***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****

The beauty of re-activating old weak ties is that they often come with a clean slate. Any old negatives are usually forgotten or set aside in the joy of reconnecting.

Naja

Naja E. McKenzie PhD, RN
Research Associate - Postdoctoral Fellow
Cancer Prevention and Control
Arizona Cancer Center
(520) 626-5363


-----Original Message-----
From: Social Networks Discussion Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Valdis Krebs
Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 12:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "networking"

***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****

Don,

Great points... reminds me of this...
Q: How do you identify a "newbie" or "noob" in the field of social
network analysis?
A: They refer to the field as "social networkING analysis"

I wrote a long blog post on "building job networks" recently. What I
recommend to people is to re-activate their "true weak ties" -- those,
usually dormant, ties they have with old friends, classmates,
colleagues who are now occupying different social circles. There is
usually dormant trust in these ties -- these are people who actually
don't mind putting themselves at risk to recommend you to their boss
or colleague [A brand new person you just met through "networking"
will not do this for you].

The best way to build a network [see chinese proverb at beginning of
my blog post] is to actually work with people, often volunteering,
organizing a conference, etc. "Networking", "schmoozing" and job
fairs will NOT do it. I have a friend I have been advising since she
got laid off. She has added ties to her network... it took about 1
year to add these trusted ties, through regular contact [working on
things together]. She is close to an offer, initiated and hopefully
closed[references] through these new ties. Blog post is here...

http://is.gd/Mv5i

Valdis


On Jun 2, 2009, at 2:20 PM, Don Steiny wrote:

> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
>
> Mario,
>
> I have to comment on this (my inner demons are making me). The
> term "social capital" does not have a single meaning and Joel
> Podolny ages ago in a class he taught at Stanford would say "if you
> need to build a network to get something like a job, it is already
> too late". Likewise Wayne Baker makes this point as a central theme
> of "Achieving Success Through Social Capital". Mark Granovetter has
> an amusing story which basically describes getting a birthday phone
> call from someone you can barely remember, then it dawns on you "I'm
> being networked." I often see journal papers that talk of
> "building social networks" and when people say that it usually seems
> they are missing the point of social networks entirely. I did some
> research and as far as I can tell the term "networking" was invented
> by feminists in the 80's. They hoped to build "old girl" networks
> to counter the "old boy" networks that created a glass ceiling and
> to help with business success. In short, the idea of "networking" as
> it is taught in "how to find a job or enhance your business"
> seminars has been somewhat outside of the concept of social networks
> until recently. I assume this has a lot to do with the redefinition
> of the term due to LinkedIn and so on.
>
> -Don

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