“Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. ‘When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority,’ said SCNARC Director Boleslaw Szymanski. ‘Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame.’ These findings were published in the July 22, 2011, early online edition of the journal Physical Review E.”

So what are the implications here? They would include:

1. It’s no longer the 20% that yields an 80% return but rather 10% that yields a 90% return.
2. You don’t hae to have as large a number of people who buy into a new idea you have as you think.
3. You can find those 10% influencers and accelerate your success. Who are they? Look for people like Seth Godin and Chris Brogan, but also go for people who are growing their influence–rising up through the influence rankings.
4. Follow sites that produce the 10% wisdom on sites like Hubspot. That site is on steroids offering at least two amazing, free e-books a month on the 10% of net wisdom.
5.  Follow just one thought leader you admire most. Pull out their top ideas and implement them. Document their contributions giving them full credit. I have found that after a year of taking Seth Godin’s advice I doubled my revenue. Focusing on just one leader at a time really helps you leverage. Focus creates leverage.

What other ideas to you have? Feel free to riff away!

On my Networlding site I offer three products: 1) a LinkedIn tutorial guide, 2) a checklist for companies looking at implementing a social media campaign and 3) a guide for thought leaders who want to publish books.

When someone requests one or more of the guides, I send them a note thanking them for their request and sharing that I respond personally to every request. I also offer them a no-obligation fifteen minute phone chat if they choose. My goal is to find out if they really are interested and then if they are ready, willing and able to start working with me and my team, now or at some future date.

At the very least I have taken the time to create a more personal touch. Goodwill can go a long way and I know not everyone who ventures on my site is going to become a client. But what I have seen is that this approach has shown me what people are searching most for–in my case they are interested most in publishing books and second, in developing their thought leadership through social media and online marketing initiatives.

Related articles

• The Five Tips to Accomplish Your “One Big Goal” in 2012 (networldingblog.com)
• How to Measure Social Media ROI Like the Experts (hubspot.com)
• Convertible Solutions Embraces Social Media (prweb.com)

urance and other financial funds for those who worked in his steel mills. In 1901 Carnegie Steel merged with the U.S. Steel Corporation and Carnegie sold out to J.P. Morgan for $480 million, making Carnegie the richest man in the world. He then used his money to further public education, build libraries and lobby for international peace.

Once Carnegie reached the $480 million mark, he decided he had accumulated enough wealth and that it was time to “give back.” Therefore, he set about the business of philanthropy just as passionately as he had set out to accumulate wealth.

What got me thinking about the connection between Carnegie’s autobiography and Seth Godin’s “Poke the Box,” his latest book on building a lifestyle of creating and collaborating, is the simple clarity Godin and Carnegie both have about creating new things and new opportunities. I am sure there are thousands of coaches out there who, if they could share one wish they have for their clients, it would be to give them  unlimited confidence to move them closer to their yet unachieved goals and unrealized dreams.

What makes any of us hesitate? What makes us not believe enough in ourselves to even give ourselves permission to try? Why don’t we know that, no matter what, each of us has at least one if not more gifts to share?

Andrew Carnegie came to the U.S. as a small boy back in the 1840′s. His family lived in a tiny, crowded New York apartment. His father worked in a nearby factory with his uncle. His mother took in ironing and Andrew began working as a messenger boy before the age of 12 to help his family cover their monthly expenses . Andrew started his work life with a strong commitment What do you have to share? If not now . . . when? Poke the Box!

In Networlding, the seven-step process I co-developed with Jocelyn Carter Miller, ex-CMO Motorola and Office Depot, we identify in Step #6 the power of “co-creation.” The Domino Project Team is co-creating insights on Seth Godin’s leadership to redefine publishing on a minute-by-minute basis. Here are just a couple of amazing links to to what the team has co-created:

• Change Agents: 5 Marketers Who Are Changing the World
• Before You Write that Book

And if you want to get into the thick of things, jump in here to The Domino Project. It will be different. I promise. I love books. I love helping others write books and I love writing them. What makes this project different is that you can get even more involved in books and the big change in your life they can make.

Even better though is that some of the best-of-the-best bloggers on books are  involved in Seth’s initiative. So come join us! Let us know what you think. We look forward to your input!

I’ve also had the benefit of participating in Oprah’s online community as well as having a book on her show and getting a chance to visit last week for lunch with one of her employees. It was great fun. I met wonderful people and got a fantastic vegan lunch. But I digress.

What I see as a partnership looks something like this:

• A group of book loving leaders, the Domino Project team, listening deeply to their respective “tribes” to unearth the best topics and questions bubbling up from their conversations.
• This team, along with Seth and Oprah, taking the topics and questions and pulling insights from thought leaders for future books.
• Taking the most powerful ideas and questions and using them, identify top author thought leaders who are currently writing on these topics.
• Create Oprah-Seth Godin book clubs that can get the whole world reading these great books as they come out.

