This webinar discussed building your LinkedIn network by focusing on both quality and quantity of connections. It emphasized that having more connections allows for more opportunities to help others through introductions. The webinar also referenced academic theories on optimal network sizes from Dunbar and Granovetter, noting how social media has changed what constitutes a relationship. Upcoming webinar topics were proposed on leveraging LinkedIn groups and lessons learned from a 30 day networking challenge.

1. 30 Day Linking Blitz
Week 2 Webinar
Building Your LinkedIn Network
- why you don't need to choose between quality and quantity
and why you need both
Des Walsh
Business Coach, Social Media Strategist, LinkedIn Specialist
LinkedIn profile: http://linkedin.com/in/deswalsh
Social web links: http://xeeme.com/deswalsh
Copyright © Des Walsh & The Webarts Company Pty Ltd 2012

2. Disclaimer
This presentation is for information only, should
not be taken as representing the official views of
LinkedIn and should not be construed as
constituting business or financial advice.
Logos are copyright of the respective companies.

3. The Official Line
..., we grant you a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nonassignable,
nonsublicenseable license and right to access the Services,...in
accordance with this Agreement. Any other use of LinkedIn
contrary to our mission and purpose (such as seeking to
connect to someone you do not know or trust , or to use
information gathered from LinkedIn commercially unless
expressly authorized by LinkedIn) is strictly prohibited and a
violation of this Agreement .
LinkedIn User Agreement, Sn. 3 Your Rights

4. LinkedIn Makes Connecting Easy

5. But Impersonal

6. Email List and People You May Know

7. Quality or Quantity?
Quality matters

I never knew of any of the “super connectors” saying
they didn't care about quality!

Know what “quality” means for you (e.g. “hub”
connector, ideal client, influencer)
Think Quality and Quantity

8. Quality or Quantity?
Numbers matter
For networking

the more good connections you have the more you can help
others with introductions – and be helped by them
For search

finding others

being found

9. Dunbar's Number
Academic Robin Dunbar's theoretical cognitive limit to the
number of people with whom one can maintain a stable
social relationship. The number? Somewhere around
150.*
But:

we are not early humans living in neolithic village
societies

the web and social media have changed what “stable
social relationship” means

10. Granovetter's Strength of Weak Ties

you can never have enough connections

it doesn't matter if you don't know them. *

11. Strong, weak & absent ties
“The strength of a tie is a ... combination of the amount of
time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (mutual
confiding) and the reciprocal services that characterize
the tie”.
“It is remarkable that people receive crucial information
from individuals whose very existence they have
forgotten.”
Mark Granovetter

12. Coming Attractions!
Future webinars – possible topics

How Building Your Own Group on LinkedIn Can
Accelerate Your Success

Lessons of #30dlb – What's Worked, What Hasn't (or
hasn't yet) - crowdsourced from the Group

13. Admin Stuff
Image credit
Illustration of Granovetter’s strength of weak ties concept: Image by Sadi Carnot, public
domain, via Wikimedia Commons
http://sociology.stanford.edu/people/mgranovetter/documents/granstrengthweakties.p
df
Notes:
Dunbar's number: This was based on observation non-human primate behaviour, then
supplemented by some complex calculations of how people related to one another in
neolithic villages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number
Granovetter's Strength of Weak Ties
http://sociology.stanford.edu/people/mgranovetter/documents/granstrengthweakties.pdf
Webinar recording
Video version to be uploaded to YouTube. Audio version also to be available. Watch on the
forum for access details
See/download this slide deck at my Slideshare page http://slideshare.net/des