Social proof can be helpful but also misleading in some instances and more valuable in others. Just because 100 people like something on Yelp or Amazon doesn’t mean you will like it too. But that is about taste and not trust. ebay ratings are about trust.

It is far more valuable to have folks you know and share a common interest/perspective than 100 random people who may or may not share your tastes. If a friend of mine who is a foodie and has similar tastes as I tells me to try some restaurant, then I’m much more interested than if the “crowd” likes it. Same for a friend who shares my tastes in movies. Food and Movie critics are a form of institutionalized social proof and, if the critic has displayed similar tastes as you have in the past, they can be a good indicator for you as well.

What isn’t mentioned is also the dataset. Is the social proof coming from, say 100 hard core rednecks from the south or from 100 snobs in New York City? I’d take 100 rednecks opinion on BBQ and fried catfish over a New Yorker any day, but want 100 New Yorkers to tell me the best sushi place. The rednecks might think the sushi is BAIT!  It is all about context.

Other forms of social proof, such as an ebay rating aren’t about tastes, but about integrity in a transaction and the inverse may be true there. Just because you have a friend that purchased 1 thing from an ebay member generally isn’t as sufficient as if the ebay seller had 100 positives experiences b/c that form of social proof is about trust, not taste.

I have a lot of respect for Scoble and the brand he’s built and all he’s done for entrepreneurs, but the comment he makes about having 66k subscribers can be dangerous too. Both Friendster and MySpace had lots of social proof in terms of active and engaged users but lost that trust or the user found a better option and the switching costs were too low to keep them. Bernie Madoff built his entire fraud on “social proof” b/c this name or than name at “the club” was also an investor.

Social proof can be a proxy for trust in certain cases, but it also needs to be taken in context. Often times, fewer proof points from people you trust and share values with is superior, but in other cases, like the ebay example I gave, it is better to have more social proof points.

The idea for the tournament is based on the book Innovation Tournaments by Wharton OPIM professors Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich.  The tournament allows “new ideas compete with one another in numerous rounds of vetting — that is, by running them through “innovation tournaments” — so that the strongest and most promising ideas make it to the final round”.   Learn more about the book here.

However, professional networking may help space users find space, capital providers find CRE investments funds, and property buyers find sellers.  These economic transactions close when connections occur between the supplier and the consumer.  Online networking tools connect information and basically help those interested in an introduction extend their reach.  CRE has always been a relationship driven business this is just an efficient productivity enhancement.

This concept should be particularly interesting to organizations that have a number of employees that each have their contacts, but have no means to leverage across all contacts in a controlled private manner.  Let’s suppose a leasing agent has space that is ideal for a grocer.  The agent can maximize the number of possible space users and the possibility of finding the right contact by reaching across all the contacts of the firm.

Another example might be a new fund which has recently closed with a new team that has interest in Class A office in the Southwest.  A long term owner would like to get a measure of interest from them about his asset, but has no direct relationship.  The professional networking tool would allow them to reach out across all downstream contacts with whom they have agreed to share.

Low cost, easy use, no travel and increased opportunity sound like a positive to improving the likelihood of valued connections and thereby liquidity in CRE.

Companies are slowly turning to Web 2.0 and activating more networking options for their organizations. What about your company? Tell us below in the poll.

Frequency of Online Networking

Several recipients were unsure of how to use online networking to meet their career objectives, and therefore, were not very regular users of online networking platforms, as seen below. The remainder of users log in on a regular basis. There’s still a huge percentage of users that need more clarity / improvements on using these applications.

Does online networking resemble how you network in real life?

We also asked respondents if online networking resembled how they networked offline. 65% of respondents indicated it did not.

Why not?

Respondents identified the following weaknesses of online networking:

- Overly complex

- Too much information

- Difficult to determine which requests are legitimate

- Trivial & noisy

- Difficult to connect with those you’re connected to online

A lot of the “overload” of information that doesn’t add value is driven by the number of connections individuals make online, often, with those they do not have close relationships.

