva, at the EONR (European Organisation for Nuclear Research), Internet’s most important and spectacular development takes place: the birth of the World Wide Web (web). 1994 The European Council publishes The Bangemann Report, Europe and the Global Information Society, which sets out the guidelines for leading Europe forward into the Information Society. The publication of this report is followed by the G7-EU Conference in Brussels (February 1995). 1995 Internet data: 6,642,000 hosts and 120 domains. 1995 Spain: Telefonica’s INFOVIA is launched. 1996 World Wide Web becomes the standard interface for future Internet development. 1998 Boom in free Internet access to Internet via telcos worldwide.

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4.2 How can I promote myself on the Internet? According to the Internet market research company NetCraft, the number of sites updated by May 2007 exceeded 118 million (118,023,363 to be precise). Nevertheless, what is truly relevant is not the figure itself but the spectacular growth the web has undergone since its birth. NetCraft’s first survey in August 1995 reported the existence of 18,957 sites. By April 2003 it had grown to 40 million, and 13 months later to over 50 million, and 21 months to increase from 30 to 40 million. In 2006 a record 30.9 million new sites were created, and this growth continued into 2007, with 12.8 million sites appearing Between January and May. Most of these are not corporate sites because there are not that many firms, associations, or universities being created every day or minute. Most of these sites are created by ordinary people like you and me, who decide to promote themselves and who are willing to share information, pictures, and stories with the rest of the universe. In addition to these websites, millions of people worldwide join mail-lists or forums, or publish their own thoughts in blogs (web logs). In fact, the phenomenon of building personal blogs on the Internet is currently being studied and analysed due to the recent boom in this activity. Although blogging took off in the United States, the number of blogs published in other regions grew rapidly; By 2005 there were 2 million in Europe, 2 million in China, a million in South America an no fewer than 15 million in Korea. Again, the growth rate is impressive. According to Blogcount, there were between 2.4 and 2.9 million blogs in June 2003. The Technorati site (www.technorati.com) reported a total of 3,422,061 blogs daily in August 2004. At that point, it was estimated that that between 8000 and 17,000 blogs were created every day, even more than the volume of sites on the web. Six months later, in April 2005, a blog count published in

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the news section of The Blog Herald estimated that there were 50 million blogs on the Internet. In April 2007, Technorati reported over 75 million blogs. The journalist Steve Rubel refers to a Google News article in his own blog, (http://steverubel.typepad.com/micropersuasion /2004/08/its_time_for_a_.html), reporting more than 3470 articles on the Internet mentioning the terms blog/s or weblog/s, between 2 July and 1 August 2004. This was more than the number of articles mentioning Britney Spears in the same period (2,820). Britney Spears is one of the most common references in searches and articles on the web. So, if blogs attract more interest on the web than Britney Spears, perhaps this means that blogs are becoming an important source of information. According to the writer, architect, and technology nut Richard Wurman, in his book Information Anxiety, the Internet user has transformed from being a consumer into a “prosumer” (proactive consumer). In other words, it is no longer necessary to consume information passively by absorbing everything that is thrown at us. We now have the power to contribute and express ourselves in different forums and through our own personal publications. I am writing this book to highlight the importance of capitalizing on relationships and being connected to other people to whom we can give and from whom we can, in turn, receive. We have looked at useful ways of networking efficiently but, of course, we have only just begun. If these statistics have surprised you, you must now be convinced that you may have been missing out on something. You may decide to put this book down once you finish this chapter and run to your computer to type blogger.com and start creating your own blog. You may be less impulsive and keep on reading and later, when you have a spare moment, calmly surf the web to find out what all the fuss you missed out on was all about. However, whichever way you react, and even if you do not have your own blog or feel you don’t want one, the most

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important thing is that you know what so many people in the world are speaking about. Don’t miss out on online networking because it will help you to contact a huge number of people willing to share information and to help other members of their online community who read and take part in their blogs and share common interests. Since the aim of this book is to get you started and provide useful information for you to adapt your daily schedule, let’s now look at what you have to do to make yourself known on the Internet if you have not done so already. My site (web page) People may decide not to have their own Internet site for the following reasons: I I’m not a computer expert and probably would not know what to do. I I don’t want to spend money on maintaining a webpage. I I don’t have anything interesting to say. I I doubt anybody would stop to visit and it probably wouldn’t be profitable. Let’s go step by step. Step 1. Creating your own site Building your own site on the Internet is actually very easy. With current tools, you don’t need any knowledge of HTML or any other programming language. Besides, as soon as you discover how easy it is to publish content, add pictures, links, files, etc., the following effect will occur: your initial fear of trying, because you did not feel you were a technical sort of person, will prompt you to research technical aspects in order to improve your site every day, learn more sophisticated techniques, insert

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video and audio files – in short, anything your imagination can think of. You may be thinking that it is easy for me to say that this is not hard. How can I prove it to you? I challenge you to create your own site following these steps. Send me an email when you have finished ([email protected]). REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN

Think of the name you want to register. If you are thinking about creating a personal page, perhaps you could try using your nameandsurname.com. First you have to find out whether that particular domain is available and buy it. I suggest namebargain.com or register.com for your domain purchase. Both offer very reasonable prices, although register.com also gives you the option of buying personalized emails with the same domain name. They even offer site creation and hosting services. Registering the domain for one year and building a basic five-page site, with a year’s hosting, will set you back around $84 ($35 for domain registry and $49 for site creation and yearly hosting). How can I be so precise about this information? Well, I’ve just purchased the domain registry so I can build a site for this book, and it took me all of three minutes! DESIGN YOUR SITE

If you choose register.com, you can directly access a site-building programme that will guide you step by step. Once you have finished, it will automatically refresh the contents. Another option is to use Microsoft Word’s Web Page Wizard to design a plain site. If you already have Word, this will not entail any extra cost. Another Microsoft product is Microsoft Exchange, an easy-to-use programme that could be a good investment. Free alternatives include Mozilla (mozilla.org) or Amaya (w3.org/Amaya). Another option is 1st Page 2000, a free design tool available at http://www.evrsoft.com. Whether you use Microsoft products or access free services on the net, you will see that these editors are as easy to use as

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modern word processors. Follow the step-by-step instructions and you will soon be able to publish text, add pictures, create links to other websites, and ultimately create your own site. Step 2. Maintaining your site The second obstacle mentioned was the monthly cost of maintaining your site. This is a hosting cost: that is, a payment for the space your site will occupy on a server. Here you have two basic options. I Free hosting. If you are building a personal site, you can use free hosting services such as those offered by GeoCities or Tripod. I Paid hosting. I recommend this option because it offers more guarantees in terms of service quality. One option is to contract a hosting service with the same company from which you purchased your domain name. Hosting with register.com may cost around $5. Prices will vary according to the size of your site because you will be using more or less space on the server providing the service. In any case, the cost will range from $5 to $15 per month. You can also negotiate packages consisting of a domain name, hosting, and email for even lower prices. So, this second obstacle also disappears. The cost of having your site on the Internet will be less than the price of lunch! Step 3. Choosing the content to include I hope I have convinced you so far. You may think this is cheap and easy, but the problems arise with regard to the content you can include. Think about the following examples: I You are getting married and it would be useful to have a place on the net where you can inform guests about accommodation, things to do in the city, wedding list, activities

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programmed for the big day. Nowadays I find it is unusual for me to receive a wedding invitation from a friend that does not include a link to their partner’s website. Last March I received one from a Spanish friend with a link to a very complete site (congratulations, Antonio!). You are studying and want to share notes and interesting articles with the rest of your class, or pictures of your schoolmates, with their email and mailing addresses as well as their telephone numbers. You are looking for a job and have sent a CV to a company but you also want them to visit your site where you can highlight previous jobs you have had, awards you have received, your interests and hobbies, the honourable mention you received last year at the writing contest you took part in and so on. At the end of the day, we all want to be surrounded by fascinating people with a wide variety of interests. Of course, if the interviewer has visited your site, he will be able to ask you more personal questions that you are sure to feel more comfortable about answering. Also, if the company is operating in the new technologies sector, you will be showing them from the outset that this really is your “domain.” You work overseas and your family is longing to see photographs of your children and to see how they are growing. In this case, you can build your site in the form of a gallery, which you can share with friends and relatives who live far away from you. You collect corkscrews and want to meet other collectors in order to offer them duplicates, look for corkscrews that you may be interested in, or find out whether a collector’s club or Town Hall would exhibit your collection. You would like to launch a platform to search for solutions to the traffic problem in your city. For example, traffic is becoming more and more congested because drivers slip in on the hard shoulder when leaving the motorway. Perhaps you could build the improvethetraffic.com site and ask for opinions or


ideas on how to ease these problems. How many people normally complain about traffic and would like to tell someone? By creating such a platform, you may be able to generate enough interest from a political party to consider the proposed solutions or sponsorship from a car manufacturer. I If you come from the academic world, having your own site will enable you to immediately contact colleagues all around the world who are interested in your field of study. You can also keep in contact with your pupils and maintain on-going communication via your site. As you can see, the usefulness of having a web page in each case is clear and, as a reader, I hope you can identify with at least one of the examples. If you are looking for a job, remember it is a good idea to have a site where you can add to information supplied on your CV, which is, of course, limited to a single sheet of A4 paper. What is really interesting about having your own site is that it will stimulate your imagination, enabling you to think about interesting pictures, articles, or documents that caught your eye. You can improve your site by adding content as you go. Step 4. Making a site interesting and profitable I would really like to tell you that you will be able to build a very interesting site and also sell advertising and links to browsers or search engines willing to pay you for every click you generate, and that a huge volume of pages will be viewed on the domain you have built. This is probably not very likely to happen, although I can give you some tips on how to increase the number of visits to your site so you can cover maintenance costs and perhaps even pull in some income. I Define your site’s metatags according to its content. Metatags are groups of words that allow your site to be automatically indexed in browsers. It is important to include

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the most relevant words. So, if your site is devoted to orchid research, your great passion, you may want to include the words “orchid,” “orchidaceae,” “botanic” or “flower” as words that define the content of your site. I Include the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) – that is, your site’s address – directly in the main search engines. The main browsers allow you to list your site directly and for free. Maybe people will also find your site with the help of metatags, but this is a useful way of ensuring your site’s presence on the main browsers, and requires no effort whatsoever on your part. Simply list your site under the main browsers; the other search engines will perform searches on the main browsers. Here are the addresses where you should register your new site: http://www.google.com/addurl.html http://addurl.alltheweb.com/ http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/default I Register your site in Open Directory dmoz.org. Open Directory is a tool that includes different categories and allows any site to be listed in any category. Registration is free, although the service reserves its right to list or exclude your site depending on whether you actually belong to the chosen category. Many indexers, such as Ask or Inktomi, take information from Open Directory. I Include specific content that may be of interest to the community interested in your chosen topic or field. If you are designing your web page because you are mad about trinquete (a traditional Basque ball game), try including relevant information, links to other sites, or PDF documents that others can download. The better referenced your site is, and the more interesting the information, the more likely you are to enhance your presence among people interested in the same topic. Contact places where you can play trinquete and add links to those sites. The more references and links you obtain on the subject, the better your ranking and

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position on search engines like Google. If your site is well rated in the Google Page Rank, visits to your site are likely to increase exponentially. I Join an affiliate programme that can market traffic on your site. Currently, there are companies that can create value for you by marketing traffic generated on your site. Don’t expect to make substantial earnings but, as you become more specialized at building better sites, the value of the traffic you generate for a certain type of public will become very interesting. Certain advertisers will want to include your web page in a pack of sites if they consider that the public visiting these sites is similar. The easiest way is to delegate this marketing function to intermediary companies like Tradedoubler or Netfilia in Spain. You can also trying participating in Adsense, Google’s affiliate programme. Google markets its wonderful search engine by selling the first positions in search results through a type of bidding system. In this way, a company like Renault would bid to appear among the first results on Google in searches for words like Formula One. If your site is dedicated to cars and contains a lot of information on racing cars, or if you belong to one of Fernando Alonso’s fan clubs and have many links to Alonso sites, Google may eventually include your site in the Adsense affiliate programme. In this way, the Renault-sponsored link sponsored by Renault may also appear on your site and you could charge a fee for every click generated by Google. Today, it is difficult to compete for investment in Internet advertising. This is still scarce and advertisers prefer coverage through advertising on large horizontal or generalist portals rather than sites that produce little traffic. Nevertheless, it is good to know the different options available, even for sites with limited traffic, particularly because when you first create your website you will have to build up traffic from a low base.

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A few weeks ago I met Pablo Carosone, founder of todo perros.com, at a meeting of the Last Thursday group, a community of people linked to the world of the Internet who meet in Madrid every last Thursday of the month. Pablo told me about his todoperros.com site, which he had launched because of his passion for the world of dogs and because he thought he had useful information worth sharing. He was also interested in meeting other dog lovers and trying to develop joint projects with the aim of creating an online community that could arrange meetings among its members. What started out as a purely personal enterprise (like the one you probably have in mind right now) became, within a short period of time, the dog site with the largest number of Spanish-speaking visitors. Todoperros.com offers in-depth content and dog owners are sure to find it useful to learn about diseases, identify symptoms, meet other owners with the same breed of dog, and locate a good veterinary clinic or a gift store to purchase that perfect present for Toby’s fifth birthday. Pablo generates income from advertising and has succeeded in creating a large community around his project. He has also acquired great visibility through his site and a huge number of contacts with people who have different profiles but share the same hobby – the world of dogs. Now, Pablo is thinking about moving into the world of cats. As you can see, it’s all about starting. There have been countless success stories at different levels. The important thing, after you have read this book, is that you no longer have an excuse for not building your site. You will learn through experience and this medium will allow you to meet many people with whom you can share your interests. As we saw in the previous chapters, you never know where you can meet someone who can provide you with a good contact at a given moment in time. Furthermore, people with whom you have established weak links, such as those who visit your site, may happen to be in contact with a huge variety of people who may be able to help you when you least expect it.

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My broadcast list Another way to make yourself known on the Internet is to join, or better still create, a broadcast list. A broadcast list is formed by a set of people who belong to a group and receive information about a specific topic by email. There are two classes of distribution list: I newsletters in which a person or organization is entrusted with distributing this information I discussion groups in which each person can send emails to the rest of the people on the broadcast list. When you think about distribution lists, you may be thinking that you can receive headlines from, say, the Spanish financial newspaper Cinco Días free every morning in your in-box. That’s an example of a newsletter that Cinco Días sends to its users. The Economist can also email you a summary of the most interesting articles in its magazine. However, these types of newsletters are, from your standpoint, passive because you receive the information but you do not interact with the medium, nor do you generate this information. Broadcast lists are mainly useful because you can participate in broadcast lists on subjects that interest you. But you can also generate these types of lists yourself and interact with other people belonging to the group in question. When students complete their MBAs at Stanford, one of the challenges they face is how to continue participating and remain in contact with the intellectual activity developed at the university and in the Business School. One of the most useful ways of staying in contact is by participating in different broadcast lists that Stanford offers its students and former alumni. By belonging to broadcast lists on technology, business creation or venture capital, I managed to learn about interesting projects the university wanted to fund or new initiatives on Internet and technology

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issues. Former students can use these broadcast lists to ask for help on a given topic, ask for advice from a contact with knowledge about a specific topic, seek funding, look for job candidates, or even validate a survey on a book about networking! In my case, these broadcast lists have enabled me to contact people related with the university who were seeking employment in Spain, or bring together groups of ex-alumni interested in going to watch the American College Basketball final live on TV in a bar in Madrid. Earlier, I briefly mentioned Last Thursday, an organization founded five years ago by a group of Internet buffs. Its objective is to share ideas through a broadcast list open to anyone interested in participating and contributing ideas related to the Internet. Last Thursday also holds meetings every last Thursday in the month, which are attended by an average of 50 people from different Internet companies in Spain. The Last Thursday broadcast list, thursdayinternet@ eListas.net, is an active list in which people participate to ask for help, offer help, contribute experiences or interesting articles for the rest of the group, etc. When I was researching the phenomenon of social networks on the Internet, I sent an email to Last Thursday and received some very useful replies from many people who had used some of these online social networks and could offer their opinions. At the time, I didn’t know any of these people who had decided to devote a little of their time to me and answer some questions about this topic. I decided to go to the meeting on the last Thursday in July and meet in person some of the people who had helped me. Belonging to this broadcast list helped me then, and I am sure it will continue to help me in the future. Although we can initially benefit from participating in broadcast lists, we can benefit even more by actually promoting our own broadcast list to share information, ask for and receive help, or stimulate discussion and debate on topics we are interested in. Setting up a broadcast list is simple and free. The most

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popular pages used for creating broadcast lists are Yahoo Groups (groups.yahoo.com), MSN (groups.msn.com) or Topica (topica.com). If you are the orchid lover I mentioned earlier, perhaps you can create your own broadcast list and invite people you know with the same interest. This list will gradually grow and contribute value day by day. I recommend you send links to sites with useful information and think about how belonging to this list can benefit the people who join it. You may choose the MSN system and create the broadcast list [email protected]. As the creator of this group, you will be the moderator and will provide access so other people can join. In this way, you will have the chance to meet people from other fields who share the same interest and you can promote yourself and enhance your visibility, and at the same time help others to build contacts with one another. You have just broadened your role as a connector. Jesús Encinar, the founder of the real estate portal idealista.com, decided to create, together with a group of friends, a network of gay professionals while he was reading one of the books I mentioned earlier, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. His objective was to structure as broad a network as possible, reducing all barriers and capitalizing on email. So he organized a broadcast list called Círculo de Profesionales Gays (CPG), or “Circle of Gay Professionals.” By sending a message to [email protected], you can join the CPG list and receive invitations to meetings organized by this association. The only requirement for attending CPG meetings is to have registered beforehand by sending an email to the broadcast list. This also ensures that each person who attends does so because someone has informed or invited them and passed on the email of the broadcast list. In this way, each person knows at least one member of the association and this makes it easier for participants to meet the other members. At each meeting, for example a private visit to an art gallery, there are people from the association who act as “facilitators”: they introduce first-timers and help to make sure

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that there is an atmosphere of trust and confidence among the people in the group. Lastly, it is important to remember not to send unrequested mail or spam. Make sure it is easy for people registered on your broadcast list to de-register whenever they choose. My community group In 1997, John Hagel III, manager of the technology division at the McKinsey consultancy firm from 1984 to 2000, published his book Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities. This emphasized the importance of creating online communities on the Internet and discussed how any company should approach the formation of these groups. Since then, the Internet has continued to fuel the creation of true communities formed in connection with the most diverse of interests. Perhaps inspired by Hagel’s book, or perhaps having reached this conclusion by themselves, major consumer companies today pump huge amounts of resources into researching ways to penetrate these communities. (Hagel has written other books you may find interesting: Out of the Box: Strategies for Achieving Profits Today and Growth Tomorrow through Web Services (2002) or Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules (1999)). For example, companies like Hewlett Packard research the impact of Internet communities on the transmission of information. Lada Adamic works in this line of research and has authored various studies, including one entitled “Information Flow in Social Groups” (co-authored with Wu and others), in which she claims that “individuals tend to organize themselves formally and informally in groups based on their common interests and activities, so that the way in which the information is disseminated is affected by the topology of the network in which they interact, in the same way as a disease spreads within a community” (Wu et al, 2004).

