Social Network Diagram: Let Me Draw You A Picture

Writing by Social Marketing Journal on Sunday, September 23, 2007 Leave a comment

social network graphOver at Mashable they’re discussing whether to call this diagram a social network or a social graph. Dave Winer whined about it.

I don’t really care what you call it, but it’s a useful diagram. It shows how social networks work. There is no pyramid. There are just dots, representing people, and those dots develop relationships. You’ll be a lot more effective online if you build more relationships. That is, build your network.

Social Network Example

Social networks are built on common interests. Let’s take Mr. Dot. He’s a chemist who likes to play golf and writes poetry on weekends. His social network likely is made up of other chemists, but also other golfers, and perhaps some poets. Here’s what it might look like.

  • Mr. Dot – chemist, golfer, poet
  • Mrs. Tod – chemist, gardener, political activist
  • Jane Doe – golfer, college student, pianist, rich girl
  • John Silverstein – poet, grad student studying microbiology
  • Rich Dude – entrepreneur, philanthropist, boating enthusiast
  • Harry Cranium – biochemical engineer, golfer, boating enthusiast, Trombone player

Each one of these people are, of course, much more than a sum of interests. And they all have their own individual stories. But where there stories cross, that’s the network. Mr. Dot’s network will undoubtedly look quite different than Harry Cranium’s or Rich Dude’s. But they will each have a network and their own network is available to each of the others in the network.

Moral of the story: Build your network. When you can, tap into someone else’s network. That’s how you succeed online.

Leave a comment                      Category: Social Networking                      

Read similar posts in Social Networking

No Comments

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Social Marketing Journal is a Blog that discusses all aspects of Social Media Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking and Reputation Management for the new and advanced reader.