From weak to strong connections. Community or social network 3
From the translator. This text is the third miniseries text from 4 publications on social networks and communities, their similarities and differences, as well as their interrelationships with each other.
Last time, we talked about the first stage of any relationship — the formation of weak ties, or how people form bonds. We have seen that weak ties can form almost everywhere (both in communities and through social networks). If you do not know what factors control the formation of weak links, or how the community differs from the social network, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with previous publications of this mini-series before diving into this one dedicated to building strong links:
Creating a weak link is the first and easiest step in building any kind of relationship. With the exception of kinship, almost all other social relationships begin with weak ties. It can be argued that even family relationships are weak by default, and only due to frequent family meetings and interactions develop into strong relationships. The only difference is that we cannot choose our relatives. However, we still choose how much we will develop our relations with them, i.e. do we want to maintain strong ties with them or will we leave ties with them weak.
Since strong links are the most valuable, for us the question is important, how do weak links grow into strong ones? By the way, I do not declare that weak ties cost nothing. Of course, they are valuable. However, the value of weak bonds lies not in themselves, but in their absolute number and diversity.
')
This is well illustrated by the situation when you are looking for a job. Your close friends (with whom you have strong ties) are likely to go a long way and spend a lot of time to help you. But since you do not have a lot of close friends, most likely, they will not be able to find you the job that would best fit your skills. In contrast, your friends (with whom you have weak connections) are likely to spend just a couple of minutes to forward your resume to your personnel department. But at the same time, you may have a lot more acquaintances than close friends, and you only need one successful job offer. Therefore, if you have a large number of acquaintances, the likelihood that one of them will find something suitable for you is quite high. In fact, having a large number of weak links allows us to crowds them to help us.
The value of strong bonds in the relationships that are formed through them. And their value is much greater than the cumulative value of any number of weak ties brought together. Just ask yourself if some of your close friends are ready to exchange for 10 people you met online? What about 100 or 1000? I'm not ready, that's for sure! Building strong bonds is time consuming and indispensable. I think that further there is no need to cite any additional examples.
The community builds strong relationships.
If weak links are formed both in communities and in social networks, then strong links are built mainly in communities. Definitely, most of my close friends (with whom I have strong connections) are people with whom I have been in the same communities at one time or another in my life. These communities can be the yard where I grew up, the school I attended, the laboratory in which I worked, or some group of interest, for example, a photo circle or a badminton section. And although I often intersect with new friends of my friends (through my social network), without a community able to develop our superficial relations, our “friendship” with them will remain just an acquaintance.
Let's take a look at some of the most successful social networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. They were created around natural communities in which surface relationships between their members could develop and strengthen over time. For Facebook, such communities were originally made by colleges and universities, which allowed later to expand into the corporate world. For LinkedIn, these natural communities are companies, professional societies, and industry associations.
This is true for online communities. I met quite well with several people on Lithosphere (this is the online community of Lithium, dedicated to communities), as well as in various groups on LinkedIn, in which I participated. Common interests about which we can debate, argue and learn from each other are crucial to the development of our relationship. In combination with frequent meetings, close interactions and time spent together, all this builds strong connections within communities. As a result, some of my friends in the community have become my friends.
Therefore, successful social networks should always provide their members with some form of community to interact and build strong links. Without communities, social networks are simply embellished telephone directories and contact lists. It did not take long for social networking sites to understand this. And very soon we will be able to see the increasing efforts of these sites to provide tools that can support and develop the community. In fact, groups and fan pages on Facebook, as well as groups on LinkedIn, were the very first attempts to build communities within a social network. And they really are communities in accordance with the characteristics that we voiced in the publication Community or social network?
So, the message of today's publication is quite simple:
- Community or social network?