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Currently, more and more companies are trying to develop their brands by developing strong communities online. Consumer goods brands as different as Mercedes Benz or Nike have islands in Second Life (secondlife.com) and try to relate to their customers in different ways, in this case in the virtual world. As Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi suggests, increasingly companies are developing “lovemarks,” brands that are passionately followed by groups of people, true communities that can find themselves online and create buzz around these “lovemarks.” Some sites have developed into true communities in which information is disseminated about a specific activity or common interest. These sites provide information on the community, offer users the chance to receive information and communicate through forums, and constitute a genuine meeting point for people with common interests or hobbies. You can also promote yourself on these sites and join existing communities. An interesting example in Spain is the site moteros.com. In 2000, when I ran the auction portal MercadoLibre in Spain, we wanted to hold a charity auction with different objects donated by motorcycle riders. Through a contact with the rider Sete Gibernau, who donated various items, we began to see how we could obtain more articles associated with riders to auction them off on our portal. The objective of the charity auction was to penetrate the biker community in Spain and get them to use MercadoLibre to buy and sell second-hand motorbikes. We felt that the commissions on sales of second-hand bikes could be an interesting source of income for MercadoLibre, but we knew that we could only make this market work on our portal if we accessed the biker community, earned their trust and confidence, got them to recommend our site to other members of the community. The person responsible for liaising with the biker community made us realize that the only way to reach them was by contacting the people responsible for moteros.com. This site did not appear to be very sophisticated, but then again it lacked huge resources. Nevertheless, this niche Internet site was the

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most important gateway to the biker community. The people responsible for moteros.com collaborated with us in the auction and promoted our portal in a way that we would never have been able to do through traditional advertising campaigns on the more well-known sites in this sector. At the time, the Spanish market was not sufficiently mature for auction-based e-commerce to exploit the motorcycle category. But we learned two lessons: I Some sites represent genuine online communities capable of mobilizing thousand of people with common interests. I The key to a site becoming the core of a community is not the economic investment to promote the site by conventional means. Its success lies in the site having credibility within the community and offering a meeting point for its members. So, if you are into motorbikes and want to enhance your visibility within this group, perhaps you should think about ways of collaborating with moteros.com (or its counterparts in your country). If your company wants to introduce a new vitamin product for dogs on the market, it would be interesting to contact Pablo and see what the todoperros.com community thinks about this matter. Just as there are communities on different topics in each country, there are also true global communities. For example, sales of “Beanie Babies” would have been impossible if online communities had not been created by people mad about these cuddly toys; these have given rise to online markets for buying and selling Beanie Babies and provide all sorts of information and anecdotes about individual toys. More recent examples, in which strong online communities have played a massive part in boosting their popularity, are the TV series The X-files or the Harry Potter phenomenon (with more than 41 million hits in a search result for this name on Google).

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If you were one of the first people to take an interest in the adventures of Mulder and Scully and you created a website on the famous TV series, you may now be someone with great visibility in the X-files community. Visit the web pages www.themareks. com/xf/ and www.huah.net/scixf/ if you are still curious. My blog Earlier we mentioned that in 2004 an estimated 8–17,000 blogs were created every day around the world. All these statistics on the growth of blog publishing were easily surpassed at the beginning of 2005 after the launch of MSN Spaces, MSN’s blog creation service. It is estimated that in April 2005 around 100,000 new blogs were being created every day, since MSN was starting to market its full version of the service throughout its entire user network. You may have been under the impression that having your own site was a complex and costly affair, but we’ve seen that this is not the case at all. You’ll discover that it only takes a few minutes to create your own blog, and it’s easy and free. This may explain why thousands of people have decided to publish their thoughts on the Internet and keep “logs” – or, to use the popular term, “blogs” – which can be accessed by anyone on the Internet. However, these statistics may come as a surprise to you and you might like to know more, so let’s take a look at what blogs are all about and answer the following questions: I What is a “blog”? I How can I create one? I Why has the number of published blogs shot up now when the possibility of creating them has existed for many years? I How have blogs revolutionized our capacity to make ourselves known and expand our networks of contacts on the Internet?

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What is a blog? A good definition of a blog can be found in Wikipedia (http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#2004.E2.80.93present): A blog (short for web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order. Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media. The term “blog” is a portmanteau of the words web and log (web log). “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. It is estimated that well over half of all blogs are published in English, followed remarkably by Catalan in second place. Curiously, some languages have more blogs published in their language than personal or commercial sites. A report published on 29 February 2004 by the Pew Internet Research Institute and American Life Project on research by Amanda Lenhart, Deborah Fallows, and John Horrigan, and based on the results of telephone interviews, revealed some interesting statistics: I More than 53 million American adults, representing approximately 44 per cent of adult Internet users, had used the Internet to publish their thoughts, send replies to other

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Table 4.2 Estimate of blogs in different languages Language

Blogs

English 1,958,443 Catalan 123,320 French 83,950 Spanish 80,509 Portuguese 71,561 German 35,870 Italian 26,659 Chinese-big5 25,123 Farsi 19,730 Chinese-gb2312 19,324 Japanese 18,576 Dutch 13,133

Language

Blogs

Danish Indonesian Malay Japanese-euc_jp Swedish Czech Icelandic Tagalog Finnish Turkish Esperanto Slovak-ascii

9,870 8,831 6,658 5,413 5,267 5,089 3,776 3,608 3,326 2,817 2,803 2,593

Source: www.hirank.com/semantic-indexing-project/census/lang.html.

users, send photos, share files, and use other methods to create content on the Internet. I According to the study, only 2 per cent of Internet users currently had blogs. I Among the interviewees, 11 per cent had read other users’ blogs and a third of these blog visitors had published replies in one of these blogs. I Among blog users, 31 per cent published new content in them several times a week. Two recent studies estimate the total population of surfers with blogs at 2 per cent and 7 per cent. If we assume the world’s surfer population to be around 1000 million users (ClickZ Stats www.clickz.com/stats), with 186 million in the United States alone, and if we extrapolate these data, we would be looking at the following scenario: I People publishing blogs: 2–7 per cent. – 3.7–13 million in the USA and 20–70 million worldwide.

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I People reading blogs: 11 per cent. – 20.4 million in the United States and 110 million worldwide. In July 2006, the Pew Internet and American Life Project carried out a national phone survey among US bloggers. At that time the estimated US blogger population was 12 million, with 57 million blog readers. The survey aimed to investigate what was driving such a high number of people to express themselves online and to read what others had to say. The survey found that most bloggers are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers and that only a small proportion focus their coverage on politics, media, government, or technology. Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family. Many people are already using blogs to express themselves, share opinions, and raise their profiles. Bloggers also use their blogs to recommend other blogs they find interesting, and this quickly creates a chain of recommendations which promote the most interesting blogs. I discovered blogs a long time ago but I only recently began to publish on the Internet. My blog is personal and I use it to publish my thoughts and reflections; it’s often my escape valve. I’m not suggesting that you should create you own blog as a form a therapy, but who knows, it may also do you some good! Blogs have been created on every topic under the sun. Some are very complete and contain loads of information, while others are nothing more than sketchpads for thoughts. To penetrate the blog universe, you can visit pages that include blog directories, such as blogdex.net or weblogs.com, The Open Directory (dmoz.org) or go straight to Google. Here are my ten favourite blogs:

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http://edans.blogspot.com/ http://boingboing.net

Enrique Dans’s blog Boing Boing: a directory of wonderful things http://alt1040.com/ A blog in Spanish by Eduardo Arcos http://fernand0.blogalia.com/ Reflexiones y irreflexiones http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/ Conversations with Dina http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ Seth Godin’s Blog http://www.corante.com/many/ Many 2 Many Tech News http://www.commoncraft.com/ Commoncraft Online community strategies http://www.cnewmark.com/ Craigblog http://www.nextnba.blogspot.com/ The Next NBA. Other very interesting takes on blogs are those with mainly photographic content, called “photoblogs.” How can I create a blog? One of the reasons why blogs have flourished all over the world is because they are so easy to create. Various tools are available for creating blogs and there are two basic methods: I using a blog hosting service I using a programme to create blogs and include them on your personal website. Most blogs created today use a tool that also offers hosting facilities. This means anyone can have their own blog without having space on a server they use for, let’s say, their website. There are many publishing tools on the market, such as LiveJournal, Pitas, TypePad, Xanga, DiaryLand, or Blog-City. The most popular tool is Blogger. It was developed by Pyra Labs, which was founded in 1999 in San Francisco. Pyra Labs had succeeded in developing a very simple blog publishing tool, and

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survived when the Internet bubble burst. In February 2003, Google bought the company and since then Blogger has grown and gone on to become the most popular blog publishing tool. You can also add Blogger to Google’s explorer bar. So, with a single click you can add any link to a site in any blog published with Blogger. Publishing a blog with a tool like Blogger is very easy indeed. Just follow these three simple steps: 1. Connect to the site www.blogger.com. 2. Register for free and choose a name for your blog (title+description). 3. Choose a design and address (http://user.blogspot.com) and start publishing. The publication manager allows you to publish without the need for any knowledge of HTML. You can change the design using default options. Users familiar with HTML can personalize their designs. You can also change the setup (format, posting options, management of blog members, etc). In a matter of minutes you’ll be publishing away and for free. If you have access to the Internet where you are now, I’d like to ask you to stop reading at this point and try your hand at blogging. Jut to see how easy it is! If you already have you own site and want to include a blog section, you can use other tools that offer greater flexibility for designing your own type of blog. The most common publication system in these cases is Movable Type (movabletype.org). Movable Type offers a complete system with all the tools you need to turn your blog into a unique site with its own design. Though you need some technical know-how to set it up, it allows you to include a more controlled system of comments. It also offers users greater capacity for personalizing files and categories. Movable Type is still free for non-commercial uses. Another system you can use is WordPress (wordpress.org), which employs open source code and is also free. You can also add a wide range of tools to your blog:

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I Comments system. If you use Blogger or other publication systems that do not have comments systems, you can include systems so other people can publish comments using tools such as BlogSpeak or CommentThis! (commentthis.com), which is the most popular system used with Blogger. I Browsers/search engines. In blogs with large volumes of content, it is useful to include a browser for locating posts such as AtomZ (atomz.com). I Counters. You can also include statistical tools, such as Site Meter (sitemeter.com), to determine, for example, the origin of visits or links and so on. I TrackBack. This tool (movabletype.org/trackback) is extremely useful because it allows you to insert references to other blogs in your own blog. You can also draw up a list of all the blogs that have referenced any of your posts. This means you can really know everything that’s being said about what you’ve written. If you’re reading your friend Peter’s blog and want to make a comment about something he’s writing about, you can do this in your own blog and send a notification to Peter through TrackBack so he knows you’re including readers of your blog in a conversation about something he has written. I Include advertising. Sites like BlogSnob (http://blogsnob. simpleads.net/) allow you to explore the possibility of including advertising in your blog. You can use many other tools to make your blog stand out more from the crowd. Weblogs Compendium (www.lights.com/ weblogs/tools.html) lists more than a hundred such tools. Photoblogs work in a similar way to normal blogs. I recommend visiting www.fotolog.net if you want to create your own photoblog. All you have to do is register with your personal details to start publishing your photolog. You’ll discover that www.fotolog.net contains hundreds of thousands of photoblogs of all types and you can view more than 20 million published

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photographs. If you like a specific blog, you can access similar photoblogs via links to preferred photoblogs. You can also search for photoblogs by country, and contact people with similar hobbies in the same country. The subject matter of these photoblogs varies, from those focusing on artistic, landscape, or everyday photographs to ones using photographs that offer a slideshow of the blogger’s life. Thus, bloggers use photographs to tell us about their hobbies, interests, and thoughts, and as personal showcases. Brazil has the largest concentration of photobloggers, with 267,135 photoblogs, accounting for 41 per cent of the total number of published photoblogs. (In Spain there are 10,391 photoblogs on www.fotolog.net.) Meetings between photobloggers are also announced at www.fotolog.net. Some meetings are arranged through meetup.com (which we will look at later). Why has the number of blogs shot up now? Blogs have existed for many years (John Barger, an American, coined the term “weblog” in 1997). However the popularity of Blogger after it was bought by Google, and the launch of other tools that make blog publishing easier have done much to fuel the boom in blog numbers. According to José Luis Orihuela, Assistant Manager of the Multimedia Communication Laboratory at the University of Navarra: Google bought Blogger and is promoting Orkut for the following reason: it knows where all the information is (6000 million indexed items) but it doesn’t know what it means. That’s where knowledge networks come into play, as a filter system based on people with knowledge and not on machines that calculate.1 Actually, this is one of the comments I jotted down in a Delhi

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survey I developed entirely on the Internet in August 2004 among experts on network sites, and which I used as a guide when writing this chapter. Human beings are characterized by their need to communicate and participate. Publishing a blog is easy and allows us to express our thoughts, state of mind, and ideas, and also gives other people the chance to comment on what we have written and contact us. The blog boom is created by communities converging around the same topic. If a blog has a lot of traffic, it is gradually enriched with contributions from people reading the blog and making their comments. This “virality” (chain-effect transmission) is the driving force behind this new form of aggregating input from people all over the world. Bloggers also share their lists of favourite or interesting blogs, and this strengthens the concept of a community among different bloggers. Why do bloggers read other blogs? (% of interviewees) News I can’t find anywhere else

79.7

Better perspective

77.9

Faster access to news

65.9

More honest

61.4

More transparent

50.3

More personal opinions Latest trends Other

47.0 35.0

14.0

Figure 4.1 The boom in blog creation Source: Blogads, June 2004 (survey of 15,951 bloggers in the United States, May 2004).

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Eduardo Arcos, the creator of the blog directory bitacoras.net, claims that “weblogs are almost like the heart of the Internet. They form a huge, very active and valuable mass brimming with opinions, stories, confessions, complaints and thoughts waiting to be read.” According to Arcos, a major factor behind the boom in blog creation has been the capacity to link different blogs and posts and really create interesting communities around different topics. The capacity to establish these links and classify posts in an ordered manner has become a reality in recent years thanks to RSS technology. A popular definition of RSS is “Really Simple Syndication.” Basically, RSS technology makes it very easy for bloggers to classify and index the content of each post. When another blogger contributes to a blog, the RSS programme indexes and summarizes this content, and anyone can been informed about which bloggers have updated their blogs with a summary of the content. In this way, anyone can subscribe to receive updates of the blogs they are most interested in and, in turn, an update in our blog can be read immediately by anyone wishing to follow what we are publishing. Some RSS tools (such as NewsGator or Bloglines) allow us to receive updates of our favourite blogs in MS Outlook and even separate these updates by themes. The RSS indexing system has also made it possible for blogs that until very recently remained hidden on the most popular browsers to appear in Google search results through the indexing system. This has prompted an increase in connections between bloggers and enhanced blog visibility worldwide. The RSS system may not seem all that useful if you only follow one or two blogs on a regular basis. However, if you are interested in following the blogs of five or ten people, it is extremely useful to know when and on what topic each of your favourite bloggers has published. Also, other bloggers can know when you have updated your blog and this makes the flow of information much more efficient.

