Читать книгу Successful Networking in 7 simple steps - Clare Dignall - Страница 15

It’s generally believed that a person can only sustain around 150 meaningful social relationships; all those people you see on Facebook with 350+ friends don’t really have 350 lifelong buddies; they’ll have a few, the rest are acquaintances.

Ensure that your growing network has ‘balance’ too. Is it made up of both strong ties (people you can rely on) and weak ties (acquaintances who may present an opportunity in the future)? If one group dominates, then it may be time to redress the balance. Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Chairman of LinkedIn^®, makes a helpful analogy to explain this process of finding ‘balance’: you have one memory card for your digital camera on a six-month trip. Because the capacity is finite, you must choose whether you want to store a few great photos at hi-res, store hundreds at lo-res, or a mixture of both. So it is with your network – you cannot maintain all your relationships at ‘hi-res’, but a huge, ‘lo-res’ network will not provide you with the support you need when times are hard. You need a mixture of both: strong ties to help and guide you on your career journey, and weak ties to refresh your network, provide new information and offer opportunities.