Oprah and Seth love bold books that change the way people see the world. They are positive change agents. They want to help people learn and grow. They want to create a sustainable way to make the world better for all. In summary, this would be a great partnership.

Most importantly, this partnership would be “revolutionary” rather than “evolutionary.” It would also start bringing together what I call “Consumer TV” with “Business TV.” I remember after my book, 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family, was on Oprah. I had been working with one of Oprah’s employees who had been her head of marketing. She really loved another book I had written on networking but she would say to me, “Oprah doesn’t do business books.”

I believe we are now moving beyond whether books are business books or non-business books into books that make you think, big idea books, books that make your life better, books that matter. Both Seth and Oprah are on the great book bandwagon.

My bottomline is that OWN needs more great programming. Oprah loves good books. Seth loves good books. The Domino Project Team loves good books. Books convey ideas that are stickier which make them easier to transfer ideas to others faster and better than even blogs or webinars. We need to spread these books and their ideas faster around the world. Is this a great partnership or what? Your thoughts?

Chicago Cultural Affairs Commissioner, Lois Weisberg, will be retiring this year. It’s interesting that she is leaving just as we are revisiting the human phenomenon that 12 years ago became an international notoriety when Malcolm Gladwell showcased her in his groundbreaking New Yorker article, “6 Degrees of Lois Weisberg.” Our book, Networlding 4.0: The Great Exchange, shares Lois’s powerful talent for connecting AND creating opportunities. In the following excerpt from our book, we reveal more as to how she connects in valuable,mutually beneficial ways and how you can do the same thing, starting today, with your network.

______________________

Lois, as her friends know her, was said by Gladwell to be one of the most influential people on earth because she understood the power of our networked world well before Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform popularized it. Weisberg, 85, is the only remaining member of May Richard M. Dailey’s original cabinet.

Some of Lois’s contributions to the city included innovative ideas like the famous Cows on Parade public art project in 1999. This idea was spread around the world and duplicated by cities taking on their own unique themes. She also worked with Maggie Daley to create the successful Gallery 37 and After School Matters programs focused on the arts.

For 22 years Lois has been supporting the arts in Chicago. She has done it with a passion focused on a vision of what could be for the city as well as the talented people who would make your visions turn into realities.

As Gladwell illuminated in his article in January of 1999, “There are probably Lois Weisbergs in Akron and Tucson and Paris and in some little town in the Yukon Territory, up by the Arctic Circle. We’ve all met someone like Lois Weisberg. Yet, although we all know a Lois Weisberg type, we don’t know much about the Lois Weisberg type.” From here, Gladwell began to make more “explicit” the infrastructures built from the minds and hearts of people like Lois.

To do this Gladwell, a social scientist, directs our attention to the experiments of Stanley Milgram of the famous Six Degrees Experiment. Gladwell said perhaps it should be referred to as “The Lois Weisberg Problem.” I have been sharing that experiment with audiences for years and, each time, I would note how many were not familiar with it, even after “The Tipping Point” was a bestseller. The experiment began in Omaha, Nebraska, where a hundred and sixty people were randomly selected and given a packet of postcards to mail to a randomly selected stockbrocker in Boston.

When, surprisingly, postcards from the packets were received by the stockbroker within five to six mailings, the “small world concept” or “six degrees of separation” was born. But Gladwell went even deeper into this phenomenon, explaining that an equally important part of the experiment created by Milgram was the realization that the majority of the packets were delivered to the final recipient by the same three people. What this revealed was that there are certain people who are better “connectors” to diverse individuals than others and that illumination was well evidenced in Lois Weisberg.

Gladwell went on in the article to explain that Lois has a powerful pyramid of pyramids of connections. In other words, Lois is connected to “Connectors.” That awareness that started with this article now plays out perfectly on the site LinkedIn.

Here, you can see, right under the heading “Contact” you can click on “Network Statistics.” From here you can see your first degree, second and third degree connection numbers. So, for example, Melissa has 5000 connections. Melissa’s connections are made up of eight years of connecting with top networkers on LinkedIn. Therefore it is not surprising that her second degree connections exceed two million and her third degree, fifteen million. She is connected, like Lois Weisberg, to connectors.

So, bringing this into the real world, how can you build a similar network? Follow this mantra: care, connect, promote. It’s Melissa’s mantra and if you can adapt it to your world you will be on the path to success. You don’t need 5000 connections to get there. Just start with five or ten and keep going. You will get there faster than you realize!