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The boom in the last two years of mobile devices specially designed for publishing blogs has also meant that anyone can continue posting in their blog, regardless of whether they are in an airport departure lounge or on holiday with access to the Internet. Various applications have recently been launched for mobile blogs, or “moblogs,” such as phlog.net, mlogs or kablog for PDAs. In 2005, MSN’s massive efforts to market its blog creation service – MSN Spaces –revolutionized blog creation in the same way that Blogger did in its day. The beta version of MSN’s service was launched in December 2004 and by early January 2005 it already had a million blogs. The service started communicating in April 2005, with a volume of users amounting to 4.5 million. MSN Spaces now has over 70 million blogs and is the largest contributor to the growth in the number of blogs being created worldwide. How have blogs revolutionized our capacity to promote ourselves and expand our network on the Internet? If bloggers recommend the blogs they read most to their readers and if we can subscribe to receive updates of our favourite blogs, and if more and more people are actively participating by both writing and reading and sending comments to blogs they read, then a blog can become a very useful and powerful tool for making ourselves known on the Internet. By devoting half an hour a day or a few hours a week to updating your blog, you will be in contact with people who visit and read your blog, meet very different people who share your interests and expand your network very quickly indeed. My favourite blog is written by Enrique Dans, a professor at the Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid. I met Enrique Dans and had dinner with him thanks to a mutual friend, Juan Díaz-Andreu – the Juan, or “John,” I’ve talked about so much in previous chapters. When I met Enrique Dans,

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I really felt I knew him already. I was a dedicated follower of his blog and knew when he had travelled to give a conference in Turkey or gone on holiday or was posting in his blog from Munich airport. I visit Enrique’s blog everyday because I find it useful. Enrique provides me with critical opinions on technology issues that I am interested in, as well as on general topics that he is concerned about and which concern us all. Enrique’s blog mainly helps me learn. I learn from him and I learn about people who make comments on his posts. As I learn from Enrique, he gains credibility in each of his comments, and I also take heed of his recommendations for linking up to interesting articles or recommending blogs he reads himself. One of the keys to the success of Enrique’s blog, or any other one for that matter, is that it is truly dynamic. Every day, Enrique publishes posts in his blog, and sometimes more than once. Whenever he is not going to be able to write for a number of days, he says so in his blog. In short, a blog is a living thing, something that needs to be updated and requires a minimum amount of attention and time in order for it to be of real value to us and to the people interested in reading it. Enrique has managed to showcase his ideas, articles, and research in a way that would have been impossible without a blog. He is also in contact with a large variety of people who visit his blog on the recommendation of other bloggers. This means he can be contacted to give a conference, write an article, or give an interview on a topic he has written about in his blog. Enrique and I made contact because I was interested in hearing his opinion about social networks. I hope to be able to repay him one day for his time and attention, as per the powerful principle of reciprocity. If we think about how blogs can help us to promote ourselves and strengthen our capacity for online networking, then Enrique is a good example. We’ve already seen just how easy it is to post in blogs, so now is a good time to start posting. From personal experience, I can guarantee you’ll have fun in the process.

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4.3 How can I communicate effectively online? Sites, broadcast lists, online communities, or blogs are instruments we can use to showcase ourselves on the Internet. Personal sites or blogs are particularly useful for offering a lot of information about ourselves, and consequently for gaining visibility and broadening our networks of contacts. However, the Internet is not just a unique platform for making ourselves known. It has also revolutionized the way we communicate. The year 2004 saw the publication of the first novel in email instalments and the first mobile text-message novel, in Japanese and Chinese respectively to be exact. Even without publicly promoting ourselves on the Internet, and despite the figures we saw earlier and the fact that most of our friends either do not have their own sites or believe that a blog is a computer virus, the fact remains that present day technology allows us to contact anyone anywhere both cheaply and easily. The Internet makes keeping in touch easier. Email, instant messaging, chats or Internet-based voice systems allow us to be connected by computer to any of our contacts and to maintain a large number of active contacts. Email Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan popularized this means of communication in the movie You’ve Got Mail, just in case there was anyone in 1998 who was still unaware that you could send an email to anyone anywhere in the world. That was nearly a decade ago and email is still the basic communication tool at schools, universities and work, or for retired people to receive photos of their nephews and nieces. Email has a huge number of advantages, making it the main Internet tool for many people. John Hagel III, in his book Net Gain, describes how the Internet is just as valid as any other communication network because it allows connections to be

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established between people. This was a lesson that Alexander Graham Bell failed to understand when he invented the telephone. Bell was convinced that the telephone would mainly be used to transmit news and music, but he was forced to accept the forcefulness of the evidence, which revealed that people were using the telephone to communicate with one another. So, email enables increasingly simple and free communication. You’re probably tempted to move on to the next section. After all, what’s left for you to learn about email? You use it, it works, it keeps you in touch with people, you’ve got several email accounts for work and personal stuff, and you couldn’t live without it. Well, I’d like to give you a few tips about using email that I think are worthwhile knowing: Personalize your emails Think about the amount of email you receive every day. You normally realize just how much mail you receive when you return from a week’s holiday and need at least one full day to run through the mail filling your in-box. That’s why it’s important that any messages you send must have a high probability of being read. So, bear in mind the following tips: I Avoid sending messages in which you copy various people to inform them about the same topic. If the matter is really important, spend another 30 seconds writing a message to each person individually. We tend to respond much better to messages we know have been written especially for us. It’s also important to distinguish between the person a message is really intended for (because we expect a certain reaction from them) and the people copied in the message simply for informative purposes. Think twice before copying someone in an email. If it’s not necessary, don’t do it. I If you don’t have time and you need to send a mass email, don’t forget to include the addresses on your list in a hidden

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copy. It’s not wise to allow the other people to see who else is included on the list or discover their email addresses. I In any case, try not to include too many email addresses in hidden copies. Recent spam detection systems invariably block legitimate emails if they detect large broadcast lists in hidden copies in messages. I Make sure your name appears correctly on the sender line for the person who is going to read your message. Someone who reads [email protected] instead of your name Angela Person will not identify you automatically and may never read your email. I Always include an automatic signature in your email, containing any contact details and professional information you deem appropriate (company, post). If you forget to include this signature and have sent a message to someone asking them to provide you with a work contact, you may miss the chance of that person picking up the phone and ringing you to discuss a job opening. You can have various signatures to choose from in each case, and have one as a default signature. Be brief It’s important to remember that more and more emails are being sent each day. Always try to be brief and clear about the subject matter of your message. Use simple words and short phrases, with bullet points to make it easier for the reader to run through the key points of your email. Your recipients will appreciate concise messages that are easy to read and you will show that you respect their time. Organize your activities in different email accounts Since Google launched its G-Mail web-based email service to provide free email with up to one gigabyte of storage capacity,

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other portals such as Yahoo or MSN have hurried to offer more free storage for private email accounts. Since it’s now much easier to maintain various free email accounts with the capacity to store much more information, take advantage of this opportunity to open several email accounts you can use for different purposes. Avoid using your work email address for personal matters and try to keep accounts in which you can have greater control over the people you communicate with. This will give you better control over where you receive information and from whom. It’s up to you how many accounts you have, but you shouldn’t open more than you can effectively control. Unless you channel all your communication through one email account or are very disciplined and capable of creating ordered file folders, you may find it hard to keep tabs on all your accounts. If you use MS Outlook for most of your communication needs, keep an eye on the size of the .pst file where messages stored on your hard drive are kept. If this file exceeds one megabyte, try splitting this folder and start storing your information in a new folder. More and more people are using MS Outlook to store information and it’s important to control how this is being stored. If all this sounds like gobbledegook to you, you can try to determine whether you should worry about your MS Outlook or not by how well the programme is working. If it gives you problems regularly then you may need to ask an expert for help! Avoid spam The United States and the European Union are introducing tougher legislation on the sending of unwanted email or “spam.” If you have a broadcast list and are responsible for sending email, you must take into account recent regulations in order not to breach rules governing the sending of illicit mail or spam.

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I No one should receive unwanted mail unless they have previously agreed to receive it (opt-in). I Anyone receiving mails on a broadcast list must be able to remove themselves from that list at any time and through a direct link in the message itself (opt-out). I If you send messages on behalf of a company, the company’s postal address must appear at the bottom of the email. We are all increasingly exposed to spam because we include our emails in blogs or websites. There are robots that detect characters such as @ or .com to search for email addresses and use them for sending spam. One trick you can start using when publishing your email address on the Internet is to replace the @ symbol with _at_ and leave out the dot. In this way, you can change, let’s say, the address [email protected] to dosgrados_at_yahoo. Other people use (a) for the same purpose. I hope you’ve managed to learn something from these basic points. It is no longer so much a question of learning to use email but rather learning how to use it better, respect others, and avoid receiving unwanted mail. New technologies continue to develop. For example, you can use a Blackberry (a mobile device for speaking by telephone and sending and receiving email) to send and receive messages from any location. This will make messages more concise and even the language and style of messages will slowly change, much in the same way as language changed in SMS messages. Instant messaging I started using ICQ (a pioneering instant messaging system created by an Israeli firm) at the end of 1999 when I was running the auction portal MercadoLibre in Spain. We used ICQ to communicate with the rest of our team in Miami, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Bogota, or Buenos Aires. We also used the phone, but only if we were unable to resolve a specific matter via ICQ. That was eight

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years ago, and I’ve since changed to the MSN instant messaging system. I’ve also changed company. I now manage Match.com’s portal in Spain. The cities have also changed. My colleagues are now in London, Munich, Paris, Dallas, Stockholm, Tokyo, or Sydney. Apart from that, I still use the same approach. But there is one difference. I now use it much more than before. The use of MSN Messenger is a deeply-rooted practice at Match.com. MSN is one of Match.com’s main partners worldwide and is the standardized instant messaging system. I recall one of the first meetings I had in London with the alliances manager, in which she continually mentioned that she spoke a lot with her two MSN contacts in Spain. She really seemed to know them well and it was clear she had an excellent relationship with them. When I became responsible for Match.com’s relationship with MSN in Spain, the alliances manager came to Madrid for a meeting with them and with me. When I entered the room, I realized that this was the first time they had seen each other. Well, there was nothing strange in that, but they’d never even spoken to each other on the phone either! That’s the magic of instant messaging, the genuine feeling or sensation that you’re actually having a real, face-to-face conversation with a person. Unlike email, when non-synchronized communication is established, with instant messaging two people can send messages and receive replies in real time. You have the feeling that you are actually conversing with that person. Instant messaging systems also enable you to include various people in the same conversation, and prevent other people from participating at a given moment. This makes the exchange of information very efficient, and online meetings can be called immediately. Communicating via instant messaging is direct and very specific. If you need to explain something in more detail, an email or telephone call may be the better option. In private and professional situations, instant messaging is often an ideal way of greeting people, asking them how they are and keeping in touch before the weeks pass by and you find time to have a long telephone conversation.

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Many people can maintain open conversations with various people at the same time in their instant messaging system. That is a very useful tool for rapidly exchanging information and knowing whether a person is online in order to be able to send a reply. Instant messaging systems have evolved and now every user can show other users whether they are available to have a conversation, on the phone, out for lunch, or have left their post momentarily. We can also personalize our messaging system by using emoticons, share information with other users, send files, or even include our photographs by using a digital camera. Instant messaging services also allow users to hold audio conversations, although this system is actually so immediate and functional that audio is not a necessity in most exchanges. Most users of these systems use one of three platforms: MSN, Yahoo, or AOL. When using instant messaging platforms, it is important that the people you work with or your circles of friends are all on the same platform, since communication between platforms is not really possible. This is why few other systems have flourished and other systems such as ICQ are becoming less and less common. If most of your contacts use MSN Messenger and only some use ICQ, your friends will probably opt to open an MSN account to avoid being left out of many conversations. The homepages of these three portals contain links for downloading instant messaging programmes. Once you’ve discovered this form of communication, you’ll find yourself using it everyday. When you’ve created your own account in a system such as MSN Messenger, ask your friends for their Messenger IDs so you can easily add them to your list of contacts and start communicating immediately. Chats A chat is a written communication that takes place instantaneously over the Internet between two or more people. People writing on chat platforms, known as chats, use nicknames or

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pseudonyms called nicks. Chats use the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) communication protocol. Unlike instant messaging, the people you contact in a chat are not on a predefined list of contacts and you only communicate with them when you decide to enter a chat room. Chats have become spaces for communicating on different topics, attracting many people, particularly young surfers. General portals such as Terra, Wanadoo, or Ya.com enhance their chat services because they generate huge volumes of traffic and help to create communities around the portal. Chat communication is characterized by anonymity because people do not know each other’s identities and can hide behind a nick to freely express their opinions. Chats are not the best tool for increasing your professional contacts, but they have succeeded in putting millions of people in contact around the world who meet in chat rooms to converse every day. Personal links created through chats may be very strong and help users to meet people with similar interests and hobbies. You can participate in chats on topics you are interested in and perhaps introduce yourself to people who can contribute their experience and knowledge. For example of you want to find out about fibromyalgia and want to share your experience with other people with the same symptoms you can enter a chat room on this subject on talk city http:///www.talk city.com. Forums Unlike chats, forums reproduce Internet conversations on specific topics and are normally chaired by a moderator. Conversations are also stored so they can be accessed again in the future. This contrasts with chats, where conversations are not stored or recorded. Various online newspapers organize weekly forums in which they ask for reader participation. Each user’s opinions are published in the forum and anyone can

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comment on everyone else’s opinions. A moderator is responsible for ensuring conversations do not stray from the topic being discussed or produce irrelevant content. The most popular forums are ones organized with the participation of a public figure, who answers comments from other users and participates in the forum as just another user. Forums have been organized with the participation of political leaders, writers, or singers. An interesting example of some very useful forums are those organized for women who are ordered total bed rest during pregnancy. María García, who I mentioned earlier, discovered a forum for pregnant women who had been prescribed total bed rest, and this helped her get through the five-month period when she was unable to leave her room. She found out that there were 5000 women in her predicament, sharing information and connected at the same time. María has maintained these relationships over the years and is still in touch with many of the women she first met in this forum. Forums are just another way of participating and telling people about yourself in the Internet, but at the same time they enable you to learn about a topic, express an opinion in public and defend your arguments or, as in the previous example, meet people with common interests and in similar situations. Voice over the Internet In 2004 I discovered Skype. With Skype’s Internet voice system, you can literally hold thousands of free telephone conversations over the Internet with other people with Skype accounts! Skype’s original Beta version had 8 million users in 2004, and in July of that year it launched version 1.0. Skype was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Frijs, who previously created Kazaa, one of the most important P2P (peer-topeer) music transmission networks. It was acquired by eBay in September 2005. Today Skype claims its service has been

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downloaded more than half a billion times and over 196 million people from almost every corner of the globe have registered with it. It has announced that telephone conversations between Skype users will continue to be free but will also include other functions, such as: I Skypeout: this allows users to make normal calls from any computer at the cost of a local call. The cost is charged to a Skype account or credit card. If the person you call opens a free account in Skype, the call will then be free. I File transfer (up to two gigabytes). I Tools to encourage viral marketing, such as inviting friends or sending electronic greeting cards. A product like Skype can once again revolutionize communication between people with flat-rate connections at home. Why should I pay for a call through a telephone operator if my monthly Internet subscription can give me technically proven quality telephone communication? Voice transmission over the Internet and companies like Skype can attract large numbers of users and generate value from accessing this collective. Skype also allows you to include a profile in your account, specifying your interests and profession. In fact, I no longer use the phone to speak to other people at work because we all have Skype accounts and it has become the most comfortable and economical form of communicating for us. Many other people I spoke to when preparing this book told me how they had also discovered Skype and how they are using it to contact people and broaden their circle of relationships. These people include Professor Enrique Dans and María García. I would even dare to predict that we will soon be including our Skype address together with our mobile and email details on our business cards.

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4.4 Are we really communicating effectively? At this point you may ask yourself whether having so many ways to showcase yourself and communicate online will get in the way of establishing relationships in the more traditional manner and, more to the point, capitalizing on and broadening your contacts. On this point I would like to tell you about my experience running Match.com in Spain and answer the question of whether the Internet can really help us to communicate. When we write, whether on paper or on screen, a process is taking place. As this form of communication is less immediate than verbal communication, it allows us to think about what we want to say, to choose our words, and really describe what we think and feel. David Teten, Donna Fisher, and Scott Allen, in their book The Five Keys to Building Relationships Online, refer to a recent study by Professor Jeffery Hancock of Cornell University, in which he shows that people tend to be more honest in conversations on the Internet than face-to-face or over the phone. In this study, a group of students was asked to keep notes of their communications during one week using email, instant messaging, face-to-face conversation, and telephone. They then had to confess how often they had lied. The results showed that the students had lied: I I I I

in in in in

emails, 14 per cent of the time instant messages, 21 per cent face-to-face conversations, 27 per cent telephone conversations, 37 per cent.