Recommendations

Our respondents had the following suggestions on how to improve open networking:

• Privacy
• Simple User Interface
• Sort through clutter
• Improved search
• Ability to add unique groups

What about you? What are your thoughts on these recommendations?

Over here, you know we emphasize privacy and believe this is critical so that you can leverage your trusted relationships.

The top issues are: ineffective connections, insufficient privacy and lack of awareness on how to use online networking for one’s career. The first issue, of being connected to many people, but most of them weaker connections, is one that we’ve discussed before. Networks grow without adding significant value and can cloud your perception of how accessible and reliable your network truly is.

Privacy is obviously another huge concern and one that prevents usage of online networking tools altogether. Profiles can be made private, but on some applications, like LinkedIn, that can reduce efficacy of being discovered for recruiting purposes.

Not knowing how to use online networking to further one’s career is a common issue that many sites are seeking to solve today. In addition to a slew of books and how to use many applications, blogs have taken this field over, providing daily examples and use cases. We think this problem is not one that’s here to stay.

In the meantime, privacy and meaningful connections are valid concerns for professionals, and here at WhoDoYouKnowAt, we do our best to address this and offer a valuable platform for harnessing your business relationships.

Some of these results, particularly for job interest, could be swayed by the economic times, but in general, a fair amount, 49%, of professionals are primarily using online networking tools to advance their careers. But how effective do they rate these networks to be to further their career objectives?

These results are a bit more interesting – only 19% of those surveyed actually find their current open networks to be effective. Around 51% find it to be hardly effective at all. What are the reasons for this? We will continue to explore that and reveal our results over a series of upcoming posts, but till then, we want to hear from you – how effective are your current networking efforts online to your career? Tweet, comment, email or Facebook us back!

Picoult mostly discredits candidates through “someone you know” because networks that have grown too large, now encompassing weak connections to constitute relationships. With the proliferation of social media and public databases of resumes and profiles, the signal to noise level on those sites cheapens the experience for all involved. Users who are connecting with too many people, sometimes greater than 10,000+ , have no ability to offer you a trusted introduction. This is true.

It is only when dealing with an introduction, that is trusted from all three people involved, can you make a true impact. Meeting someone online and then getting an intro from them is better than a cold call, but its still lower than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut, as they say in the country. Numerous books, Harvard Business Review case studies, Forbes and Fortune magazine articles have previously stated you already know everyone you need to know to make you successful, all you need to do is to mine those relationships better, cultivating the ones where you can offer the greatest value, while benefiting yourself at the same time. At the end, it’s the relationship that really matters.

It is a fact that everyone you meet is similar to a “hub” that “spokes” out to numerous other people.  But if you’re in business development of any kind, you’ll save time and ensure you meet your goals if you recognize this “hub” is the foremost important relationship to you, and the individual spokes are secondary.  However, the collective “spokes”, or all the people that person knows, is usually ultimately more valuable to you in business.

I know it’s hard to believe, but most of your business relationships are not interested in you relative to their own self interests.  OK, I know, you’re shocked.  But amazingly enough, I observe way too many people push their own interests on a new “hub” before trying to build a true relationship.  If you’re too pushy and don’t focus on building a relationship with people and genuinely help them achieve their goals first, they’ll have little desire to help you achieve your goals. Most people, except for people who are truly skilled in relationships, don’t understand this and are too wrapped up in their own self interests.

Some of you won’t like to hear that this takes patience, yet that is a fact that can’t be denied.  The cliché “it takes years to build a reputation and < 5 minutes to destroy it” is true.  Plus, one of the worst things you can do is keep a mental “scoreboard” of the favors you to do others while waiting for a favor from them in return.  It is one thing if they don’t appreciate your efforts, but remember, numerous people have done you favors – most of which you may never know about.  You have no clue how many of your relationships have told someone else when you’re not around that you’re a quality person with whom they should do business.  If you’re always looking out for yourself and not trying to help others, you’ll soon find yourself on “referral island” because you’ve voted yourself off due to your own actions.