{"id":4698,"date":"2019-11-24T22:48:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T02:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=4698"},"modified":"2022-03-11T16:38:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T20:38:09","slug":"weak-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/weak-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Weak Ties: Why You Need Them, Especially in Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We don’t think of weak ties as good things–aren’t lasting friendships and deep connections what matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll cover why weak ties are important, especially in business and marketing. Learn why you should have a “connector,” someone with many weak ties, on your team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Weak Ties and Connectors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Law of the Few<\/a> is about the people who spread messages, ideas, or viruses and cause epidemics to tip. These are specific types of people<\/a> who have the contacts, knowledge, and social skills to effectively spread an idea<\/a> far and wide.<\/strong> 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connectors: People With Strong Social Networks<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To understand the benefit of weak ties and weak ties theory<\/a>, we need to understand connectors<\/a>. Connectors are people who seem to know everyone. You can find Connectors in every walk of life. Connectors are sociable, gregarious, and are naturally skilled at making \u2014 and keeping in contact with \u2014 friends and acquaintances.<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strength of Weak Ties<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Connectors are not close with all their connections. In fact, Connectors\u2019 power is in having lots of acquaintances, or \u201cweak ties.\u201d<\/strong> Acquaintances create a wider reach because they typically occupy different social circles and communities<\/strong>, exposing them to different people and information than you encounter.<\/strong> 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weak ties can help spread a message<\/a> beyond your reach because they belong to different worlds than you do. On the other hand, your friends\u2019 knowledge and social ties tend to largely overlap with your own. Your friends can help spread a message in the same communities you occupy, which doesn\u2019t do much to expand your reach in spreading a message.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study by a group of psychologists found that although we tend to develop relationships with people who are similar to us (e.g. age and race), proximity plays a bigger role than similarity in choosing friends. This means that if someone lives down the street from you, you\u2019re more likely to develop a friendship with her than with someone who you have more in common with but who lives an hour away. You\u2019re also likely to be exposed to a lot of the same news, people, and information. This is the disadvantage of strong, rather than weak, ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connectors Bring People Together<\/strong> Through Weak Ties<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Connectors tend to be connected to many communities \u2014 whether through interests and hobbies, jobs that cause them to work with people in other fields, or other experiences. Their strength is in occupying many different worlds, and bringing them together.<\/strong> They do this through weak ties.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform example: A Connector may be a journalist who interviews many different people for her work, who also plays on a recreational volleyball team, and is a regular at the local rock climbing gym, as well as a familiar face at her church, and also active and well-known in a specific online forum. She knows many people in these communities on a first-name basis and would be able to connect them if, for example, someone on her volleyball team were looking for a lawyer, and she happened to know a great one who attended her church. This journalist has many weak ties.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the small-world experiment<\/a>, psychologist Stanley Milgram discovered that half of the letters were ultimately delivered to the stockbroker by only three people. Although everyone is linked by just six degrees of separation<\/a>, a small group of people are connected to a disproportionately large number of people<\/strong>. Those few, well-connected people are the Connectors. Their connections don’t need to be strong. Weak ties can be powerful.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The notion that a handful of powerful people can spread a message further and more effectively than the rest of the population is called the Influentials theory, and has been a staple in marketing for 50 years. However, several more recent experiments by network-theory scientist Duncan Watts<\/a> determine that these rare trendsetters \u2014 or hubs, in his experiment \u2014 are no more influential in spreading an idea than the rest of the population. Watts recreated Milgram\u2019s small-world experiment with email and found that only 5 percent of messages passed through Connectors. Additionally, Watts has found that the public\u2019s mood and susceptibility to influence<\/a> at a given time is a far greater determinant of whether an epidemic tips than the strength of the influencer spreading the idea.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t think of weak ties as good things–aren’t lasting friendships and deep connections what matter? We’ll cover why weak ties are important, especially in business and marketing. Learn why you should have a “connector,” someone with many weak ties, on your team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,12],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-4698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-relationships","tag-tipping-point","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWeak Ties: Why You Need Them, Especially in Business - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We don't think of weak ties as good things, but they can be extremely important, especially in spreading your ideas. 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