According to Professor Hancock, the main factors prompting this tendency to lie are the immediacy of communication and whether a record is kept of what has been said. So, if someone asks us about something we do not know over the phone, we may be more

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inclined to lie because the question demands an immediate answer. In contrast, in written conversations we have more time to think about what we say and are not under pressure to react immediately. Written conversations offer greater credibility and make us feel more obliged to keep our word. For example, if we send an email at the end of a meeting in which we undertake to deliver a report before midday the day after the meeting, we will feel obliged not to let anyone down because our promise has been transmitted in writing to the rest of the group. So, contrary to popular opinion, my experience is that written communication is richer and more sincere, and represents a key tool for many people to express even their most intimate thoughts. This is the reason for the huge worldwide growth in Internet dating platforms. According to a study published by the Online Publishers Association and comScore Media Metrix in May 2004, the dating category was the most important content pay category on the Internet in the United States, representing 29 per cent of the total (this study excludes e-commerce transactions and auctions, as well as pornographic content and software purchases or network games). According to JupiterResearch, European customers spent €228 million in online dating in 2006, an increase of 43 per cent over the previous year. According to a report published in June 2004 by comScore Media Metrix, Match.com (the leading dating site in Spain) is the world leader in the dating category, and almost twice as large as its nearest competitor. In 2003, Match.com recorded a turnover of $185 million and operating profits amounting to $31 million, which by 2006 had risen to $311 million and 63 million respectively. In 2006 it claimed 15 million active users (i.e. people viewing the site in the last 60 days or with published active profiles) in more than 246 countries accessing 31 sites in 17 different languages. Since its creation in 1995, Match.com has consolidated its status as the benchmark Internet dating site. Match.com’s dating platform offers this option to millions of people around the world. These people can find partners after an initial exchange of

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emails which eventually leads to a meeting in person. Once again, the key lies in our need to communicate and the power of written communication to really enhance our visibility. Match.com also shows that this phenomenon is not exclusive to American society. More than a million people register with Match.com every month outside the United States. In Spain, Match.com already has more than 3.7 million users, with an average of 100,000 new users registered every month. In Latin America, Match.com is attracting new members at four or five times that rate. In Asian countries like Japan or India, Match.com is revolutionizing the way people relate and find partners. In short, it is a global phenomenon. I have met many people in Spain who have fallen in love and married someone they met through Match.com. They all tend to have had similar experiences. Initially, they were curious about trying a different method for meeting people but were also sceptical as to whether it would really work for them. Later, they were surprised to find people they could connect with at an intellectual level by email and who shared their interests and hobbies. Finally, they became convinced that the person they had “met” was the one and decided to bring the relationship into the real world by organizing a face-to-face meeting. Interestingly, all these couples attributed the success of their relationships to the fact that they had been able to get to know each other first through email conversations. I am speaking from my experience of closely observing how the Internet enables people to broaden their horizons, meet different people, and even find that special person with whom to share their lives. In 2006, 500,000 people found a long lasting partner at Match.com, and the number of people who meet on this platform is growing by the day. More than 1.2 million people are prepared to pay a monthly subscription of €30 to have the chance to meet the person of their dreams. This is another example of how the system works as a tool for communicating and meeting people similar to ourselves.

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Following the success of Match.com, other sites such as Yahoo Personals, American Singles, eHarmony, Parship, or amigos.com have developed and built models of success used by thousands of people. Are we really communicating effectively online? We sure are, to the point where we can even fall in love! However, the impact of portals such as Match.com on the way we establish relationships and the possibilities they offer for thousands of people to rebuild their emotional lives will have to wait for another book!

4.5 Conclusion: use online tools to manage your network better The Internet is a showcase we can use to promote ourselves and it equips us with the tools we need to keep in contact and communicate. It is important to learn to use all these tools in order to keep in touch and broaden your network. If you are not up-to-date on the latest forms of communication, you will lose opportunities to meet new people, and some of your contacts may find it difficult to contact you. There are advantages in being pioneers or early adopters of new technologies in our daily lives. Keeping a blog can open doors for meeting many people with similar interests. Opening a Skype account can help you save money on your phone bills. These are just examples, but they should help to show how these tools can open doors to people and contacts, and complement other practices you are adopting in order to network efficiently. After this introduction to the possibilities afforded by the Internet, we will now look at new types of companies that have appeared in the last two years and which can improve our capacity to network on the Internet. These are known as online social networks.

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5 ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS

80 per cent of success is showing up. Woody Allen In 2003, Friendster raised $13 million in financing from the most important American venture capital funds in Silicon Valley (Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, and Battery Ventures). Another company, LinkedIn, also managed to attract interest from other noteworthy American funds, notably Sequoia Capital, attracting $4.7 million. Google then tried to buy Friendster and, after its bid was rejected, decided to support an initiative by one of its developers, Orkut Buyukkokten, and launch its own platform – Orkut – on the market. In March 2004, the Internet giant, InterActive Corp, announced the take-over of ZeroDegrees (since closed down). MSN developed a beta version called Three Degrees, whose features were later incorporated in the MSN Messenger version 7. Yahoo has announced in 2005 the launch of its beta version of Yahoo! 360º, its contribution to the integration of online social networks within each user’s communication environment. The period 2002–4 witnessed the launch of a number of socalled “online social networks,” which grabbed the attention of users and leading Internet companies alike. It was estimated that more than 100 social networks sites had been created by early

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2004 (Kiehne, 2004). Wikipedia currently (2007) counts 84 different social networking sites. In this chapter, we will look at what these social networks are, why they have appeared, what the most important ones are and how we can benefit from them to broaden and improve the way we network.

5.1 What is an online social network? Online social networks are Internet platforms that allow us to invite our contacts to participate and, in turn, contact their contacts. The social networks referred to in the first chapter are now replicated on the Internet, but in a systematized and more efficient manner. In simple terms, these platforms allow us to register and invite a group of contacts to participate. These people can, in turn, invite their own contacts and so forth. As a result, a huge network of people that are connected within a few degrees of separation through nodes or connectors is identified by the platform. For example, this allows me to determine how I can reach a person I am connected to by two degrees of separation, since the social network platform shows me which contacts can act as links. Using the same system, the platform can tell me who I am connected to by three, four and more degrees of separation or connection. This chain of connections allows me to reach a large number of people through my contacts and my contacts’ contacts. If you think back to what we learned about Stanley Milgram’s “six degrees of separation” theory or the recent studies by Duncan Watts, you will realize that you can really be connected to other people on these platforms through only four or five connectors. The value of any network is proportional to the number of nodes it contains. Hence, the true value of these social networks lies in congregating a sufficiently large number of people so that each person can benefit from being able to contact others in the network through their contacts. As we saw earlier, the concepts

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of networks are not new but the power of the Internet is what really makes these platforms grow exponentially, creating the so-called “network effect.”

5.2 Why now? The concept of creating an online platform for connecting different people through their common contacts is nothing new. In 1997, Andrew Weinrich founded sixdegrees.com, a platform that started with seven of Andrew’s friends and eventually grew to have more than a million users. The portal was financed by income from advertising and, although it was sold to YouthStream Media for $125 million in 1998, it closed at the end of 2000. According to Weinrich, his platform was ahead of its time because when it was launched the use of digital cameras for including photographs was not as widespread as it is now. The reality is that sixdegrees.com was just another victim of the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000. To some extent, Weinrich may be right. Surfers a decade ago were not the same as surfers are today. The boom in the use of email and instant messaging or the appearance of blogs in recent years have meant that it now makes much more sense to participate in a platform where we can manage our contacts. Today’s executives use the Internet, check their email several times a day, and keep lists of contacts in their PDAs. Becoming part of a platform where they can access other contacts is a logical and interesting next step for these executives. Currently there are close to a hundred online social network services, none of which were around at the turn of the millennium. This boom may be due to the chain reaction while occurs whenever services of this type first appear. After expectations were aroused by the launch of Friendster in 2003, and after receiving the blessing of prestigious investors who had suffered investment setbacks in the 1990s, developers with plenty of free time decided

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to create similar systems. If Kleiner Perkins, Google, MSN, Yahoo, and InterActive Corp are investing heavily in these platforms, it is reasonable to assume they are not all aiming wide of the mark. This chain reaction has occurred in other Internet industries. As early as 1999, within four months of the Internet auction company appearing in Spain, four rival companies were competing in the field. Internet-based job search companies are another example. The surprising thing about online social networks is that many years had passed since such a similar concentration of companies had been created in a specific sector or such unanimous interest had been generated among venture capital companies and consolidated Internet players. Let’s now take a look at the characteristics of these companies, who they are and how we can benefit by participating.

5.3 What added value do online social networks bring? Just as Google puts a huge amount of information within our reach, online social networks can strengthen our potential for relating with other people, for searching for people we would like to meet, and for actually being able to reach that person. Try performing a search on Google and you will see that you can find references to many of the people you are interested in meeting. For example, if I want to reach Pierre Omydar, the founder of eBay, I can perform a search on Google and access his blog, which even includes his email. Now I can access Pierre because I have his email address and I can discuss the content of my wonderful business plan with him directly. The problem is that Pierre doesn’t know me, he has no idea who has sent him this message and he will probably click on the Delete button in less than two seconds because he thinks it’s just another one of the junk email messages he receives every day. But I can also reach Pierre another way: for example, using

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LinkedIn, the online social network I belong to. I can perform a search to see if Pierre is also on this network. Bingo! He is! LinkedIn also tells me that Pierre is separated from me by four degrees of separation; in other words, I will have to go through three people to reach him. That’s not bad really. After all, Pierre Omydar is one of the most influential people on the Internet. Then I identify the person among my direct contacts who is the first link in the chain that will lead me to Pierre. It’s George, a good friend of mine. The good thing about my first list of contacts is that I’ve limited it to people I know really well. I’ll send an email to George asking him to forward my message to his direct contact in the chain leading to Pierre. I can trust George to do this, and if his direct contacts are as reliable as mine, the chances of Pierre learning I am interested in contacting him are fairly high. The key to these online social networks lies in establishing relationships of trust with the person who is trying to contact me. So, if I receive an email from George asking me to answer a message from his contact, Mary, I will be delighted to do so. If I received a message from someone called Mary without this warning from George, I would probably have ignored it. As I know George, I will now open Mary’s message to see what she wants. Online social networks increase my chances of successfully contacting people I am interested in. They also act as filters that allow me to make myself available to people who wish to contact me. Another key added value afforded by online social networks is that they formalize the “informal networks” we all have. Imagine the following scenario. I need to contract a graphic designer. If I place an ad in a job portal, I know I will receive more than a hundred CVs in under an hour from people interested in the post. I do not have much time and there is no way I can identify a really good designer from so many candidates. I do know, however, that one of my contacts must know a designer who might be interested in the job, and

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at some point someone said that they had organized a process to select a designer for their company. The problem is that these informal networks are not reflected anywhere. Nobody recorded all the conversations or made any note that “Pete interviewed Doug, who turned out to be an excellent designer but was unavailable at the time.” Online social networks bring these informal networks out into the open. So in order to hire a graphic designer, I can perform a search on my online social network and I will discover that my contact Mark has two contacts who are graphic designers. Now I can ask Mark to help me in the selection process and avoid having to send mass emails to all the contacts on my list to see if any of them have any experience in this area. Remember that it is becoming increasingly important to respect other people’s time. Each one of your contacts receives a huge volume of mail every day. If you can, avoid sending them things that are not important and which they can do nothing about. According to Professor José Luis Orihuela, assistant director of the multimedia communications laboratory at Navarre University and author of the blog eCuaderno.com, “the functions of online social networks can be summarized as the 3 ‘Cs’: Communication (they help us to pool common knowledge), Community (they help us to find and integrate communities) and Co-operation (they help us to do things together).”1 For Chris Shipley, founder of the GuideWire Group and an expert on online social networks, “online social networks show us the way to reach other people, and sometimes the distance is shorter than we think. Online social networks make the degrees of separation transparent.”2 For personal contacts, social networks like Tribe.net can put us in touch with people sharing the same interests or hobbies as ourselves, and we can meet other people with similar hobbies and interests through these people. Belonging to this social network enriches us at a personal level and puts us

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in contact with people we can share our interests with. According to Joe Cohen, COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Match.com, “the main value of social networks is that they establish contacts with other people at intellectual and emotional level, and this is something that no longer happens in society today. The merger of cultures produced today’s pop culture, which means that everybody tends to experience the same things. As a result, the capacity to converse, which has been lost, can be recovered on these networks.”3 To summarize, online social networks mainly produce the following: I access to my contacts’ contacts, with a high possibility of success since there is a prior recommendation I trust when it comes to receiving contacts through people I already know I a record of the informal networks we all have I the possibility of reducing the degrees of separation through greater transparency I the ability to share information and co-operate with the other network members I ease of exchange for ideas and conversations that often no longer take place due to lack of time.

5.4 Principal online social networks We have already looked at the benefits to be gained from belonging to these social networks. Since there are so many of them, it is important to pinpoint the most interesting networks and choose the ones we want to join. A basic distinction can be made between these social networks in terms of their approach or focus, namely between professional social networks and personal social networks. Let’s now look at the most important ones in each segment.

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Online social networks for professionals LinkedIn LinkedIn is currently the social network for professionals, with the largest number of registered users and the most successful network of this type. LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman and Konstantin Guericke, two entrepreneurs with Internet experience in Silicon Valley. The beta version of LinkedIn was launched in May 2003, although Hoffman and Guericke had been toying with the idea since 1997. By April 2004, just eleven months after it was launched, LinkedIn already had 550,000 registered professionals, three times as many as its main competitor had achieved in three years. LinkedIn had also managed to obtain $4.7 million in funding from one of the most important venture capital funds, Sequoia Capital. By April 2005, LinkedIn was being used by more than 2.4 million professionals worldwide. Its huge user base has made it the largest social network for professionals (three times the combined total of the other main online social networks for professionals). LinkedIn has over 11 million users around the world, representing 150 industries. Hoffman and Guericke’s experience in online communities prompted them to create a platform revolving around two key aspects: a focus on professional relationships and trust. Reid Hoffman had previously founded SocialNet, a networking service for job seeking, increasing networks of friends, or finding a flat mate. According to Hoffman, SocialNet failed when it was launched because it was a tool for connecting people with different objectives. I present myself on an online social network in different ways, depending on whether I am looking for a job, searching for a partner, or trying to meet other people interested in organizing a card game tournament. This experience led him to emphasize the need for LinkedIn to focus only on professional relationships.

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The second fundamental objective was to create a network that generated trust among users. This would attract professionals with relevant profiles and assure them that they would only be connected through their direct contacts and that they could, at any time, reject or accept a connection request from any person. LinkedIn still maintains a free platform in 2005 and its services are essentially free for end users. However, it has also introduced premium services, initially for companies who use LinkedIn to publish their job advertisements. HOW DOES IT WORK?

LinkedIn has built a social network that is very easy to use. Anyone can join LinkedIn by registering at www.linkedin.com and completing the following steps: I Fill in a profile. Filling in a profile is very simple. Just provide details of your current job, sector, academic qualifications and interests. In short, a profile so that people looking for you can learn more about you. In this profile you must also explain why you have joined LinkedIn, for instance if you are looking for work, trying to contract someone or simply because you want to be up-to-date about job opportunities in general. The example on the next page is for Reid Hoffman, the CEO of LinkedIn. I Invite other people to join your direct network of contacts. Users can import their list of contacts from their email programme, MS Outlook, and send a standard email to all their contacts. This message provides each contact with an explanation of LinkedIn and invites them to accept the invitation to enter the network by clicking on a link in the message. This person can in turn decide whether to participate actively and invite his/her list of contacts to join the network.

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I Improve the profile with recommendations. LinkedIn does not allow you to include photos, although it recommends that the people who meet you should be allowed to write a recommendation describing you, thus enhancing your visibility. I Update your profile. As your needs change, you will have to ensure your profile is as up to date as possible. When you started using LinkedIn, you may have not been interested in looking for a job but this situation may have changed. You may also change your post in a company or your career goals. If you make sure your profile is updated, you will improve your experience on LinkedIn and get greater benefit from your network. Today I can use my LinkedIn account to access 900 people through my direct contacts, 21,100 through these contacts, and 239,400 through four degrees of separation. Of these contacts, over 5000 live in my region and more than 16,000 work in the same industry as myself. 128


Below is my page on LinkedIn, with information on my current network. HOW DO YOU PERFORM A SEARCH?

LinkedIn is mainly useful because it allows you to view your network of contacts and thus know how to contact someone on your network who might have access to a person you need to meet. One key to the success of LinkedIn is precisely the way in which these searches are performed. For many people on LinkedIn, it is important not to reveal the identity of the people who are on their network. So, for example, if I want to reach a graphic designer who is looking for work, I can see who the graphic designers are and how many people separate me from them. I can see, perhaps, that I am separated from a person with an interesting CV by three degrees of separation, and I know

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that I can reach that person through my contact Pete. However, I cannot see which of Pete’s contacts allows me to reach this person. Hence, the path to that person is invisible and the privacy of each user’s network of contacts is preserved. Another key to LinkedIn’s success has been the fact that requests to act as a link to other persons can only be received through direct contacts. This prevents strangers from contacting me to get in touch with someone on my network, which in turn generates a high level of trust in the network and makes it more useful. If everyone was obliged to receive unwanted mail, the incentive to deregister from the network would be huge. LinkedIn allows you to search for different categories, such as specific individuals, people from different industry sectors, people looking for work, people looking to hire other people, people looking for financing and so on. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

By 2007, LinkedIn had grown from 550,000 registered users in 2004 to over 11 million. These people represent a large number of professionals from more than 150 different industries, and no industry represents more than 15 per cent of the total. Of the registered users, 11.8 per cent held managerial posts and 10.2 per cent were vice chairs or chief executive officers. 40 per cent of the people registered lived outside the United States in a total of 88 countries. One year later, in April 2005, the number of registered users had risen to 2.4 million and LinkedIn was enjoying huge success outside the United States, with 725,000 registered users in Europe and 200,000 in Asia. LinkedIn also offers existing groups the possibility of networking through a product called “LinkedIn for Groups.” This allows existing groups to be connected through LinkedIn and use tools to organize meetings. With LinkedIn you can also connect with people from your own company who are already LinkedIn members by identifying people with email addresses similar to your own.

