Can you place a dollar value on your network?
on Wednesday, February 9, 2011A couple of years ago Businessweek reported about a study on the value of our social network. The article relates: “Researchers at IBM Research and MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that the average e-mail contact was worth $948 in revenue.”
Last October another study showed the dollar value of a mention on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. In that study Eventbright announced that “each (social networking) share equals $1.78 in ticket sales.”
There is something about attempting to measure the commercial value of our friendships that doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t normally believe in putting a dollar value on relationships. To me there is something disingenuous about treating a friendship as a “revenue opportunity.” However, the data is compelling. In our high tech / high touch society our relationships do have a financial value, and those who can leverage these network relationships in a positive way will gain an edge in their career and business.
If our network relationships DO have a dollar value associated with them, what can we do to both honor the relationships and leveraging their power? Here are 3 critical things I recommend:
-
Treat your relationships like gold. My mother (a one time Camp Fire leader) used to sing, “make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.” How do you treat gold? One thing for sure, you don’t just dump it in drawer and forget about it. No, you give it a place of honor. You polish it up. You are proud to be associated with it. Ask yourself, are you treating your relationships like gold? Or are you dumping them into a database and forgetting about them?
-
Give, give, give and don’t keep score! Sometimes I hear a colleague say she is going to “call in a favor.” In my opinion, that’s a crummy way to treat a relationship. We do things for our network in order to add value to the other person’s life, career or business. Our network doesn’t “owe” us anything.
-
Ask. Having said the above, I don’t want to discount the importance of asking your network for assistance. People want to help each other out, so give them a chance to do so. Just be judicious about how often you ask. A good ratio would be 1 to 7 – in other words, give 7 times before you ask.
Your network is a valuable asset. Treat it with respect and it will reward you!
------------------Sean Harry
http://www.DrSeanHarry.com