Last week someone asked me why I’m not friends with other Gen Y/Millennial bloggers. It’s not that I’m not friends with them, in fact I probably read and admire 99% of their blogs, but they don’t live in Austin, they didn’t go to UT, we aren’t friends from growing up in Atlanta and they don’t work for engineering companies or do social media marketing. Which is fine, but THOSE are the people I am interested in being friends with. People I can network with in real life and people who share a ton of my interests.
I always felt bad for not wanting to be a part of the Gen Y blogging in-crowd but during Chris Brogan’s SXSW Interactive panel called “I don’t trust you one stinkin bit” I started to feel better about it. Chris described the importance of “networking across.” Networking across means that you only invest in networks that are on the same playing field as you. His whole point is that it doesn’t make any sense to try and network “up,” or try to be a part of networks that are much larger/different than you are.
For example there isn’t any reason for me to try and meet Chris Brogan (or any other famous social media guru) and become his friend. Yes, he is important. Yes, he is smart. But really, what does he know about a technical engineering community? And what does he know about queso in Austin? We don’t really have anything in common. It’s nice to know important people, but if you don’t have anything in common with them what is the point of meeting them. Which is why it makes so much more sense to network across, instead of up. Network with people who share your interests and network with people whom you can have a mutually beneficial relationship with.
Sure it would be nice to meet Chris Brogan, but I have no idea what we would talk about. And it’s the same thing with a lot of the other bloggers out there. I love friends, but I want friends who add to my life. So from now on I’m going to really work on networking across, and forget about networking up and meeting famous people. (Unless someone can introduce me to Jeremiah Owyang, because I think he is beautiful.)
Does this make sense? What do you think are the benefits of networking up v. networking across?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I know about queso in Austin.
Looks like you can stay in my network then!
I agree with this also in traditional PR. In the high-tech engineering space, where our products are in the machine of the machine of the machine you are familiar with, we shouldn’t spin our wheels trying to be in Reader’s Digest or TIME. We should “network across” and talk with the journalists and bloggers who care about and understand our solutions.
Hil-
You are exactly right! Sometimes it’s easy to get swayed into trying to network up (even I do it with my desire to be in Engadget, etc,), but it makes so much more sense to network across and get your message to a community of people who care.
Hey – Engadget likes the right stories (sometimes even about us) and you know it.
I used to be a manager of release engineering, including building racks and racks of linux and nt4.0 boxes (back in the day). I helped put together a big SUN SF15K platform with Oracle DB running on EMC storage. I’ve built cloud environments and acquired and integrated several mobile technologies.
So, we could’ve talked tech. : )
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But to the point I was trying to make, I was saying this: connect with people across multiple verticals, but don’t connect JUST to connect. If you only meet me because I’m famous to nerds, then that’s probably not useful to you. If you connect because you’re doing something cool and want to share and think that others I know will be into, then we’re on the right path.
Does the difference make sense?
Oh wow, Chris! Thank you so much for your comment. If I had known you knew so much about engineering I would have come and found you.
The difference you explained above definitely makes sense. People should network “with a purpose.” Glad you stopped by.
Hi Blake – I’m Erin, a former NIer who follows a few of your NI friends and has since started following you. And I just had to saw how awesome I think it is that Chris Brogan just comment on your blog.
You networked up without meaning to!
Hey Erin! So glad you found my blog. It’s always great to network with former NI people.
Makes perfect sense…but sometimes you’ve got to stretch…leave the “network across” comfort zone and go for it…look what it got you…comments by Chris Brogan. That’s how you do it.
You make a great point, it is still very important to leave your comfort zone and network with some people you normally wouldn’t.