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LinkedIn’s growth has been achieved due to its high degree of virality, or chain-effect transmission, whereby the cost to the network of acquiring a new user is very low and the users themselves are the ones responsible for expanding their networks and inviting their contacts to join LinkedIn. As an example, a few months ago I received a request from one of my direct contacts. He came from a marketing company that wanted to do business with Match.com in Spain. The person who contacted me through LinkedIn turned out to be an interesting contact for our company and we are currently carrying out an advertising campaign on the Internet through this advertising network. I have more than 5000 people in my network of contacts through LinkedIn in Spain, and it is growing every day. For me personally it has so far proven to be an extremely useful tool. As time passes and the critical mass of people using this network grows, its value will also increase. Every day I meet more and more people who use LinkedIn to look for jobs or contact potential candidates. According to Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn, effective networking will become increasingly important. “Everyone networks at professional level. We call people we know to ask them for advice, provide us with contacts for a potential job or for information about a candidate. Everyone does it, but not everyone does it well. The people who know how to network effectively will have a clear advantage,” says Hoffman (quoted in Kaiser, 17 March 2004). OpenBC The Open Business Club, or OpenBC, is an online social network based in Hamburg, Germany. Launched in October 2003, it is the only network of its kind with a clearly international orientation. As of April 2007, it had over 2 million registered users. OpenBC changed its name to Xing-OpenBC in 2006 and it made an initial

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public offering (IPO) in December 2006 (market capitalization of €156Million). It offers its services in English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, and Chinese. Consequently, OpenBC is the only platform that is genuinely useful for communities outside the English-speaking countries which are accustomed to expressing themselves in their own languages and with contacts based mainly in their countries of origin. HOW DOES OPENBC WORK?

OpenBC is tailored specifically for the professional networking segment and offers a huge variety of services that facilitate contacts with other users. As the name “Open Business Club” (OpenBC) indicates, it is a platform that offers huge freedom to members of this social network to establish contacts. The contacts can be made by any person and most users can be contacted, unless they have taken out a special subscription allowing them to set restrictions on the people who can contact them. OpenBC works in a similar way to LinkedIn. Each user must register on the network by completing as detailed a profile as possible. OpenBC allows users to add photos to their profiles. After completing their profiles, users may invite their contacts to join the network by automatically importing contacts from MS Outlook. Searches can be performed by name, company, or industrial sector, and the platform identifies whether or not the

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user is connected with these people. The service is still free, although you can purchase a premium package for €5.95 per month which offers a series of additional functions (more extensive advanced search process, control over users who can or cannot contact you, geographical searches for members who are nearer to you etc.). DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF OPENBC

I Own email system. Unlike other online social networks, OpenBC offers users the option of using their own email systems to manage messages sent and received by users of the system. This service is very useful because it allows users to keep a history of communications sent to other users within the same mailing system. Additionally, for OpenBC it means that each user revisits the site to check whether he or she has received new messages from users. When you enter the site, OpenBC can inform you about new features on the platform or offer its pay services. I Section of forums and experiences. This allows users to create forums on different topics. There is a section on the home page where users write about their experiences of the platform. These tools develop a higher level of interactivity between members. So far, most forums have been started in Germany, although details are also provided of the list of forums with most activity (most articles) and the most popular forums (most members). I Variety of languages. The power to contact people in your own country using the same language adds undoubted value to the platform and differentiates it from others on the market. I Addition of photographs. The field for including a photograph is a must. People who do not insert their photograph have profiles with empty silhouettes instead of their own photos. Many people then

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decide to include their photo. This is a very useful function, even within the context of professional networking, because it allows us to identify people already registered on the site more easily. I Variety of information on personalized home pages. After registering, users enter the OpenBC home page where they are informed about the status of their mail accounts, contacts pending acceptance for inclusion in their networks, news about OpenBC, and lists of the latest people joining, with photos. This information is very useful because users can find people they already know and invite them to join their lists of direct contacts. I Information about the level of activity. Useful information is included for determining the level of activity on the site (number of users connected to the site at each moment) or people who have visited your profile or signed your visitors’ book. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

OpenBC is one of the few social network companies that is already charging end users for its services. It is also the most successful European initiative of this sort and is building a growing critical

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mass of users in Europe. Being the first company to achieve a high degree of acceptance may transform OpenBC into the undisputed leader outside the United States, where LinkedIn enjoys widespread popularity. OpenBC has also managed to create a platform with interesting functions, enabling a large amount of information to be included in each profile. OpenBC’s user base has a high degree of liquidity: that is to say, you can find a wide range of people who are useful contacts for closing deals, getting recommendations, and so on. Moreover, the open character of this platform enhances users’ ability to access a large pool of professionals. Ryze Ryze was one of the first second-generation social networks (after sixdegrees.com in 1997). It was launched in October 2000 in San Francisco as a tool for people who lost their jobs after the Internet bubble burst to keep in touch and view job opportunities. The name “Ryze” comes from “rise up” and was chosen to inspire people to connect and network in an effective and fun way. In 2004 Ryze was the only online social network to record profits, obtaining 120,000 registered users in three years without any type of financing from any venture capital firm. Ryze is a very popular network among entrepreneurs and people embarking on start-ups. However, since it charges users for its services, it is not currently achieving levels of critical mass on a par with LinkedIn, and these services tend to be more interesting for professionals working outside the States. HOW DOES IT WORK?

Ryze works in a similar way to OpenBC or LinkedIn. Each user completes a profile and invites his/her network of contacts to join the platform. Searches can be performed by person or by community. However, Ryze also has a pay service offering more functions and other characteristics, making this site an online social network with both a professional and a personal focus.

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DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF RYZE

I Free service and pay service. Unlike LinkedIn, Ryze makes an important distinction between free access users and subscribers or Gold users who pay a $9.95 monthly subscription. Free access users can publish their information, include a photograph and provide details of what they are looking for, what sector they belong to, and so on. However, only subscribers may contact people after a search result. Subscribers can also include more information about their profile along with up to five photos, start a community or new network, and obtain discounts on Ryze events. I Events section. Ryze has one section devoted exclusively to announcing events. Every day, meetings are announced for Ryze users in different cities around the world. This section has generated great interest and serves as a reference point for viewing activities scheduled to take place in each city. These activities include ones promoted by Ryze users and other types of events.

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I Classified section. Ryze has included a classified section where all members can publish adverts, sell a house, or look for a flat mate. The degree of trust that Ryze has managed to generate in its community means that these classified adverts are very popular, and small fees may even be charged for their inclusion. I Forums by communities. This section enables users to perform searches by communities according to different interests, and to express opinions through moderated forums. These forums have high-quality content because each person wishing to contribute must register as a member of that community. This avoids anonymous comments and prevents other members from viewing the profile of the person contributing to the forum. These forums also have moderators who are usually the people who started each community. A wide variety of Ryze community forums are currently running, such as “Parents Working From Home and Loving It,” “Professionals from the Petroleum Industry,” or “Help Forum for People Organizing their Wedding.” HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

Ryze has succeeded in creating a loyal community of users by incorporating functions that foster the creation of communities around topics of interest, such as community-based forums or event announcements. These functions enable Ryze to integrate a unique and differentiated combination of professional and social aspects. Ryze is a very popular site among people wanting to be visible within a community or to start a debate on a specific topic (for example, the movement against 4x4 drive vehicles in the United States due to their high level of pollution). It is a good site to visit if you want to diversify your circle of contacts. At present, it is the site with the greatest diversity of people grouped by similar interests. It continues to be a very active community for people seeking employment in the Internet and technology sectors. Its geographical concentration is very

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high in the United States (80 per cent), and particularly in the Silicon Valley area, San Francisco, and New York. The CEO and founder of Ryze.com, Adrian Scott, obtained a Ph.D. in mathematics at the age of 20 and was one of the founders of Napster. Scott says that: we are still not exploiting all the possibilities the Internet has to offer. Ryze is one of the tools we can use to slowly change the world, since it empowers every person to choose how to build their own path. What’s important is discovering what it’s all about and not being left out (Scott, 2004). eConozco The social networks phenomenon in the United States has led to developments in other countries and regions. One such example is eConozco, which was launched in May 2003 as the first online social network for professionals in Spanish. Albert Armengol, one of its founders, had observed the social networks in the United States, and noticed the lack of a useful product for Spanish speakers. Along with other entrepreneurs with experience in the health and Internet sectors, he developed eConozco while doing his MBA at the ESADE Business School. It was founded with the support of Grupo Galenicom, an incubator for Internet projects. By September 2004 eConozco already had more than 22,000 members, mostly executives from large corporations, entrepreneurs and professionals from all sectors. By March 2007, when it was acquired by Xing-Open BC, it had a membership of 150,000. HOW DOES IT WORK?

The eConozco platform works in a similar way to LinkedIn. You can only contact users through your direct contacts; as with LinkedIn, you can view your network and identify direct contacts you can use to reach the person you want to get in

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touch with. The system for registering and inviting contacts is also similar to the one used by LinkedIn. The unique aspect of eConozco is its language and the concentration of professionals in the Spanish-speaking world, particularly in Spain. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF ECONOZCO

I Focus on the Spanish-speaking market. Most eConozco members speak Spanish. The site also shows the percentage of users from each nationality. I Greater visibility of contacts. eConozco offers a very interesting service for viewing all the people you can contact at a distance of two degrees of separation. The visual map shows you all these people without having to perform specific searches. I Value added services. The eConozco site has incorporated useful services such as profile statistics, an advertising board and links to other users’ blogs. It also has a bibliographic section with access to interesting books, mainly on business topics. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

eConozco grew enormously in its first few years. By April 2004 it had 12,000 members and by April 2005 this figure had almost tripled with a total of 34,000 users registered on its platform. As mentioned earlier, by the time it was acquired by Xing-Open BC two years later, this had multiplied nearly five times. eConozco also benefits from being the only online social network platform designed exclusively for the Spanish-speaking market. Although other platforms have a larger critical mass of users, it is always useful to belong to a platform that unites people speaking the same language and who we are probably more closely related to or who we can establish more relevant contacts with. In this regard, eConozco has an important competitive advantage. Nevertheless, OpenBC and LinkedIn have more Spanish users, which means that they compete directly with eConozco, and 139


OpenBC also offers services in Spanish. In terms of brand awareness in the professional sector, eConozco has so far done a good job in public relations and positioned itself in the media as the main online social network in Spanish. According to Albert Armengol, responding to the Delphi study performed in August 2004: the leaders in the sector will be the ones who achieve volume and at the same time provide a service adapted to the needs of their target public. However, niche players will also be important. They will not be outright leaders, but they will have an impact on a specific public. By focusing on the Spanish-speaking market, eConozco may become the leader of this niche market, even if there are more important players at global level. Ecademy Ecademy is a social network developed in the United Kingdom by three entrepreneurs, Thomas Power, Glenn Watkins, and Penny Power. It currently (2007) has over 100,000 users in 172 countries and is one of the most international social networks. Ecademy is geared towards professionals, although it offers a wide range of tools to support interactivity among users, creating true communities grouped around common interests. Ecademy was launched in February 1998, making it one of the oldest social networks. Until now it has been financed with private funds amounting to $3.75 million. HOW DOES IT WORK?

Ecademy enables users to complete very detailed profiles which can include voice files, presentations, articles, or links to their own blogs. Each user must define 50 key words that will be used

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in searches by any user. In this way, Ecademy has managed to develop a very effective system for searches among users. Ecademy offers a pay service for premium users or powernetworkers of $14.95 per month. This subscription entitles these users to organize meetings among professionals and to receive discounts for different events organized by Ecademy in different cities. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF ECADEMY

I Emphasis on content. Ecademy is very rich in content and encourages users to publish articles, keep their own blogs, and contribute content. I Wide range of utilities. The Ecademy site offers a wide range of utilities to its users. For example, they can see who is connected at all times, view profiles with audio recordings, direct links to blogs and other users’ articles, access the service using mobile technology, visit the Enews news section, and view information on statistics about visits to their profiles. I Announcement of events. In Ecademy, meetings are announced for members in leading European capitals. At present the CEO, Thomas Power, is offering a series of Ecademy networking conferences or events to promote the site and to publicize the advantages of building on contacts effectively. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

Ecademy has successfully created a site with a high degree of loyalty among its members. You can read about their experiences on the site. The possibility of including content makes the site very “sticky”: that is, it encourages Ecademy members to spend a long time connected and to participate very actively. Ecademy is the chief reference site in the United Kingdom and one of the most important in Europe. 141


Thomas Power is one of the driving forces behind Ecademy. He organizes seminars all around the world, gives classes on how to talk in public and publishes articles; he is almost permanently connected to Ecademy and can always be contacted. The information included in Thomas Power’s profile shows exactly how the CEO preaches by example and makes himself available to act as a link to other people (email, instant messaging address, Skype, telephone, postal address). Thomas Power is also the author of Networking for Life. He is also one of the most connected people on the LinkedIn site. According to Power: Ecademy aims to connect professionals in order to create a global family that provides them with support. Ecademy is the place where you can handle your current contacts, make new contacts at professional level in the short and long term, for your work now and later for your retirement. You must contribute to be successful. Ecademy is a contribution network. ... The more you give, the more you receive.5

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Spoke Spoke was founded in July 2002 in Palo Alto, California, by a group of people from software companies such as Oracle, Peoplesoft, EDS, Sun, and Siebel. In April 2003, Spoke obtained $11.2 million in funds from the venture capital firms US Venture Partners, Sierra Ventures, and Partech International. On its Board of Directors, Spoke has people like Mark Granovetter, head of the Sociology Department at Stanford University, Bonnie Nardi, a specialist in social networks at the University of California, Irvine, and Albert Barabase, a famous academic who is an expert in social networks theory.

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HOW DOES IT WORK?

In contrast to OpenBC, LinkedIn, or Ryze, Spoke offers software that enables companies to identify their employees’ contacts through their interactions via email, instant messaging, or other forms of communication such as packages used for sales network or sales team communications. In this way, companies can identify employees who have useful contacts for closing potential deals with other companies. The potential of these tools is being exploited more and more because the management teams of large corporations are becoming aware of the value and direct impact of results achieved through their own employees’ networks of contacts. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF SPOKE

I Synchronization of the contacts database. The SpokeSync programme allows you to update your list of contacts in Spoke as it grows. I Scope of public information. One of the most attractive features for individual users is the amount of information stored on Spoke’s servers. If you search for a connection to a specific person or company, you are more likely to find that person in Spoke than in any other private social network. I Software solutions Spoke’s most popular service is its software programme for enterprises. It offers three different solutions depending on the needs of each company/client: – Enterprise edition. With this social network software, Spoke helps complex organizations to streamline their sales processes and increase productivity, identifying the bestconnected people for making contacts in each situation. – Team edition. This version is designed to help sales teams. – Personal edition. This edition is a similar to OpenBC or LinkedIn and is designed to allow all users to handle their own networks of contacts. This is the only version of Spoke that is still free. 144


HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

Spoke currently has 35 million people and 900,000 companies in its public database. Spoke software is gradually shortening sales processes, since cold calling has now been replaced by calls through contacts provided by people who actually work at the company in question. As we saw in previous chapters, the possibilities of achieving a positive result increase substantially when making a call through someone else’s contact. In this case, Spoke’s software allows users to identify people with these direct contacts, enabling them to achieve better end results. Visible Path Visible Path offers similar software to Spoke. Visible Path was founded in October 2002 in New York by Anthony Brydon, and in February 2004 it received $3.7 million from the Kleiner Perkins venture capital fund. Visible Path is geared towards large corporations. Its services are currently available at a fixed annual fee of $600 per employee. HOW DOES IT WORK?

