Pamela Slim had a nice post about Malcolm Gladwell’s work and his categorizing of three different types of people you might network with (quoted from her blog):
Connectors: “These people who link us up with the world, who bridge Omaha and Sharon, who introduce us to our social circles – these people on whom we rely on more heavily than we realize – are Connectors, people with a very special gift of bringing people together.”
Mavens: “A Maven is a person who has information on a lot of different products or prices or places. This person likes to initiate discussions with consumers and respond to requests … they like to be helpers in the marketplace. They distribute coupons. They take you shopping. They go shopping for you … This is the person who connects people to the marketplace and has the inside scoop on the marketplace.”
Salespeople: “Mavens are data banks. They provide the message. Connectors are social glue: they spread it. But there is also a select group of people – Salesmen – with the skills to persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing, and they are as critical to the tipping of word-of-mouth epidemics as the other two groups.”
On my JibberJobber blog I’ve been talking about networking and whether or not it works. You can see some passionate discussion here, at Networking Doesn’t Work (part II) – agree?
In thinking about these two posts, perhaps networking isn’t working because you aren’t networking with the right type of person… ?
Can you list 10 or 20 people you’ve networked with and categorize them as a connector, a maven or a salesperson?
If no one you are networking with falls into those categories, what categories do they fall into?
A taker? A leach? A downer?
I wonder… are we (you and I) networking with THE WRONG PEOPLE?
