You have more than 50 friends in your Facebook account. Your LinkedIn account has 50 connections. Then there are 100 followers of your Twitter account while you are following 50 people. If you add everything up, you will realize that you have a huge social network, which is growing every day. But does this huge network really benefit you?
To understand our online network’s value to us, let us look at the concept of social capital. Let’s differentiate physical and social capital first. Physical capital is the measure of your property—money, belongings—basically the tangible things you posses. Social capital is the measure of your connection with others, meaning your network, your relationship with people.
The main idea of social capital is that your social network is important. It gives you benefits—trust, cooperation, information, etc.—that make you appreciate your value as a human. Thus, it is defined as the collective value of the social networks in which you are connected. For instance, in the real world, if you go out for a vacation, do your neighbors keep an eye on your house to make sure everything is safe? If they do, you have a high level of social capital. Your mountaineering group, book club, or PTA also provides you with social capital.
The same theory applies in the online social networks. Have you visited an Internet board to look for a support group? Have you ever helped someone who published an online forum post problem about his computer? Have you ever spread word in cyberspace inviting people to join a community cleanup program? These are examples of online social capital in action. You and your network share information, support each other, and may even engage in initiating positive action such as fundraising and charity work.
Our social networks are divided into two types. Core ties are composed of individuals that are closest to us—parents, spouses, relatives, loved ones, and best friends. We have very strong personal relationships with them and we normally turn to them for support and interaction. “Weak” ties are made out of people outside our core ties who are still connected to us—co-employees, people we admire, “popular” contacts such as fashion models and artists, and the like. We contact them less frequently than we do with our core networks.
With the popularity of social networking sites, however, the growth of “weak” ties is exploding. It is very easy to invite them and maintain them with the help of Facebook, Twitter, and the like. More surprisingly, in certain situations, these contacts offer you the most benefit in that they allow you to problem-solve more efficiently.
For instance, you just lost your job, and you are desperately looking for a new one. Your “weak” ties can actually be more valuable because they know people, opportunities, and information that you or your core tie contacts don’t. They can offer a more objective and useful assistance than the usual “don’t worry, you can make it” advice that your core ties usually give you. As a bonus, since they are part of your network, your “weak” ties will be more willing to help you than an anonymous person in a forum. In other words, they provide an extremely high amount of social value.
Social networking sites offer us a great advantage, especially in the extremely competitive world of the job market. For instance, you have an account in LinkedIn. This site targets professional, white-collar employee who want to advertise themselves. After creating your profile, the site suggests possible contacts that you can add to your network—individuals whom you may have known in previous jobs, ex-college-mates, or those who share the same field of work as you do. You can also search for specific people and companies that you like to work for without having to navigate through a phone switchboard.
Are you familiar with the old adage that says, “It is not what you know, it is who you know”? Well, social networking sites prove that to be true.