Business is built on networks. Sure, most modern businesses rely on Cisco to power their digital networks, but businesses cannot succeed without the types of networks the pre-date Cisco, Microsoft and even Bulletproof! Those networks are your networks of contacts, friends, business associates and family. Building and maintaining those networks can be challenging, especially when we get wrapped up in the social media hype of 'I have more friends than you', but understanding both the importance and correct size of those (hopefully) vibrant social networks is as critical to the success of our businesses as is having a reliable and robust computer network.

Your social networks existed long before Facebook, MySpace and Twitter came to be (shocking, isn't it?) but definitely required more manual effort to maintain, especially over long distances, in those pre-technology days.  In understanding the importance of those networks I refer to the work of both Fibonacci and Valdis Krebs.  Fibonacci became famous after the Dan Brown his novel-turned-movie, The DaVinci Code, played with the infamous series of numbers as a clue to the Holy Grail.  Ironically, it is that Holy Grail, or social network 'sweet spot' as he calls it, that drives the research and insight of Krebs.

The Fibonacci Sequence is derived by adding the last two numbers of the sequence to generate the next.  (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 45, ...)  That same sequence, once discovered by Fibonacci in the 13th century, began to be observed throughout nature.  (My favourite visualization of this mathematical sequence is the elusive 3D Mandelbrot)  Krebs applies that same reality to social networks, proclaiming that our networks should typically be less than 100 people.  Why?  Maintaining networks of more than 100 people tips the balance of effort and reward too far in favour of the effort.  Networks of less than 100 people are not diversified or redundant enough to ensure you stability and connectivity within your network.  Below is your standard network --

Commonly held logic dictates that you need to build hundreds of contacts in order to strengthen the above network and establish the connectivity you need to make your business successful.  Let's take a look at what your network really looks like once we apply the magic of Krebs.

Though this network appears to have transformed into a head of dandelion (there's that nature pattern creeping in again!), those spores are actually the interconnected links of your network.

So, what does this mean?  It means that you don't have to spend as much time trying to build those contacts, that Rolodex of old, to be connected.  It means that you build your contacts with the people who connect you and each other.  It means that to successfully function in this social world you need to be both a connector and 'connectee' and that, while numbers do matter, it isn't the frantic climb to that top that some proclaim it to be.

So, the next time you are tempted to try and compete in the social network equivalent of chest-pounding, just remember that even in nature Fibonacci rules.  Building networks is not about the numbers, it is about the people.  (Well, unless you are building a computer network, and then it all about speed, isn't it?)

Both images in this article are from Valdis Krebs' article entitled 'So many people, so little time.'

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