Like Spoke, Visible Path’s software generates a list of contacts by mining email information or documents exchanged between company employees. In this way, the relationships of each employee are established and communication capability is improved by using the best-connected person in each case. These systems can be used to identify an employee who knows another person in the sales department of another company. Thus, anyone wanting to arrange a visit to that company to discuss something to do with sales can contact the employee who already has a direct contact there. Visible Path works on the principle that 95 per cent of the relationships of the employees of a company are not known by the other workers at that company. These relationships represent very important human capital for improving sales, marketing, or staff

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recruitment procedures. The Visible Path system aims to leverage these valuable relationships between employees in the same company through a platform that makes these relationships visible and that is capable of displaying them effectively. This type of software is currently referred to as RCM (Relationship Capital Management) software. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF VISIBLE PATH

Visible Path software has the following features for making a company’s relationship network visible: I Data mining engine. This search engine allows information to be extracted about each employee’s contacts through email, instant messaging, voice, or any other electronic system where contact information may be stored. I Weighting engine. This engine measures the degree of interaction of each person with each of their contacts, the frequency and type of communication, and how successful they have been in achieving their goals. For example, we may frequently exchange emails with several people at another company, but one of them in particular has played a crucial part in closing a deal; our relationship with this person is clearly more important than those with the other people who have less decision-taking power or influence. I Connection system. This system allows us to establish the visibility of our connections and our contacts’ connections. It allows us to see who we have to contact to reach a specific person. If there are various people who can put us in touch with that person, we use the weighting engine to see who has the best degree of connection. Visible Path has several other differentiating features:

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I It is a dynamic system. Information gathered by these three aforementioned features is automatically refreshed every time someone includes a new contact in their address book or a new address in their instant messaging system. The Visible Path system is dynamic and learns with each new interaction. I Integration with other sales force automation (SFA) or customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Visible Path can be integrated with other systems already being used in companies, such as Salesforce or CRM systems like Siebel. These integrations allow users to identify people in each organization with the best degree of connection with the client. I Focus on information privacy. All members of the company who use Visible Path can decide whether their contacts are to be revealed. In other words, they control access to each of their contacts. This is a clear advantage for Visible Path as it protects the privacy of each employee’s address book. I High adoption level. Visible Path does not automatically incorporate each employee’s contacts without his or her explicit approval. This policy, however, is proving successful. By offering this option to end users and showing them the value of belonging to the platform to achieve better professional results, Visible Path is achieving a 75 per cent adoption rate of the system among the employees of all the companies where it has been implemented. I Integration with Google. Visible Path enables you to combine application to search engines like Google. Thus, in a search for companies right-click the mouse to access Visible Path and you can see how many people in your company are related with that firm or person. For example, on the screen shown on the next page, you can right-click the mouse over the name IBM in the Google search results (top left) to see who is connected to the company in question on Visible Path.

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Visible Path’s clients include American investment banks and large telecommunications companies. At the conference on software for enterprises held on 11 August 2004, Anthony Brydon, Visible Path’s CEO said: more and more companies are becoming aware of the real value of one of their intangible assets – their employees’ networking relationships. More and more companies are trying to determine how to quantify this value, and Visible Path offers a clear answer on how to extract value in a direct way. Visible Path handles data on improvements in sales processes and successfully closed deals that show how this system extracts value, making the relationships of each individual within the company visible. According to Brydon, “sales cycles are being reduced by an average 27 per cent and the ratio of closed sales is growing by 22 per cent due to the efficiency obtained by substituting cold calls with direct contacts” (quoted in Horowitz, 2004). 148


Knowmentum In May 2003, the online social network company ItsNotWhat YouKnow.com, operating under the trade name Knowmentum, launched a networking service designed for professionals. It aims to stand out from the rest of the pack by offering value-added applications which can be purchased for an annual subscription fee of between $48 and $120, depending on the service level contracted. HOW DOES IT WORK?

Knowmentum focuses on the professional social network segment for making contacts between business communities and for active job seeking. The contact search and access request system is similar to the one used by LinkedIn, and users can decide to either accept or reject a request from a third party to contact one of the direct contacts in their network. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF KNOWMENTUM

I Internet Conferencing. One of the new services offered by Knowmentum is Internet Conferencing. This service, called “Knowmentum Live,” includes a voice over Internet system which enables presentations to be shared on the Internet and co-surfing. The aim is to provide added value to our network and allow us to organize online meetings with other users. I Geographical visualization. Knowmentum offers a service for viewing our network contacts according to their geographical location. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

Knowmentum has developed interesting applications but it does not have the same critical mass of users or the same degree of success as other competitors in the professional segment with higher levels of acceptance. 149


Online social networks with a personal focus Friendster Friendster is the main online social network with a personal focus: a tool for contacting friends and socializing. It was founded in 2002 by Jonathan Abraham, the businessman who created Hotlinks and who was a developer for Netscape and Nortel. In November, 2003, Friendster stunned the market by obtaining $13 million in financing from some of the most prestigious venture capital companies in Silicon Valley, like Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark Capital, and Battery Ventures. In a matter of months, there were more than 7 million registered users of Friendster’s beta version. Overnight, Friendster went from being a network no one had ever heard of to one that everybody seemed to have been asked to join. HOW DOES IT WORK?

Friendster works in a similar way to other professional social networks. Users registers for free, complete their profile and include a picture and personal interests, indicating whether they are looking for a partner and if not, whether they agree to act as a link for other people to meet. Users invite their networks of friends through email. (Friendster also includes an interface with MS Outlook for sending emails.) At the same time, these friends invite their own contacts, and so on. I can meet someone through Friendster and discover we are connected through my friend John, for example. The aim of this social network is to generate a climate of trust. If Doug is a friend of my friend John, then I will tend to trust him more and feel he may be someone I could get along with or would be interested in meeting. Friendster allows users to perform searches by geographical area, age, or civil status. Although we can perform general searches in Friendster, as with other social networks we can only contact people we are connected to in some way. Friendster allows

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both institutions and individuals to register, which means that the network can also be used by schools or different associations. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF FRIENDSTER

I Critical mass. Friendster was the first social network to obtain 7 million users, all connected within a few months. The viral phenomenon in Friendster’s expansion prompted the creation of similar companies. Friendster managed to arouse curiosity among people who wanted to belong to a site where there were so many other people. I Service simplicity. Friendster offers a very basic service in which you can ask others to participate, browse the network for other people, and choose the connection level that others need to have in order to send you messages or view your profile. The browser menu, usability, and site design are very simple. I Dating. Friendster competes in the dating services sector with companies like Match.com. The reason why we use a service like Friendster for dating is that we are more confident about meeting someone if we know how they are connected to us (e.g. through a friend’s friend). HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

For John Abraham, the key factors to Friendster’s rapid development are the high connectivity between users and the low cost of the network. At a conference on new Internet business held at Stanford University in February 2004, Abraham commented on Friendster’s massive success so far: there is huge value in human connection. Friendster was able to bring people together because of viral recommendations. My friend recommends Friendster to me and I recommend it to my friend and he 151


recommends it to his own friend, and all this gets done without any advertising cost, simply [through] the power of connection. Nevertheless, Friendster has since lost market strength and many of the users that originally joined the site are no longer active. One of Friendster’s initial problems is precisely its generalist nature. Many people joined Friendster through friends’ invitations, but once they were in they did not really know what to do. Friendster’s challenge lies in attracting communities with common interests and contributing added value through the

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social networking platform, which will enable users to meet people with similar interests to their own. Friendster is currently working on communication tools for these communities and enabling more efficient searches according to interests. Tribe.net Like many of the most popular social networks currently available, Tribe.net appeared in July 2003 in San Francisco after the launch of networks like Friendster. In November 2003, Tribe.net obtained $6.3 million in financing from the Mayfield fund and the Knight Ridder and Washington Post media groups. Tribe.net is the social network that has been most successful in combining the community concept generated around different interest groups (“tribes” in tribe.net lingo) with a large platform of classified ads. HOW DOES IT WORK?

When registering, users complete a profile and add their picture. However, this profile is gradually filled out as the user joins different tribes. Tribe.net fosters interest group creation and enables people with common interests to contact each other quickly. In order to express your opinion and belong to a tribe, you have to register with that group. This avoids undesirable participation by uninterested users who may join a discussion and be a nuisance to the rest of the group. Tribe.net also allows us to see the degrees of connection separating us from others on the network, and the persons we can go through to reach them. Just as Ryze serves the professional community, Tribe.net brings these communities into the real world by organizing meetings in different cities. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF TRIBE.NET

I It is a social network with a personal and professional focus. Tribe.net is the social network that has been most successful

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in integrating professional networking in a site where users can share interests with their networks of contacts. I The strength of communities. Tribe.net has managed to bring people together around specific communities, and also makes it very easy to create new ones. These communities, or tribes, organize events and enable members to trade (hence the influence of classified ads and the interest of Knight Ridder and Washington Post in participating in the company’s capital). The screenshot below shows an example of publication of events and contacts belonging to the Swing fan community in the San Francisco area. I Focus on the North American market. A facility was only recently incorporated into the search function for a limited number of countries. Tribe.net is one of the sites focusing almost exclusively on the North American market.

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Tribe.net is one of the social network platforms that has integrated community creation needs most successfully. The creation of strong online communities is interesting for publishing classified ads. Although this service is still free, Tribe.net is considering charging a fee for publishing stand-out ads or job vacancies. Mark Pincus, CEO of Tribe.net, has a forward looking approach to the site as the best platform for classified ads. According to Pincus, “you are more likely to trust in a car ad if you hear about it through a friend” (quoted in Overfelt, 2004). This is one of the reasons why the media groups Knight Ridder and Washington Post are backing Tribe.net. Orkut Orkut is Google’s virtual social network. It is clearly focused on dating and generating communities around networks of contacts. Google tried to buy Friendster for around $30 million, but when its offer was turned down, it decided to invest in its own initiative. One of Google’s methods for promoting employee creativeness is to allow them to devote 20 per cent of their time (one day a week) to personal projects. In return, Google preserves the copyright on these developments. This is how a Google software developer, Orkut Buyukkokten, developed his social network, which he called “Orkut,” and got Google to launch his beta version on the market in January 2004. In just three days Orkut captured 6000 registered users. By the end of August 2004, Orkut had more than a million registered users. HOW DOES IT WORK?

What is peculiar about registering with Orkut is that you can only join once you have received an invitation from someone who already belongs to the network. This develops a feeling of exclusiveness and additional interest in joining this network, which is not

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open to the general public; membership is only through invitation (Orkut has even created its own song, which you can download from www.googlemania.com/orkut.php?606). New members can only access Orkut through a link on the email of the person inviting them to join. In this way, Orkut aims to create a community of trusted members linked by some sort of relationship. At the same time, the aim is for its growth to be determined by existing members, since they are the ones who send emails in larger or smaller numbers to other people, inviting them to join the network. Orkut allows users to create interest groups, build detailed profiles, and perform searches. Orkut is a free service focused basically on social relationships, rather than on professionals in social networks. See Orkut Buyukkokten’s profile below as an example. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF ORKUT

The Orkut phenomenon has stirred up a great deal of expectation, for various reasons. I The invitation system creates an initial sense of anticipation around belonging to Orkut and seeing how other guests behave. The eBay auction portal has even traded these Orkut invitations for around $2.

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I The initiative is sponsored by Google, the Internet’s most powerful browser, which is now focusing on compiling personal information from the profiles created by thousands of Orkut users. The question is, how will Google use this data to send us search results according to our interests or hobbies? I Google’s initiative may eclipse others and become cybernauts’ favourite platform for maintaining their network of contacts, just as they prefer to use Google for browsing. If this happens, it would be interesting to see what characteristics Orkut offers to differentiate the service from those offered so far by other leading platforms. I This move by Google has aroused additional expectation, as it begins to diversify its activities beyond the traditional browsing business and to compete more and more with generalist portals like Yahoo or MSN. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

In its early days, Orkut was criticized for faults in its security system and in its protection of members’ data, as well as for continual server failures due to overloads prompted by excessive traffic flows. These problems have now been resolved although Orkut and its invitation system does give rise to unusual phenomena. In July 2004, Brazilian Orkut users outnumbered their North American counterparts. Many communities created within the Orkut environment use Portuguese to communicate, and this is starting to annoy members from the United States who see the arrival of so many Brazilian users as an invasion. Although there are only 20 million surfers in Brazil compared with 153 million in the US, 41 per cent of Orkut members are Brazilians, whereas the United Stated accounts for barely 23.5 per cent. Oddly enough, Iran is the third most important country with 6 per cent, and Spain represents 1.9 per cent. According to Beth Saad, Professor of Communications at the University of Sao Paolo, “belonging to Orkut has become a

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symbol of prestige for Brazilian surfers, who, by nature, follow fashion and trends” (quoted in Alerigi, 2004). In the days following the 2004 11–M terrorist attacks in Madrid, Spanish Orkut members exchanged messages of condolence, and two communities were automatically created condemning the attacks, Terrorismo en Madrid (Terrorism in Madrid) and Todos contra la guerra (Everyone against war) (Googlemania, 2004). Spanish users swapped their pictures for a black ribbon as a sign of mourning, and many other Orkut members followed suit. Orkut shows Google’s desire not to miss the train of growth in social networks. For many analysts, like Jeremy Zawodny or Siliconvalley.com journalist Dan Gillmor, Google needs Orkut to mine member data and later turn this information into money by sponsoring search results of users with known interests, hobbies, or political inclinations (Zawodny, 2004). Despite the uncertainty as to whether Orkut’s artificial expansion is due to the exclusive effect that the “by invitation only” system provides, and in spite of the site being less functional than other webs in this segment, Google’s sponsoring power will undoubtedly help Orkut to become one of the most influential sites in the future.

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Dodgeball Dodgeball.com combines social network software with a mobile application that enables geolocalization. The Dodgeball system, with headquarters based in New York, lets users invite their friends to join their networks of contacts and, at the same time, locate them on their mobile phones and find out where they are. The geolocalization system allows you to contact a friend or access a friend’s contact who lives close to you, or who is, for example, spending the weekend in the same place as you are. Dodgeball launched its beta version in May 2004. This system allows you to send text messages to people connected by a maximum of two degrees of separation and within a specific radius of proximity. Dodgeball initially launched its service in the city of New York but has recently opened its platform to San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. According to its founder, Dennis Crowley, “we feel that bringing social networks into the mobile sector is the next logical step. We’re surprised no one has done it already.” (quoted in Hicks, April 2004).

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Other types of websites similar to social networks Meetup Meetup.com is a site that encourages people to meet. The definition on the meetup.com site says it all: “Meetup is a site that promotes local meetings of groups sharing common interests. Meetings are held face-to-face in the real world, over a beer or a coffee.” Meetup’s founder, Scott Heiferman, took his inspiration to create the site from the book Bowling Alone by the Harvard psychologist Robert Putnam. In his book, Putnam analyses the tendency in American society for people to indulge in activities on their own, and how the values of belonging to a community or getting to know neighbours are being lost. Heiferman wanted to create an Internet site where it would be easy to organize meetings in any city in the world to discuss any subject and for people to relate more. By April 2005, Meetup already had over 1½ million registered users and meetings had been held in 650 cities in a total of 61 countries. These include Spain, and the example below shows pictures published by the members of Bookcrossing Madrid (a reading club that meets every month in Madrid through Meetup.com). Meetup’s aim is for people with similar interests to use the Internet to meet and get to know each other in real life. Many of these groups meet regularly and turn into networking groups, attracting people with contrasting profiles around a common theme. Meetup is free, although it also has a pay section that makes it possible to decide where to hold gatherings. With a staff of only 25 people, Meetup has created a solid business pattern and a powerful tool for making announcements and networking worldwide. According to Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup, “our growth was due to simply to the fact that Meetup is something

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users want to use. The only initiatives that work are the ones that actually contribute value and we offer people with similar interests a simple method for meeting and conversing. It’s easy and it works” (quoted in Kaiser, April 2004). Craigslist Craigslist.org appeared in 1995 as Craig Newmark’s project to supply useful information to San Francisco residents so they could find a good restaurant or a fast and reliable laundry. In 1999, Craig decided to dedicate more time to his site because he was receiving a huge number of visits by word of mouth. People visiting this site contributed their opinions and suggestions. As a result, Craigslist soon became one of the most visited sites and it began to develop a real community. Today Craigslist users publish job vacancies and profiles, look for matches, sell objects, and search for room mates or rent apartments – all around a community based on the mutual trust of its members. The Craigslist site is simple and prohibits advertising

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(not even banners are allowed). It is free and only charges for job vacancy ads. Craig and his circle of friends have grown, spreading to 30 cities in the United States and London, and they soon plan to open sites in Madrid and Paris. The film 24 Hours on Craigslist documents a day in the life of people who use Craigslist for different reasons during the day. On 13 August 2004, eBay announced the purchase of 25 per cent of Craigslist. According to Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay: Craigslist is an excellent example of how the Internet can create a community that works for both buying and selling objects, helping a neighbour or calling a meeting to discuss a given topic. We hope to work with the Craigslist team and help them in their forward-looking approach (Business Wire, 2004). eBay believes it can learn how to create on-line communities from Craigslist. This is extremely indicative of how a site like

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this has succeeded in getting people with common interests to meet and get to know each other better, and to share information for the benefit of others. Basically they are networking in both the real and virtual worlds. According to Craig Newmark, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Craigslist: our site has a unique personality and is based on the trust of users in those contributing information to our site. If this level of trust did not exist, they would not visit it. Our personality and reliability are the keys to our success (quoted in Kaiser, February 2004). Plaxo In the year 2000, Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster, created Plaxo together with two engineers from Stanford University, Todd Masonis and Cameron Ring. Plaxo is a service that allows you to update your email contacts. Plaxo has over 2 million users and over 700 million connections, i.e. people who are not members but who are connected to Plaxo users. Plaxo can be downloaded free from www.plaxo.com. It allows you to keep your list of email contacts up-to-date. Plaxo users can send automatic emails to all their contacts asking them to update their contact details. The information is then automatically refreshed in their email system and it will refresh whenever anyone changes their email address, company, telephone number or whichever contact information they have given us. This is an effective tool for resolving one of the most common networking problems, namely being able to maintain updated contact details of the person we want to find. Plaxo was launched in November 2002 with fewer than 50 users. A year later, it had over a million. By September 2004 this number had increased to over 3.4 million and reached 15 million two years later.