- How do people make connections
- From weak ties to strong
- Maintain strong ties
Last time, we talked about the first stage of any relationship — the formation of weak ties, or how people form bonds. We have seen that weak ties can form almost everywhere (both in communities and through social networks). If you do not know what factors control the formation of weak links, or how the community differs from the social network, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with previous publications of this mini-series before diving into this one dedicated to building strong links:
The value of strong bonds compared to weak
Creating a weak link is the first and easiest step in building any kind of relationship. With the exception of kinship, almost all other social relationships begin with weak ties. It can be argued that even family relationships are weak by default, and only due to frequent family meetings and interactions develop into strong relationships. The only difference is that we cannot choose our relatives. However, we still choose how much we will develop our relations with them, i.e. do we want to maintain strong ties with them or will we leave ties with them weak.
Since strong links are the most valuable, for us the question is important, how do weak links grow into strong ones? By the way, I do not declare that weak ties cost nothing. Of course, they are valuable. However, the value of weak bonds lies not in themselves, but in their absolute number and diversity.
')
This is well illustrated by the situation when you are looking for a job. Your close friends (with whom you have strong ties) are likely to go a long way and spend a lot of time to help you. But since you do not have a lot of close friends, most likely, they will not be able to find you the job that would best fit your skills. In contrast, your friends (with whom you have weak connections) are likely to spend just a couple of minutes to forward your resume to your personnel department. But at the same time, you may have a lot more acquaintances than close friends, and you only need one successful job offer. Therefore, if you have a large number of acquaintances, the likelihood that one of them will find something suitable for you is quite high. In fact, having a large number of weak links allows us to crowds them to help us.
The value of strong bonds in the relationships that are formed through them. And their value is much greater than the cumulative value of any number of weak ties brought together. Just ask yourself if some of your close friends are ready to exchange for 10 people you met online? What about 100 or 1000? I'm not ready, that's for sure! Building strong bonds is time consuming and indispensable. I think that further there is no need to cite any additional examples.
Social networks need communities to build strong connections
The community builds strong relationships.
If weak links are formed both in communities and in social networks, then strong links are built mainly in communities. Definitely, most of my close friends (with whom I have strong connections) are people with whom I have been in the same communities at one time or another in my life. These communities can be the yard where I grew up, the school I attended, the laboratory in which I worked, or some group of interest, for example, a photo circle or a badminton section. And although I often intersect with new friends of my friends (through my social network), without a community able to develop our superficial relations, our “friendship” with them will remain just an acquaintance.
Let's take a look at some of the most successful social networking sites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. They were created around natural communities in which surface relationships between their members could develop and strengthen over time. For Facebook, such communities were originally made by colleges and universities, which allowed later to expand into the corporate world. For LinkedIn, these natural communities are companies, professional societies, and industry associations.
This is true for online communities. I met quite well with several people on Lithosphere (this is the online community of Lithium, dedicated to communities), as well as in various groups on LinkedIn, in which I participated. Common interests about which we can debate, argue and learn from each other are crucial to the development of our relationship. In combination with frequent meetings, close interactions and time spent together, all this builds strong connections within communities. As a result, some of my friends in the community have become my friends.
Therefore, successful social networks should always provide their members with some form of community to interact and build strong links. Without communities, social networks are simply embellished telephone directories and contact lists. It did not take long for social networking sites to understand this. And very soon we will be able to see the increasing efforts of these sites to provide tools that can support and develop the community. In fact, groups and fan pages on Facebook, as well as groups on LinkedIn, were the very first attempts to build communities within a social network. And they really are communities in accordance with the characteristics that we voiced in the publication Community or social network?
- These groups and fan pages are definitely built around some interest, and new joining members may not know any of the other members.
- People can be members of many bands and fan pages at the same time.
- Groups and fan pages may overlap, and some groups may have subgroups (i.e. they are nested into each other)
Conclusion
So, the message of today's publication is quite simple:
- The value of strong bonds lies in the relationship as such.
- The value of weak ties lies in their quantity and diversity.
- A community (both online and offline) is the place where weak links develop into strong ones. And despite the fact that social networks today are a trend, we should not forget about the role of communities in building strong relationships.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/138217/
All Articles