6 Degrees of Separation And The Real Power of Networking – Part 2

This is the second of a two part series (read the first part) on the power of social networking.

The 6 degrees of separation in numbers

Let’s look at the “six degrees of separation” from another point of view. In many books about networking (like “Power Networking” by Donna Fisher and Sandy Vilas), you would read that on average, people have 250 contacts. Of course this is an average, older people will have many more contacts, babies will have only a few. For arguments sake, I will shrink that number down to 72 people each.

Let’s do the math on this. To be conservative, lets also assume that everybody already knows half of each others social network, so at each tier you have 36 of 72 contacts in common.

This means:

First degree: 72 contacts
Second degree: 72 x 36 = 4,500 contact
Third degree: 4,500 x 36 = 162,000 contacts
Fourth degree: 162,000 x 36 = 5,832,000 contacts
Fifth degree: 5,832,000 x 36 = 209,952,000 contacts
Sixth degree: 209,952,000 x 36 = 7,558,272,000 contacts

This adds up to even more people than are currently living on the planet. As of 31 March 2010, the human population of the world is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 6,811,800,000 (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population)

The consequences of the 6 degrees of separation

If we are indeed connected to anyone else, on the WHOLE PLANET via maximum 6 other people, in how many or how few steps are we connected to the people we need to reach to obtain our goals?

Most of us still work and live in a relatively small geographic area. So probably the people that can help us best, are only maximum three to four steps away from us. If you approach them wisely, the people from your social-network should be able to bring you in contact with them.

Improve your “reach”

Another consequence of the 6 degrees of separation principle is that it allows us to step away from the “taker” mentality and become a “giver”.

If you give away a report or white paper that truly was of expert or consulting quality, holding nothing back in the value the report delivered to your audience. Then you share this report with 100 people, and asked them at the end of the document to share it with their contacts, if and only if they found value in it. If only 1 in 5 of your contacts shared the document, and at each degree of separation the carry forward what cut in half (20% becomes 10% becomes 5% becomes 2.5% becomes 1.25%, at the sixth degree) then you would have had your report read by 10,159 people.

Now you have extended your reach and influence to over 10,159 people. We are always suspicious or even reluctant to strangers that want to sell their products or services. But we “lower our guard” to people who try to help us (or our network) to accomplish something without expecting anything in return. If anyone is seeking help or advice on the topic area of your report, you are now well on your way to becoming a trusted adviser or expert they may turn to for help.

For more information on the “6 Degrees of Separation“.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney