What does it take to create a social media/social networking recipe for success?

Social media and social networking still start with one simple ingredient–people.

But it’s easy to say it all starts with people. To most social media zealots that means LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of people.

But would you rather have one Oprah in your network or one million John Smiths. Now I don’t mean anything against the John Smiths of the world. I use John Smith as a metaphor for people who are not great promoters like Oprah.

For example, let’s say you are in the financial services world. How many industry influencers would it take to get the kind of influence one Oprah would make? Sometimes it might be 100 or 1000 but there is a number, as Gladwell would say, a Tipping Point.

Want more interesting news? Remember Lois Weisberg? She was the muse for Gladwell’s  foray into the world of networks. Well I’ve been within 600 feet of her office at The Cultural Center in Chicago for more than a year. She has long been someone I highly admire but I did not take the time (shame on me) to reach out and connect with her. I recently referred someone to her and she is meeting with them. Next, I plan to put Lois and her journey since The Tipping Point  into our new Networlding 4.0 book (coming out January 2010)  in a chapter called “Revisiting 6 Degrees of Lois Weisberg.”

I often say in my talks, “It’s ‘The Law of the Few’ and if you did not get it the first time, it’s ‘The Law of the Few.’ Who are your few that leverage the vast majority of your connections? Make them priorities. Understand the 80/20 Rule that just like 20% of your efforts yield an 80% return, so do 20% of your connections. What do you think? What experiences have you had that validate this idea? Do you see things differently?

Want more of an overview on The Tipping Point? Check out what Wikipedia has to say.

So who is your Lois Weisberg or Oprah? How many others like them are in your top circle of connection or as we call it in Networlding, your “Power-of-Ten?”

Fast Insights: Don’t you think it’s strange that Gladwell did not recognize that someone could have all three traits: Mavens, Salesmen (should be sales people) and Connectors? Why can’t people be all three?

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