Everyone has their personal story of how they got to where they are right now. But, what if I asked you if you’ve formed your network of “weak ties” or what others may call an alliance or even an inner circle. These “weak ties” I want to talk about are people you have many casual talks with, but when it comes time to press forward they are there for you and will introduce you to their very own.
Weak ties are relationships that can always be brought together but strive to be as casual as possible.
First things first. We need to form our very own network of these so called “weak ties”. Now, I formed mine by establishing a connection with someone, then they knew someone, and then I met another person who happened to be Rob Rammuny. Rob and I really connected and he would be my first “weak tie”. From then on I began to build this network. This could happen to you. It’s all about the right action, amount of effort, and what you’re willing to put on the line for others.
The Choice is Yours
Like with everything you have to decide and in this case you have to decide whether forming a network of “weak ties” is what you want. Believe it or not I know many bloggers or people on the web that continue to do great things because they have formed this kind of network. You might notice whenever someone endorses or promotes a product on their blog, more than likely that person is apart of that person’s “inner circle“.
This is no membership kind of status, its merely a knowing of great people that you have trust in and want to carry out a casual conversation.
Importance of this Network
When deciding to adapt to something like this and start putting it into practice you want to know the benefits. Here are some and really will all depend on the chemistry of your specific network:
- Talking about any blog expansions before you test it out in your community.
- A start of getting something to go viral and getting yourself to truly stand out.
- People will start to see your network and appreciate you and everyone else in the network. Support goes up!
Time, Effort, and Many Conversations
Everything, if you want it to be done right in your personal way, takes time and effort but many people still don’t get this.
Think about your true friendships. They just didn’t happen overnight and there is no such thing as an overnight success. It’s about time and using the time to your personal fullest with as much effort as possible.
This kind of network of people takes that along with many conversations. These conversations could consist of the following:
- Seeing something you’ve done, here’s my input.
- What you do in the free time and how’s your day going?
- I came across this and thought you’d be interested.
These are of course just some of so many ways to get conversations started with people that you would like in your network. Just refrain from too much self promotion and the possibility of annoying them.
Also strive to brings these conversations offline over a good and comfortable amount of time.
Who to Look For
Now, who should you be looking for to join your network?
It’s really all up to you, but think about who is at your or around your level and who is higher than you or really who influences you. For example, I think Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk, Darren Rowse, and Matt Cheuvront are higher than me. I determine this by overall community response.
It’s all a matter of you pushing them and them pushing you
Then, I look at who is around my level. This is everyone else. Most people know who is higher than them and they look up to them for advice. But, many of us don’t know who we should talk to that is not in this “higher level” group deemed by the general audience.
This is where you have to decide the following:
- What’s their mission, vision, and purpose?
- What do they really care about?
- What drives them?
All of us need to think about:
- How will this person benefit me if I make good conversation with them?
Who knows the people you begin to network with might have their own network and then many more doors open up for you.
The First Steps to Formation
- Know who you’re looking for and that you can help them and they can help you.
- Treat your conversations as if you were standing next to them, striving to get somewhere in a healthy manner, but as casually as possible. (No sales pitches here)
- Start building the relationship without becoming annoying. Make them your friend. Begin achieving success together.
Do you have this kind of network? If not, why?
Photo by Daniel Zedda
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?Thanks for sharing very interesting points.
You’re welcome! What did you think of them?
You have mentioned a point which many branding experts have missed. Always these gurus mention about connecting to people more successful so that you are motivated and consider you one among them.
But connecting to weak ties makes you have a close set of following who can relate to what you are saying and they are the ones who carry your name forward by blogging about you.
Exactly. More than likely everyone is going to be looking up to the same people for motivation. The real motivation that helps you out directly lies in the people that communicate with you on a frequent basis.
I don’t know anyone in this industry, I don’t think it has hurt me too much.
All I’m saying is that having “weak ties” can only help you.
Now thats what I call a real and professional blog post with a professional thought.
Both thumbs for you …
Thanks! I really do appreciate that
yes you get the righ point.Professional networking is creating and nurturing professional acquaintances and friendships. Everyone networks — at school, church, social activities, work and online. Professional networking is using your abilities to make friends and to provide mutual support. You network because you want help with professional and personal goals.
Networking is essential here and thanks for your comment.
I absolutely love this site
definitely gonna need to put this on my blogroll.
Still searching for my inner circle. Hehehehe….
Thank you for this article. I know when we do blogging, one of the most important part are your blogger friends. Its not easy to build that inner circle but we need that in our blogging life.
It surely is not easy nor really hard. What strange is you have to be always working at it by keeping it in the back of your mind and your inner circle will more than likely form. I always on Twitter @byderekj
I like the idea of have this informal sort of network of your own, but I’ve no idea how you would go about getting it. I know you say look for bloggers around your level, but how do you do this? I mean it’s all very well sending an email and following someone who has a similar blog, but you’re not really going to start off an informal relationship with them are you?
