Comments on: Is Your Network a Collection? Or an Accumulation?

By: Mitch

Mitch — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:44:18 +0000

I'd have to admit that I'm more of an accumulator than a collector. The way I see it, I'm not as overt as I should be, which means I wait for people to come to me, and therefore I'm accumulating. Luckily, I hold onto a lot of them, but I still don't perceive that as collecting since I didn't actively do what I probably needed to do. And that's a shame; I need to work on that, it seems. Mitch’s last blog post..We Don’t Always Need To Know Why

By: marianne oconnor

marianne oconnor — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:37:22 +0000

Jon/Suze,

Just returned from the garage to the kitchen, and have a new term in my head: TwitterClutter. (At least I haven’t heard it anywhere else…)

My advice:
Phase 1: Be curious. Explore and find new people and ideas out there. Phase 2: Be careful not to let too much TwitterClutter build up!

By: Jon Swanson

Jon Swanson — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:29:33 +0000

Marianne - good insight about the phases. Many collectors didn't start as collectors. Something in their accumulating caught their attention, they fell in love with it. It's that passion that drives their collecting. But i see the phases. and Suze - you took an idea and made it wonderful and clear. Thank you. Jon Swanson’s last blog post..accumulate or collect

By: fendergurl

fendergurl — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:18:12 +0000

Love this post! I am going to 'collect my thoughts' and really look at what my network is doing for me/what I am providing to my network as well. I like the analogy regarding 'adding noise'. It really does happen and that is an excellent description. We should all strive to provide quality and support to our network connections, I should think. It just helps to raise everyone up and helps to build success all around. fg fendergurl’s last blog post..Tune in to WordPress.tv

By: marianne oconnor

marianne oconnor — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:11:17 +0000

First off, thanks for bringing Jon Swanson to my attention. Much appreciated.

Second, I’m a big fan of the “quality not quantity” mentality when it comes to social networking or anything new that I undertake. (I have sacrificed too much precious garage space for things that have “accumulated” over the years. This serves to remind me — each morning that I get into my chilly vehicle parked in the driveway — that I’m letting the value of my car go down as a direct result of the random thoughtless accumulations I’ve made over the years.)

What I wonder about is how to balance finding and learning about new people and their thoughts/interests (arguably “accumulation” – at least at first) with a careful “collector’s” approach. For instance, I’m not sure I would have run across Jon Swanson anytime soon if I hadn’t decided to “follow” you for awhile on Twitter because of an interesting conversation I saw you having with someone else I ran across through a friend.

I’m definitely seeing the valuable people (“to me,” as you say) rising to the top now…but it’s taken about six months. To build a valuable collection more quickly, it’s entirely possible that one will have to “accumulate” a bit at first — to get comfortable using new tools like Twitter and achieve some level of critical communications mass.

I’m fine with that as Phase 1. However, unless I want my social networks to look like my garage (please God, no!), I need to move to Phase 2 now where I regularly and actively identify and “trade out” the melamine-laden mugs and trade-show giveaways so that I can create a collection of great value (to me).

Over time, I think most will realize that “following” (or being followed by) 20,000 people is a fool’s errand and the “he with the most followers wins” mentality will subside. But I’ve been wrong before. What do you think?

marianne oconnor’s last blog post..XCONOMY SEATTLE – “Calling Bay Area Investors: Seattle Entrepreneurs Want to See More of You, and Help Build Your Brand”