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Users

Plaxo user growth 15 million

10 million

5 million 3.5 million Nov 2002

Nov 2003

Sept Feb 2004 2005

Mar Sept 2006 2006

1 million 100

Plaxo receives financial support from American venture capital funds (Sequoia Capital) and companies (Globespan, Cisco Systems, Yahoo, Netscape, and Amazon). It maintains a free service and has also launched a premium service of $49.95 per year. For many social networking analysts and experts, like Enrique Dans, a Professor at the Instituto de Empresa Business School, Plaxo may be treated as another social network, as it establishes permanent connections with our direct contacts and improves networking and communication because it is permanently being updated. Plaxo is very easy to download and its features for updating contacts make it an essential tool. To download version 2.0 of Plaxo, simply visit the download section at www.plaxo.com. Three Degrees In February 2003, Microsoft launched the beta version of threedegrees.com. The site was targeted at the so-called “NetGen,” or Net Generation, made up of people aged 13 to 24 who had grown up with the Internet. Three Degrees offered a platform for creating groups (with a maximum of ten participants) where people

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could share photos, listen to music together, send messages, or share the same desktop background. Microsoft has a group separated from its head offices in Redmond, dedicated to researching how to develop useful software for this generation of surfers. Surfers in this age group demand applications they can use to interact with their networks of friends and they view the Internet more as a place where they can relate with one another. Technically speaking, Three Degrees could not be classified as a social network site because it did not use software that identifies the degrees of separation between users on the platform. However, for Microsoft, the functionality and capacity for peerto-peer sharing of information is what brings the youngest surfers together and makes them feel connected to their friends. With this platform, Microsoft aimed to make to feel better connected with one another, reducing the degrees of separation from six to three, hence the name of this site (from Stanley Milgram’s six degrees of separation); you’re closer than you think with Three Degrees. According to the Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg,

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Three Degrees was a very powerful extension of MSN’s instant messaging service, and Microsoft may transfer its system for sharing information to the professional segment (so that, for example, rather than sharing pictures or songs, members of a specific group or department in a company can share PowerPoint files). This service has some limitations: a) it can only be downloaded by Windows XP users with Service Pack 1, hence the capacity to reach a critical mass of users is limited; and b) the site is strongly focused on the NetGen segment, as shown by its design, colours, and language, making it less attractive to the larger base of users who use MSN’s instant messaging service. It is interesting that Microsoft is experimenting with initiatives like Three Degrees, which it needs in order to cater for the needs of surfers (in this case, the youngest segment) to relate, be connected, and form groups and communities they share interests with. Adding the software to enable us to connect with our friends’ friends (social network software) and modifying the product to make it attractive for networking for people of all ages and for professional development would only be the next step for Microsoft. It would provide a product integrated in its instant messaging service which may, even if it is a late starter, actually win the race. The Three Degrees initiative has enabled Microsoft to

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incorporate some of these features in its MSN Messenger 7.0 service. In this version of messenger users can show what music they are listening to and see what their friends are listening to while they are connected. The project itself, Three Degrees, was discontinued and its development work incorporated in the Messenger product. Yahoo 360º On 17 March 2005, Yahoo announced the launch of its beta version of the Yahoo! 360º service. This new service is intended to be a mixture between a blog and a social network. The main objective is to improve connections between users who already know each other and improve the way they can reach their respective contacts. Yahoo! 360º will combine Yahoo products such as instant messaging, local searches, the Launch service for groups and music with new services for creating blogs and moblogs and other tools for recommending films or restaurants. In this way, Yahoo follows in the footsteps of Google and Microsoft and plunges head first into the world of blogging and social network technology. This new service will compete with existing social networks by allowing Yahoo users to contact other users with the same hobbies or interests. This is a totally logical move on Yahoo’s part, integrating, under the same brand image or roof, a series of community services that may convince users to adopt it as the best bundling of communication services on the Internet. Yahoo has 165 million registered users worldwide. With Yahoo! 360º, it can really promote and establish the need for communication and access to networks of contacts through a tool that combines blogs and social networks, available to a huge number of users worldwide. According to Julie Herendeen, Vice President of Yahoo products, one of the keys to the success of the service will be that the new technology will give users total control over who is allowed to view their content.

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It is too early to say how successful this initiative will be, but so far it shows that no Internet portal wants to miss out on the boom in social networks and on exploiting our need to relate with our contacts on the Internet. MySpace MySpace was created in September 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson; within a year, more than 2 million users had registered on the site. Their idea was to create a network that would bring people together around common concerns using social networking software. MySpace is currently very popular among younger surfers, differing from other social networks in that it groups communities around musical preferences. MySpace users have created genuine communities around new groups and bands all around the world. These networks of contacts make it possible to deliver songs by new groups to an enormous number of people very quickly. Besides, we tend to pay more attention to musical recommendations from friends or people we know. In July 2005, News Corp acquired MySpace for $580 million, and its user base in the United States and internationally has continued to grow. In August 2006, MySpace generated its 100 millionth account, created by a user in the Netherlands. According to Alexa, MySpace is the fifth most popular site in the world and the third most popular in the USA. Currently MySpace generates approximately 80 per cent of all traffic to social networking sites in the USA and it has really become a true part of US pop culture, with over 200,000 new users registering every day. MySpace is enabling music groups without huge marketing budgets to promote themselves around the globe. New music groups strive to access the MySpace community, distribute their music and provide information about their concerts. In spite of this free distribution, this is one of the best marketing tools for these groups because it allows them to reach a group of connectors

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in the surfer community that will later allow them to promote themselves to the general public. The example below shows how a Massachusetts band, The Explosion, freely distributes its music, makes itself available to answer members’ questions, promotes the group and announces upcoming gigs. MySpace is also attracting income from advertising income from companies such as Sony or Warner Music, which have realized the potential of reaching this extremely influential community for transmitting information and quickly promoting new music groups. HOW DOES IT WORK?

MySpace basically uses social networking software. The method of registration, profile creation and invitations to contacts are similar to Friendster or Tribe. In early 2006, MySpace introduced MySpace IM, an instant messenger that uses one's MySpace account as a screen name. Users who use MySpaceIM get instant notification of new MySpace messages, friend requests, and comments. MySpace has also launched a mobile application to stay connected with friends on the site.

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DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF MYSPACE

MySpace is essentially different because it focuses on online communities sharing similar tastes in music. It also has a wide range of functions that make the site more dynamic, such as forums, games, email for members, classified ads, and specific events for the community. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

According to MySpace’s founders, its success has mainly been due to the use of a social networking infrastructure to enrich the site with additional functions like games, classified ads, forums, email, blogs, user classifications, and above all, music. The wide variety of options on this social network site may be what is attracting the interest of the surfer community. Sector analysts agree in highlighting the specialization (verticalization) of one particular aspect – music – as the key to the site’s success. MySpace has succeeded in creating an attractive and “sticky” site where users can remain for a whole hour. This is what distinguishes it from Friendster, which has failed to hold on to users and offer anything interesting to keep them connected. MySpace has become a unique phenomenon in the adoption of an online social network. Users have been able to find a place to connect with others, to customize their profiles and to really create a sense of community and trust which has set this site apart from its competitors. Users on MySpace consider this site a unique place to express their individuality: they share music, they write about themselves, exchange photos and videos. Teenagers in the United States these days are asking their friends: “What is your MySpace profile?” – a true indicator of a service that has become part of teenage culture in a period of barely three years. Facebook Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, who had the idea of replicating online the paper facebooks profiling the members of the Harvard campus community. Two months

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after its launch, more than half of the Harvard undergraduate student base was on the service (then called ‘The Facebook’). Soon, the site expanded to the rest of the Ivy League and other universities. Facebook moved to Palo Alto, California, for work on its site development, and by the end of 2004 it had already raised $500,000 from Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, and had reached over a million registered users. In 2005, Facebook raised $12.7 million and started to expand its platform. At this time the company also purchased the domain facebook.com which helped its expansion into colleges in the United States and abroad (the UK, Mexico and Canada). In 2006, Facebook raised an additional $25 million. Mark Zuckerberg has turned down different offers from various media groups, remaining independent in order to grow the company. The initial model was for registration by invitation only, but as the business grew Facebook allowed users to register freely on the service, and expanded beyond the college community to highschools. Facebook generated $50 million in revenue in 2006 and currently employs 200 people. Together with MySpace, Facebook is one of the biggest threats for companies like MSN and Google today. As of July 2007, Facebook is the second largest social network behind MySpace and is the largest network amongst college-focused sites, with over 25 million members worldwide. HOW DOES IT WORK?

Facebook uses a very user-friendly platform to upload a profile and connect to a network based primarily on highschool and college contacts. It is open for anyone to register with a valid email address. Facebook users log on to their profiles to communicate with the network of interest groups they belong to. Other users in the network can be connected and find out about any changes in a profile activity. The focus of this social network was originally on college membership and it allowed only users with valid college email 171


addresses to register. One of the keys to its success has been opening the registration to all users with valid email addresses. This measure, adopted in 2006, inflamed much controversy as registered users felt that the site would lose its sense of exclusivity, but the change was crucial in fuelling the growth of the network. Facebook continues to expand its focus to really become the de facto social networking site for the largest number of online users. Facebook, like MySpace, is free for the user and the business model is based on advertising revenue. As of June 2007, Facebook was the 17th most visited site worldwide according to Alexa. DIFFERENTIATING FEATURES OF FACEBOOK

Facebook has very interesting features that have made the site very sticky amongst its userbase. One of these features is called ‘the Wall’, a space on a user’s profile that allows friends to post messages for the user to see. Many people use the Wall to leave personal notes, and for longer conversations send messages to the user’s inbox. Facebook has also introduced a classifieds feature on the site called the Marketplace, where users can post free ads on housing, jobs or for sale categories.

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Other Facebook features include virtual gifts and ‘pokes’, which are indications of interest in a given profile. As with other social networking sites, many users are using these networks to date. As a free service to the user, this poses a threat to traditional subscription-based online dating players. HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THIS NETWORK?

With over 25 million registered users, Facebook is clearly a reference point in social networks. According to Abbey Klaassen, it is the only company that scares Google nowadays.6 One of the key advantages of a social network the size of Facebook is the power it offers. If one or two people do a search on Google, a given user does not get a greater benefit. However if more people join Facebook, the network effects generate greater benefit for those joining it. Some people see Facebook as the operating system for social networks in the same way that Google is the operating system for search. Originally based around the idea of connecting within your college community, Facebook has become the place to connect for over 25-year-olds (the younger audience still prefers MySpace). Clearly these two networks have achieved the critical mass of user base needed to generate a real network effect and add value to new users. The twenty sites analysed here summarize the current panorama of online social network sites. More than 100 similar sites exist at present. This has prompted people to use the term “YASN” (Yet Another Social Network) whenever a new online social network pops up on the Internet. Thomas Kiehne of Texas University drew up a list of all existing online social network sites at the end of April 2004 (Kiehne). This is one of the longest lists of sites competing in this segment: 13stripes – Affinity Engines – Friends.com – AOL: People and Chat Directory – AsiaFriendFinder – Backwash – bianca – Bolt – BuddyPic.com – BuddyBridge – BuddyZoo – Building an Online 173


Community: Just Add Water – Bumi-n City – Buzznet – Classmates.com – CNN Interactive Communities – CommunityZero – Company of Friends – The Conneck – Contact Network – Corporate Alumni – CouchSurfing – CPixel.com – Cybertown – del.icio.us – Dogster – domeus – dudecheckthisout.com – easeek – Ecademy – eConozco – EdGateway Communities – Edgeofeverything – eFriendsnet – 8minuteDating – Eliyon – enCentra – EnterNexus – EntreMate – Eurekster!, – Everything2 – everyonesconnected.com – eyebees – FaceParty – Findapix – FollowMrsPoon.com – FriendFan.com – FriendFinder – Friendifieds – Friendity – Friend Surfer – friendsreunited.com – Friendster – Friendzy – Full Moon Webs – FunHi – firsttuesday.com – Going Professional – Groups@AOL – Growth Company – Gruuve – heiyou.com – HelloWorld – hipster Huminity – ICERED – I’m Not From Here – IndianFriendFinder – InterAction – iSawYou.com – ItsNotWhatYouKnow – KnowMates – LianQu – LinkedIn – Link Silicon Valley – livingdirectory.org – Local2Me – thelunchclub.net – Makeoutclub – Many 2 Many – MapPlanet.com – matcheroo – Meatball Wiki – Mediabistro – Mediachest – Meet Up – MixerMixer – Monster Networking – MSN Groups – MSN Member Directory – MySpace – mrNeighbourhood – MyEMatch – New Friends in Town – NetMiner – Netmodular Community – Netparty – Networking For Professionals – nerve.com – nlinebusinessnetworking.com – Nowwwhere – Online Community Report – Open Business Club – OrderGenerator – orkut – PalJunction – Paradise – Petsburg – Picit.com – Pinoy Exchange – Pinoy Forum – Playdo Community – PLINK – Polypol – PopMates – PowerMingle – RateMyBody – RateOrDate – RealContacts – ReferNet – RepCheck – Ringo – Ryze – Shortcut – Silicon Valley Pipeline – socialcircles.com – Social Grid – SocialTree – The Spark – SmartGroups.com – Spoke Software – The Square – StayingClose – StumbleUpon – Sullivan Executive Networking Community – Tacit ActiveNet – Talk City – TENG – Thefacebook – TheFence.com – There – threedegrees – Tickle – Tribe.net – TruthBytes – UUFriends – Virtual Communities and the Internet – Visible Path –

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Volume.com – waferbaby – Wallop – Webstock Whole Earth Festival – Well, The – WildAbout.com – WisdomBuilder – WhizSpark – WiW – WordofMouthConnection.com – World Lounge – WorldShine – YeeYoo – Yahoo! Groups – Yahoo! Member Directory – Zamboozle – Zanpo – Zerodegrees. And before you think this is a complete list, remember we haven’t even included the world of online social networks for Man’s best friend!

5.5 Conclusion: choose the online social network that best meets your needs As we have seen, there is a huge range of options when it comes to choosing an online social network, whether you are an individual wanting to increase your professional contacts, a company wanting to make the networks of your employees’ contacts more visible, or just someone wanting to find people with the same tastes in music or similar social or political inclinations. Until

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Complex

Simple Focused on personal relationships

Focused on professionals

now, many more options have been available for North American residents than for Europeans. However, as we have seen, companies are starting to appear in Europe and some American companies see the European market as a natural market for growth and expansion. The range and use of these sites by European surfers are likely to grow in the coming months. The online social networks analysed in this book can be positioned in the matrix shown below according to their personal or professional focus and their degree of complexity in terms of both usage and the functions they offer end users. I recommend you join at least one professional social network and one personal or dating network and invite your contacts to participate. In a few days you’ll discover how interesting opportunities start coming your way and you’ll start to broaden your network of contacts. The next chapter will look at what the experts have to say about the future of these social networks.

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6 THE FUTURE OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS

I never think of the future – it comes soon enough. Albert Einstein Networking is becoming more important by the day. We change jobs more frequently, we need to finance new projects and reach investors, and we look for recommendations for books based on what people we consider have the same tastes as us have liked. The Internet, and new online social networks in particular, enable us to reach many people through our own networks of contacts and to see how we can get to the people we want to meet. However, as has happened on other occasions with the Internet, some trends that spread at high speed disappear just as quickly. We should bear in mind that in 2002 there were hardly any online social networks and no initiatives had succeeded in attracting a significantly large number of registered users. We must therefore ask ourselves a number of questions: I Are online social networks here to stay? I Will they succeed in attracting a sufficiently large number of users? I Will existing companies survive?