It’s all about finding that one person, seeing who they talk to, and going from there. It’s about commenting, contacting via their contact form, tweeting, or even instant messaging.
There is no real how way of doing this, but I would start from there.
I really got inspired by your post. I heard about your blog from my friend, but due to shortage of time, i did not visit your blog.
After reading a few of your blogpost, i really got inspired. Great work and specially this post is really helpful for those who want to build a strong and effective network.
Bilal,
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your kind words. I do strive to inspire people everyday and that is the very main reason I started blogging. I’ve learned throughout my early blogging days and now that building a strong and effective network only leads to great things.
Best, Derek
Derek,
I never heard of people in a relationship like this referred to as weak ties. But, it is the perfect term to use. I have been building my own network of weak ties that will hopefully help to propel me to the places I want to get to one day. I know that I cannot do it alone and that having these “friends” is a key component. You might find me popping in here from time to time trying to drag you into my “weak ties” world.
Kathy,
Sounds good
Yeah this term came to my mind randomly and I’m glad it works.
Best, Derek
This is really great Derek,
yeah! I already have my “weak tie” and that is Dev from technshare.com.
Thanks so much for the great post,
-Onibalusi
Onibalusi,
I’m glad you have a “weak tie” already. There’s so many advantages to having one or maybe a few more
Best, Derek
Personally, I will look first and more towards people equal to me then above me. It’s my personal philosophy, that I will get further faster working WITH then working UNDER.
That said, the ideal is of course working WITH someone doing better then you; experience however tells me this is far fewer.
Dennis,
It’s good that you are looking more for people that are at the same level as you but you can still gather motivation & inspiration from people higher than you.
Wish you the best, Derek
It’s true. But sometimes, I do think we need people who are at the higher level leverage us to their level. Like if I’m an owner of very famous forum and you are the very active member lol, I can feature you to be an editor and you career opens up a new chapter (just some example btw)
Mike,
You bring up a good point. Thanks for sharing!
Best, Derek
True, but you need to be careful who you follow, what you take and leave behind sometimes.
Example: I happen to know the true stories of how certain “pros” that millions look up to, got started…..to say unethical would be uber-kind.
just sayin’
That’s very true. “Learn what you want to or should learn from them.”
Best, Derek
Every of Blogussion author is an expert author, I wonder how they got all of these ideas to create a good post….
Great minds, dedication, motivation, and passion.
You wrote
“How will this person benefit me if I make good conversation with them?”
I think, it’s more the other way around: “How can somebody benefit from what I can tell him/her”? The giving comes first, then the take…
I use Twitter for creating weak ties, as well as talking to bloggers who I’ve met through Skype conversations etc. It’s important to look for the people who are nice. They don’t even have to be in your niche but if you can reply to something that they’ve said, that’s a fantastic start to building a ‘weak tie’. That first little step can be the hardest but it’s also the one that can put you in contact with some truly great people!
My top weak ties tool is my email address, its because of my blog’s niche, there are some of my readers that we wrote to each other, and we feel like a good friend, and helping each others.
I really appreciate those people and still hope to get more of them
Thanks for pointing it out Derek!
Ps. Btw, in the “summary” box, you might want to check the spelling again
like o ther is other 
The power of people and their interaction makes us happy, satisfied, and will push us to over our limits in life and anything we want to do.
You’re welcome, Kimi!
Blogging really is about creating a network, whether its the people who promote your products, or the people who read your content because they love it.
You bring up some great points Derek! Rob and I have talked about networking and the concept of an inner circle and I definitely think we need to have a diverse range of people in our inner circle.
While people who are at and above our level are definitely important, I think that we should also be networking and slowly allowing people who are not yet at our level into our ‘circle’. The reasoning behind this is, if we expect people above us to let us network with them, then we should do the same, and also – people who are not yet at our level will be more likely to do stuff for you (as ‘using’ as that sounds).
Thomas,
I surely do think what you’re saying is what both Alex and Rob saw in me. I’m not as “big” as them, but I offered my thoughts and ideas to them and showed my drive, passion, and energy and (without putting words into their mouth) I feel they see benefits from me being in their inner circle.
In terms of growing the inner circle of “weak ties” there is a point where you can’t have a big group and that is why I strongly feel personal connection and desire/motivation is key.
We should talk more!
Best,
Derek
That is my 2nd go to to this blog. We are starting a whole new initiative inside the same class as this blog site. Your blog provided us with fundamental information and facts to do the trick on. You’ve accomplished a marvellous employment.
nice
What you see is very good. I can actually relate to what your saying and trying to build networks myself. Some of your advice I’m already doing and the rest, I’ll fully take on board. Thank you very much Derek.
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