Online Business Freedom

Connectors – Part 2

(Read the previous post for a background on Connectors and why they are important to your business)

There is a way to test if you or someone you know is a Connector

In “The Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell randomly took 250 surnames out of a Manhattan phonebook, and asked over 400 people to scan the list, and to give themselves a point every time they could correspond a surname with someone they knew. (If you know 2 or more people with the same last name you get that number of points)

He gave the test to a variety of social circles, including college students, middle aged health educators, and real estate salesman.

It turned out that in every social circle there were people who did poorly, people who did okay, and a certain, select number of people who excelled.

The point is, wherever you go, there are Connectors.

And the average number of people that these Connectors knew was anywhere from the 90’s to 118.

You can take this test for yourself, or give it to someone you think is a Connector, to see if you are correct about your assessment.

Algazi, Alvarez, Alpern, Ametrano, Andrews, Aran, Arnstein, Ashford, Bailey Ballout, Bamberger, Baptista, Barr, Barrows, Baskerville, Bassiri, Bell, Bokgese, Brandao, Bravo, Brooke, Brightman, Billy, Blau, Bohen, Bohn, Borsuk, Brendle, Butler, Calle, Cantwell, Carrell, Chinlund, Cirker, Cohen, Collas, Couch, Callegher, Calcaterra, Cook, Carey, Cassell, Chen, Chung, Clarke, Cohn, Carton, Crowley, Curbelo, Dellamanna, Diaz, Dirar, Duncan, Dagostino, Delakas, Dillon, Donaghey, Daly, Dawson, Edery, Ellis, Elliott, Eastman, Easton, Famous, Fermin, Fialco, Finklestein, Farber, Falkin, Feinman, Friedman, Gardner, Gelpi, Glascock, Grandfield, Greenbaum Greenwood, Gruber, Garil, Goff, Gladwell, Greenup, Gannon, Ganshaw, Garcia, Gennis, Gerard, Gericke, Gilbert, Glassman, Glazer, Gomendio, Gonzalez, Greenstein, Guglielmo, Gurman, Haberkorn, Hoskins, Hussein, Hamm, Hardwick, Harrell, Hauptman, Hawkins, Henderson, Hayman, Hibara, Hehmann, Herbst, Hedges, Hogan, Hoffman, Horowitz, Hsu, Huber, Ikiz, Jaroschy, Johann, Jacobs, Jara, Johnson, Kassel, Keegan, Kuroda, Kavanau, Keller, Kevill, Kiew, Kimbrough, Kline, Kossoff, Kotzitzky, Kahn, Kiesler, Kosser, Korte, Leibowitz, Lin, Liu, Lowrance, Lundh, Laux, Leifer, Leung, Levine, Leiw, Lockwood, Logrono, Lohnes, Lowet, Laber, Leonardi, Marten, McLean, Michaels, Miranda, Moy, Marin, Muir, Murphy, Marodon, Matos, Mendoza, Muraki, Neck, Needham, Noboa, Null, O’Flynn, O’Neill, Orlowski, Perkins, Pieper, Pierre, Pons, Pruska, Paulino, Popper, Potter, Purpura, Palma, Perez, Portocarrero, Punwasi, Rader, Rankin, Ray, Reyes, Richardson, Ritter, Roos, Rose, Rosenfeld, Roth, Rutherford, Rustin, Ramos, Regan, Reisman, Renkert, Roberts, Rowan, Rene, Rosario, Rothbart, Saperstein, Schoenbrod, Schwed, Sears, Statosky, Sutphen, Sheehy, Silverton, Silverman, Silverstein, Sklar, Slotkin, Speros, Stollman, Sadowski, Schles, Shapiro, Sigdel, Snow, Spencer, Steinkol, Stewart, Stires, Stopnik, Stonehill, Tayss, Tilney, Temple, Torfield, Townsend, Trimpin, Turchin, Villa, Vasillov, Voda, Waring, Weber, Weinstein, Wang, Wegimont, Weed, Weishaus.

Take a moment to take this test, and determine your score.

If you score in the 90’s or 100’s you are definitely a Connector

If you score close to the 70’s or 80’s, you are probably a Connector.

If you score in the 50’s or 60’s you are probably a very social person, but not a Connector.

Anything less than that and you are definitely not a Connector.

So again, why is the role of the Connector so important in getting your idea or business to spread like wildfire?

Because Connectors understand the power of the “weak tie” and have huge social networks that they can access.

If you can identify the Connectors in your life, and get them fired up about your product, service, or idea, you have a far better chance of getting your message out there, than by telling non Connectors.

Don’t let the fact that we all have email lists of people we can shoot off messages to at any time discourage you from identifying the Connectors (if they are also marketers, all the better) in your life.

Some people are simply blessed with the gift of connecting people and BEING connected.

If you aren’t one of them, your list of 25,000 may not hold as much weight as that of a Connector’s list of 5,000.

The interesting thing is Connectors usually aren’t the ones to DISCOVER new ideas and businesses that they support. They simply have the means of getting the word out there.

The original idea in an idea virus (the host) usually comes from another breed of people… Mavens.

That’s what we’ll talk about next.

-James D. Lee

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