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I Is there enough room for so many social networks in the professional and personal relationships segments? I Will these networks manage to get users to pay for their services? I Do these social networks offer better utilities that cannot be provided by blogs or even instant messaging services? I How will Yahoo or MSN integrate these applications to build social networks? I What does the future hold for online social networks and what factors may thwart their development? To answer these questions, 40 experts in the field were asked to participate in a Delphi survey of 18 questions about online social networks, their usefulness and their future. The survey participants included the following: I Founders of online social networks such as Albert Armengol, the founder of eConozco, Craig Newmark, creator of Craigslist, Mark Pincus, CEO of Tribe.net, Jas Dhillon, CEO of ZeroDegrees, Jan Hinrichs, Managing Director of OpenBC in Spain, Andrew Venn, CEO of Check Your Network First, and Joe Cohen, COO of Match.com. I Important names from the academic world such as Enrique Dans, Professor at the Instituto de Empresa Business School, José Luis Orihuela, Assistant Manager of the Multimedia Communication Laboratory of Naverre University, Fernando Tricas, Professor of the Computer Technology and Systems Engineering Department at Zaragoza University, Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Professor of the Business School at Stanford University, Caroline Haythornthwaite, Professor at Illinois University, Fernanda Viegas, a researcher for the MIT Media Laboratory, and Espen Andersen, Professor of the Norwegian School of Management. I Writers like Dave Pollard (author of the blog “How to save the world”), Verna Allee (a renowned expert on networking

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I

I

I

I

and author of various books on this subject such as The Future of Knowledge), and Doc Searls (co-author of the best-seller The Cluetrain Manifesto). Journalists such as Chris Shipley (IDG), Dan Gillmor (San José Mercury News), José Cervera (Baquía), Ben Hammersley (Guardian). Consultants specializing in knowledge management and networking like Stowe Boyd (Corante Research), Billy McDermott (The Bill McDermott Group), Alan Armstrong (Wily Strategy), Judith Meskill (Meskill.net), James McGee (The Huron Consulting Group), and Martin Roell (Roell.net). Spanish consultants with knowledge of, and experience in, online social networks such as Alexandre Hermida (Zeus Management Consultants), Alejandro Valés (Ibermat), Rubén García (founder of Last Thursday), Julio Alicarte (La Vanguardia Digital), María García (B2B Factory), or Ángel Gutiérrez (Aptivo Consulting). Bloggers who have studied the development of social networks in depth, such as Lee LeFever (Commoncraft, www.commoncraft.com), Robin Good (Masternewmedia, www.masternewmedia.org), and Catuxa Seoane (Deakialli, www.deakialli.blogspot.com).

6.1 The experts’ opinion I According to 60 per cent of the experts participating in the survey, persons separated from us by two degrees of separation (i.e. our contacts’ contacts) are the ones who really provide us with relevant contacts. I 63 per cent of the survey participants said that online social networks can reduce the number of degrees separating us from the person we want to contact because they show us more direct routes to these people. I 58 per cent of the participants said that the main advantages

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I I I I

I I

I I

I

of online social networks are that they show us who our contacts are connected to and enable us to broaden our number of trustworthy contacts. 66 per cent said that the average user would only be active in two or three social network sites. LinkedIn was the best-known and most used site according to the participants, followed by Orkut. 59 per cent of the survey participants said that users will eventually pay for these types of services. The most common systems for paying for these types of services will be pay systems with annual (47 per cent) and monthly (38 per cent) subscriptions. 54 per cent considered that the critical mass of users will be crucial for determining the success of these sites. 61 per cent believed that there is room for generalist social network sites, whereas 39 per cent said that only sites differentiated by theme or function would offer value to users. 88 per cent thought that other types of services could provide a similar service to the one offered by online social networks. Of these services, blogs seem to be the most similar and the type most likely to replace social networks (81 per cent), followed by community sites or instant messaging services (62 per cent). According to the experts, the main functions that social network sites must have in order to be successful are: the ability to generate trust, integration with other applications, protection of information, and ease of use.

There was no consensus among the experts participating in the survey regarding the future of social network sites, although two main groups could be differentiated: I The believers: the ones who believe in the viability of these companies as long-term business models with sufficient capacity to generate critical masses of users.

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I The sceptics: the ones who are doubtful about the viability of most of these companies and who believe that social networks software is really a tool that will be integrated in other services we use every day (email, instant messaging, browsers). The believers The experts who believe these sites will be able to develop profitable and durable business models base their case on a number of key arguments: I These sites are generating value for end users: – Sites such as LinkedIn make it easier for users to perform transactions and improve peoples chances of finding a job or selecting a good candidate. – Social network sites focusing on personal relationships are allowing communities to be created through contacts or recommendations from friends (e.g. MySpace in music). I If a user is receiving value, he or she will be willing to pay to use these types of services, thus ensuring the viability of these companies: – If I find a good candidate for a vacancy at my company through my network of contacts in LinkedIn, I will see clear value in belonging to this network and I will be willing to pay for this service. I These sites show us how to reach other people through the people we know. No other service offers this function, which creates value for the user. I The capacity to generate a large critical mass of users around a service increases the value of these networks. The social network sites that manage to reach larger critical masses of users will be well placed to create sustainable business models. According to Lee LeFever, the creator of the blog Commoncraft:

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social networks show us how connected we are to each other. This is only the start of what this may mean for our daily lives when anyone can see their network of contacts and establish contacts in a simple way. Only a minority are using these services at the moment, but one day everyone will be able to handle their contacts on the Internet. One or two services will end up providing a good service, and these will be the ones that are successful and are adopted by the majority.1 For Enrique Dans, Professor at the Instituto de Empresa Business School: the future of social networks will be determined by their capacity to generate a sufficiently sticky community to attract users and guarantee their loyalty. The social network companies that manage to do this and generate a sufficient critical mass of users will be able to convert this into money and survive.2 Marc Pincus, CEO of Tribe.net, puts it like this: The true value of online social networks is being able to reach an audience in which we trust and which allows us to choose between sending an email and placing an advert in a newspaper. In fact, being able to access this trusted network of contacts gives us much better results than any of the previous options.3 Jas Dhillon, CEO of ZeroDegrees, has no doubts regarding the future of online social networks: In the future online social networks will be much more integrated through applications that complement

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other sites we use every day. We will be able to see our networks through applications on our desktops. We will be able to see which of our contacts has booked a similar trip to the one we want to take, who has eaten at a certain restaurant before we book a table through our online leisure guide. ... The possibilities are endless, and the growth of social network software has only just started.4

The sceptics The sceptics have many doubts about the future of all these companies. Some also question whether the services offered by social networks have any real use, and question the value of knowing how many degrees of separation exist between me and another person if I am separated from them by more than two degrees of separation (in which case I am a complete stranger). Let’s look at their main arguments: I The software used by social network sites has little differentiating value, which means that there are very few barriers to prevent the appearance of new social network services. I Companies offering services designed for professionals may be able to charge for their services. However, social networks focusing on personal relationships face a tougher challenge due to the existence of free alternatives that cover this need to access similar communities (community sites, communities that develop around blogs or broadcast lists). I It is difficult to imagine anyone considering participating actively in more than two social network sites (one for professionals and another for personal relationships). This would lead to a concentration of sites and some of these social networks would disappear.

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I If the critical mass of users belonging to these types of networks is too large, there is the danger we may be contacted by strangers, thus undermining real perceived value. This may also threaten user privacy. I Many companies that have appeared recently have gained popularity by getting people to join their networks without having any real motive to do so. However this popularity will unsustainable if it is due to nothing more than a fleeting fashion. According to danah boyd, a postgraduate student at California University, Berkeley, and an expert in the study of online social networks, “people want social networks to be useful, but most people use networks like Friendster to have fun and play, without any clear objective” (Barton).5 Doc Searls, a writer and consultant, says that “until common standards are established, these sites may not survive independently.”6 Chris Shipley, a consultant specializing in online social networks and blogs, believes that “online social networks are a search function (in this case searches for people in my network of contacts) and, as such, will be just another one of the applications we use.”7 This view is shared by Fernando Tricas, a Professor at the Department of Computer Technology and Systems Engineering at Zaragoza University in Spain. Fernando Tricas comments that “perhaps the creators of social network sites themselves will be the ones who make them interoperable with other tools and enable the integration of functions tailored to meet the needs of individual users. Sites for publishing photos or the blog publication system Typepad already include tools for managing friends and relationships.”8 Stuart Henshall, an expert in Internet marketing and author of various blogs in which he discusses the boom in social networks, believes that the key to the success of social network applications

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lies in creating a standard. He says that “if we can’t get our friends to adopt one of three messaging systems, how can we hope to get them to adopt one of one hundred social networking services” (www.henshall.com/blog/archives/000817.html).9

6.2 Conclusion: familiarize yourself with a service that we will all use And now we come back to the question we started with. What does the future hold for online social networks? A huge number of online social network sites have appeared in the last few years. I predict that in a few years time many of these sites will have disappeared. After the appearance of so many similar sites, users are now trying them all out before deciding which ones they will be active on. The survival of these sites will be determined by the following factors: I Their capacity to congregate a sufficiently large number of active users who create value for other people on the network. I Their capacity to charge for their services, albeit only for premium services. Companies that fail to generate income will not be viable in the long term. I Their capacity to protect the privacy of the users’ information and maintain a climate of trust. If these sites become so large that people are contacted by unwelcome strangers, users will abandon them in droves. I Their ease-of-use and the integration of value added and community services in social networks. In the end, the place I keep my contacts will be a site I want to visit because I can share interests with other people, share music, receive recommendations on books to read, and so on. The evolution towards more complete community sites will be the differentiating factor among current sites.

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The social network sites that offer a good service, respect users, and contribute value will survive. And this will be mainly because they respond to a real need, the need for a better view of how our networks of contacts can help us and how we can, in turn, help ourselves. The main criterion, and the major source of criticism regarding these sites at present, is precisely whether they respond to a real need. The future of sites like Friendster, which have grown exponentially in a race to see who can add most friends without any clear objective, is uncertain. Nobody is going to spend too much time playing at building artificial networks of contacts if, once they have been built, they contribute no value whatsoever. Friendster is currently on shaky ground and the number of pages viewed is in free fall. Congregating more than 7 million people in under a year has been of little use; people need to use their network for something, and they value their time. In contrast, MySpace is proving much more useful to its users. It was also initially based on social network software but has now created a much more solid community and launched tools for sharing information. As a result, users spend an average of one hour connected per session. This is the main challenge facing these companies and the entrepreneurs behind them; they must determine how they can continue to give value to their users. Nevertheless, we must accept that online social networks contribute unquestionable value by enhancing the visibility of our networks of contacts. Companies using social network software did not exist until 2002, and the value being created today was not accessible to individuals or companies back then. Even so, many enterprises that have been set up in the last few years will not survive because user demands are increasing daily and economic viability continues to be a challenge. Obviously, companies that manage to create and offer value to their users will have the capacity to survive. The question we must ask ourselves is which ones will be the victors and what role Internet application distributors will play in the world of online

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social networks, namely the large portals that have managed to create standards in other communication environments such as email or instant messaging. Online social networks are more like browsers/search engines or email than differentiated companies. These applications will probably be integrated in other tools we all use every day. We will have our email systems, access to browsers and our social networks applications which we can use to access our contacts and our contacts’ contacts. Microsoft, Yahoo, or AOL are the experts in distributing application tools and are best positioned for integrating social networking tools in other applications we use every day. Companies that develop more refined products may be the ones that become integrated in these big players. The large portals may be waiting to see which utilities are valued most by users, and they may be looking at the best ways of integrating these services in other applications they already distribute. However, we must acknowledge the clear importance and usefulness of belonging to social networks. Only the future will tell how we use them. We may belong to a business social network (LinkedIn, OpenBC, or eConozco for the Spanish-speaking market) and to another social network where we can reach all the people we share interests and hobbies with. But we are unsure whether independent companies will provide this service or whether social networks will be integrated as just another desktop application which we open everyday, just like our mail applications or our instant messaging service, and which we can integrate in our own blog or site. It will be interesting to see how the large Internet players position themselves. Google has already shown its commitment to this segment through Orkut, and may decide to integrate another module or complementary service for professional networking. Although InterActive Corp has closed down ZeroDegrees, it may use its social networks platform and incorporate it in its other sites in segments such as travel (Expedia,

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Hotels.com), leisure (Citysearch, Evite) or financial services (LendingTree). News Corp acquired MySpace in 2005 and has become one of the leading sites in terms of its worldwide audience due to its impressive growth in traffic and the unique audience of MySpace. Microsoft continues to work on its messenger application to integrate more social networking functionality. Yahoo has recently committed itself to its own product, Yahoo! 360º, a social network platform combining tools for publishing blogs, sharing photographs and music, and making recommendations. Yahoo may also be looking to purchase one of the leading social networks for personal relationships and professionals. Yahoo is rumoured to be thinking about acquiring Bebo, MySpace’s largest competitor in the UK. In terms of social network platforms for companies, Visual Path or Spoke may also be candidates for being taken over or integrated by current leaders in software systems for CRM or sales forces such as Siebel or Salesforce. One likely scenario is that the most important platforms will be integrated in the large portals, which will distribute them together with their other products. However, there is also room for social networks specializing in communities, which will coexist and may survive provided that they manage to offer a service they can charge end users for or attract advertisers interested in reaching a very specific community of users. MySpace is one such site. In any case, in a few years time no one will talk about online social networks as such, because these types of services will become part and parcel of the Internet tools or services we use everyday. If these predictions are correct, it may be interesting for you to start exploring these types of sites right away. I would encourage you to join at least one of these sites today, once you have finished reading this book.

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EPILOGUE NOW IT’S YOUR TURN Dig a well before you are thirsty. Chinese proverb Thank you for accompanying me this far. So far I’ve done all the talking, but now it’s your turn to go out there and practise what you’ve learned. I hope you don’t just shelve this book and promptly forget everything you’ve read. Like everything in life, the most important thing is to start, and the aim of this book has been to make you reflect on the importance of relating with others. From today onwards, try bearing in mind the following: I Capitalizing on and broadening your relationships depends on you alone. I Adopt habits in your daily activities that help you to keep in touch with the people who mean most to you (telephone someone when you remember them, arrange to meet for dinner once a week with a person you haven’t seen for a while, or find other strategies). I Get used to thinking about what you can do for people you know and for people you can put in contact. I Set excuses to one side and realize that you also have things

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to offer other people, you have things to say, you can overcome your shyness and learn to feel at ease when you relate with other people. I Make the most of every opportunity you have to meet someone and make yourself known. You never know when that opportunity you’ve been looking for will come up, and in fact it normally comes through someone you know rather than your closest circle of friends. I The Internet is out there, don’t be left out. It’s easy to publish your blog or have your own site. You will open doors for yourself and meet interesting people. I Now you also know about online social networks and how they can bring you closer to people connected to you through your contacts. Participate in them actively. And above all, remember that the people who are best at capitalizing on their relationships and broadening their networks of contacts are the ones who always think about how they can help the people they know. Everything you do for these people, the time you invest in thinking how you can put them in contact with other people they want to meet, all the time you devote to answering their calls, all that will make you an important person in their lives. And oddly enough, regardless of what we may think, I am not entirely convinced that we live in an individualist world where we all selfishly look after our own interests. The principle of reciprocity works today and it will always work. Try it. The more you give, the more you will receive. And as the Chinese proverb suggests, by networking every day as described in this book, you will dig a well you can drink from when you are thirsty. Go back to the diagram of relationships we looked at earlier and continue with your action plan. You have many tools you can use to put it into practice. And above all, smile and don’t forget to have fun!

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NOTES

Chapter 4. New forms of networking online 1. Replies to the Delphi study on the future of social networks performed in August 2004 (referred to below as “the Delphi study”).

Chapter 5. Online social networks 1. Comment by Professor José Luis Orihuela in response to one of the questions in the Delphi study. 2. Chris Shipley’s response to one of the questions in the Delphi study. 3. Comment by Joe Cohen in a telephone interview on this subject to complement the Delphi study. 4. Telephone interview with Jas Dhillon on 2 September 2004. 5. Extract from the blog of Thomas Power http://www.ecademy. com/account.php?op=view&id=8. 6. Abbey Klaassen at http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id= 119070.

Chapter 6. The future of online social networks 1. Responses to the Delphi study. 2. Interview with Enrique Dans in July 2004. 3. Interview published in Fortune on 22 May 2004.

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NOTES

4. 5.

6.

7.

8. 9.

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www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,614439,99.html. Telephone interview with Jas Dhillon on 2 September 2004. danah boyd is one of the people on the Internet who has published most articles on online social networks. For more information, I recommend you visit her blog at www.danah.org. Comment by Doc Searls in response to one of the questions in the Delphi study on the future of social networks. Searls is one of the co-authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto (Locke et al, 2000), a best-seller published in 2000 on the phenomenon of the Internet boom. He has written many articles about online social networks. He also has his own consultancy firm and sits on various boards of directors of technology companies in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit his blog at www.doc.weblogs.com. Comment by Chris Shipley in response to one of the questions in the Delphi study. In April 2004, Chris Shipley was considered to be one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley. She set up her own consultancy firm, The Chris Shipley Group, and renders services to important technology companies. For more information, go to www.cshipley.com. Chris also publishes a blog where she publishes her thoughts about the future of new technologies at cshipley.typepad.com. Response by Fernando Tricas to one of the questions in the Delphi study. Stuart Henshall has more than 25 years’ experience in product strategy and brand building. His consultancy firm, Stuart Henshall & Associates, provides guidance to companies on the incorporation of new technologies. He is an very active blogger and one of the people most critical of the usefulness and future of online social networks. He has much more faith in blogs or instant messaging or voiceover Internet systems for broadening networks of contacts. For more information, visit his blog at www.henshall.com/blog.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sonia Fernández describes herself as a “professional juggler” – a businesswoman, broadcaster and writer, a frequent speaker at business schools on networking, secretary of the International Women's Forum and president of the Stanford Alumni Association in Spain, and “trying to be a great mom” for her daughter, Carmen. Sonia has been involved in the Internet since she graduated from Stanford in 1997. She was a founder of the auction site Mercado Libre and is now Country Manager of Match.com in Spain. She believes passionately in the importance of social and professional networks, particularly the ways they can help women to support each other and advance professionally. Not surprisingly, she writes enthusiastically about the explosion of networking sites that have transformed communications.

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