Connectors and Their Big Black Books

Update:

Wow!  If my calculations are correct we had 224 people visit the blog yesterday.  That will make a nice little dent in the 2,961 we needed yesterday at this time.  A few more days like that (OR BETTER) and we will be on our way to reaching 5000 by April 16.  Special thanks to cspgradstudent, Cheryl, Tera, and Melanie who are actively working their network to get us one person closer to Julie A. Cole.  There are a few others working on getting us connected, but they are choosing not to post and, instead, to work behind the scenes.  I'll take the effort any way I can get it.

Onward and Upward...

Today's post will build on the concept of yesterday's.  Yesterday we touched on the premise of Six Degrees of Separation.  We noted that when the letters finally reached the designated person in Boston, Mass., a disproportionate number of them went through the hands of only a couple of people.  Today we will talk about who those people are and why they are important to YOU!!!!

  

My goal is to make this feel like a five minute workshop stuck somewhere in your day.  It's the workshop that requires no registration fee, no travel funds (I come to you), no name tag, and no power point.  Just the quick presentation of an idea that you can apply immediately after walking away from your computer.

  

The workshop-concept will work best if you have some kind of project or idea that you are trying to get more widely accepted by others, so you can follow along with me, but apply the information to your own world.  The "others" of whom I speak can be family members, workers, your neighbors, a group of friends, members of the PTA or some other group with whom you might be involved.  If you don't have something you yourself are trying to promote, feel free to follow along with me, as together we tackle the challenge of "tipping" my blog site. 

The notion of "Tipping" - discussed in the book inspiring this week's entries and titled, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell - is simple.  Just as there is a distinct point when water freezes to ice (32 degrees Fahrenheit), there is a point at which something "tips" and becomes wildly popular - an epidemic of sorts.  This is true in the worst of circumstances, such as the spread of AIDS, but it is also true of less grave matters such as the popularity of Harry Potter (which started as a simple book club choice among a couple of women in San Francisco); the cross over of Van sneakers - once worn only by skate boarders - and then becoming popular among mainstream youth; and the resurgence of Hush Puppies a few years back.  All of these things "tipped" - that is... spread from being recognized by a few to having a an international following. 

 

Here are some examples of projects or ideas that some of our readers might try "tipping," based on who I know some of our readers to be (I'll use initials, in the event our readers are shy)....

• S.W... spreading the word about her massage business
  
• C.Y.... trying to get large scale neighborhood participation in her Halloween Festival
  
• H.S.... increasing participation in an annual campus-wide program
  
• D.O.... increasing enrollment numbers in the private school for whom she works
  
• N.A... making her invention known world-wide
  
• A.B.... the above goes for you too
  
• ME!  Attracting thousands of readers from all corners of the map to participate in the fun blog community we are together building. 
  

Today I will introduce to you the concept of CONNECTORS.  Generally speaking, connectors are people who, flat out, know a lot of people.  It is not to say they know these people well, just that they have many acquaintances.  Most often, connectors travel in multiple circles which how they come in contact with so many others.  They are essential to our ideas becoming epidemics, because the bottom line is... their address books are chock full and they have access to large quantities of people.  Truth... if we want our ideas to spread to the masses, we need access to the masses.  Connectors help us do this.  We have a few people in our readership who I think might fit into this category. 

• CSPgradstudent is a student at a university in Louisville, KY.  She is also somewhat involved in a group in northern Kentucky; has held membership in numerous student organizations; works at a child care facility; traveled abroad where she met people from all over the world; participated in a week-long institute where she met college students from all over the country; and I'm sure other involvements that I am not mentioning (we haven't even touched on electronic communities... in which she is well versed and well connected).  
  
• Cassie Y. is very involved in her neighborhood, spearheading numerous social events.  She is also a member of a gym; an official soccer mom; takes another one of her children to gymnastics; worked for a period of time at the branch campus of a university; is an active member of her church; and has recently gotten involved in local campaigning for a presidential candidate.  A few weeks ago she invited a woman she met at a presidential caucus to play Bunco with her neighborhood friends.  Also playing that night was friend from she met while living in Fort Worth... and come to think of it, me.  Cassie connected me to her group of friends shortly after I moved to Texas.  Cassie travels in multiple circles and thrives on connecting those circles of friends.  This is the sign of a connector. 

I could go on, because there are others of you I believe fall in this category.  In the interest of time, I will stop here.

Concept applied... Ok.  If I want my blog to tip, I need to formally employ all the CONNECTORS I know to grant me access to their acquaintances.  How?  Request that they send my blog address out via their listserve; make an announcement at their next meeting; post a flier in a visible spot at the day care, gymnasium, or soccer field; leave small, business card-sized announcements in work mailboxes, etc.....  You might notice that cspgradstudent was one of the first to offer up an acquaintance she had in Nebraska who might lead us to Julie A. Cole.  This is an example of a CONNECTOR at work.  

How about you?  What are you trying to make tip and what CONNECTORS do you know?  How might you employ the connectors you know to help spread the word about your initiative?

 

And, if you consider yourself a connector... Highlowaha.com... help spread the word!!!

Signing off until tomorrow when we come one step closer to tipping our ideas.