Fortunately, some early reviewers are supporting this:

“Author Lou Aronica creates a world that manages to be both surreal and tangible. Reading this book is like experiencing a lucid dream with depth and detail that play on all five senses.” – Blogcritics

“This book ranks right up there with my top reads for 2010. I absolutely loved this book and found myself so wrapped up in the story. In fact, I hated to see it end.

Even those who don’t usually read fantasy will enjoy this tale.” – Reading Frenzy

“Blue is a compelling fantasy novel that will tug on your heart strings and fill your eyes and heart with wonder. Beautifully written, the worlds just come to life in vivid color in your mind, and the hope and magic will keep you up late into the night turning the pages. Well executed, engaging and with characters you can’t help but love, Blue is a must read! I absolutely loved it!” – Minding Spot

“Once in a while, a story comes along that completely surprises me because it delivers so much more than I expected; more depth, more feeling, more story-weaving. Blue not only falls into this category, it tops the list…. I humbly give this book FIVE STARS, and wish I had more to offer.” – Between the Pages

“Take a trip with Lou Aronica that brings back your love of magic and everything it can make possible as you immerse yourself in his thought-provoking, creative novel, Blue…. A story to remember and cherish, Blue and Lou Aronica have a few surprises in store that will leave you will wondering “what if?” Blue by talented Lou Aronica will become a resident of your keeper shelf, a book to pull out and read again and each time you will find something more in its pages.” – Single Titles

You can read more about Blue (including an excerpt) here if you’re interested.

This book also launches Lou’s new Fiction Studio imprint. The book business is changing in significant ways, and he felt that it was time for to develop a new program to meet it. I’VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR THE LAST YEAR!

Lou will be publishing  at least a dozen novels in the imprint this year with a wide range of talented writers, and expanding the program as into 2012. You can read a bit about the imprint here, if you’re interested.

You can get it from Amazon here and from Barnes & Noble here, or from any of your preferred booksellers. The paperback is cheaper at Amazon, but the e-book is $7.99 at both outlets.

Keep re-evaluating the effectiveness of your efforts. Your network is not just your pipeline to opportunities. It is now your net to all opportunities. Take time today to build those connections that count.

Getting introduced to others is just the beginning. the process of staying connected, “co-creating” opportunities with others following an initial meeting, is what the best-of-the-best networking is all about. Don’t be afraid that you don’t have anything to offer today. you don’t need to:

• Have an in-depth knowledge of another’s industry
• Have any current leads or referrals to give
• Have to manipulate the conversation to get the other party
• to focus on your needs
• Have to feel as though you are pushy
• Have to offer anything more than appreciation for the other person in the beginning and then be on the look out for opportunities for those with whom you network going forward

Finally, note that, today, the introduction is the new referral. You don’t have to be referred to carry additional influence or klout with a solid introduction. And for my bonus tip, go one more step. Provide a good introduction for those you ask to introduce you.

For example, if I ask someone to introduce me, I send them the following request,  ”I would like you to meet Melissa. Melissa is the author of thirteen books, four that have been on best-seller lists. Her greatest strength is helping thought leaders grow themselves and their organizations through social media and publishing. She and her firm, Networlding, have helped more than 100 top thought leaders grow their platforms through social media marketing, book publishing and, now, speaking.”

Now do the same for yourself. What can I say about you to get others interested in connecting with you? Write me an introduction and you are many steps ahead of the pack.

We are looking for the best Networlding businesses around the U.S.

How do you know if a business is a great Networlding company?

Please answer the following questions about the company or companies that you think are the best places to Networld.

Help us by naming and answering the following questions for five or more companies and and once a month three winners will receive a gift certificate to Staples for $50.

* Please keep your open-ended responses to two-sentences or less.

1. Does your nominated company have a broad base of pro-active networking employees who come from a place of values? If so, how many can you identify? (Hint: LinkedIn is a great tool to find these people. Hint. Hint: You can go to the “Advanced People Search” page on LinkedIn and type in words like “change agent” and/or “integrity,” for example, to locate people who lead from a strong set of noble values.

2. Does the company value diversity? How does the company show it?

3. Does the company have a positive public perception? How does the company give back to the community?

4. Do the employees of the company “triad”–the term used in the book Tribal Leadership. This is a networking technique that effective leaders use to connect and then refer people they know to one other where it makes most sense with the greatest possibility of success for the two connecting as well as others that could be impacted by their connection.  Think Warren Buffett being connected to Bill Gates by someone who knew them both. These connections are made based on common interests, values, and projects that people you know might want to collaborate on.

5. Open Ideas. Is there something your nomination does that is novel? Tell us about the uniqueness of your nomination

Please have your nominations and answers in by the end of the month.

From your responses we will compile a list of the best Networlding companies across the country!
If you have any questions please email me at melissa @ networlding.com.