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January 23, 2006

High-Performance Social Networking - Part I: The 8 Basic Networking Styles

The 8 Basic Styles of High-Performance Social Networking is the first of a three part follow-up post to my original "Right Sizing" Your PANs, CANs, and FANs -- which was my first humble attempt to lend some clarity to the otherwise idiotic and largely irrelevant social networking discussions that run rampant across the Internet.

What is Your Network?

Community affiliation is a convenient "short-hand" way to model self -- "I am a physician, I am an engineer, I am a New Yorker, I am French, I am a Social Democrat, I am a father, I am a tennis player, etc." Each attribute of self is a property of a community affiliation and, taken together, become who you are -- at least in the worlds of market analysis, demographics, advertising, surveys, polling, data mining, credit reporting, etc. -- where such impersonal simplifying assumptions are de rigueur.

So to with Social Network Analysis -- each person sits at the center of a unique constellation of communities that, taken together, forms their individual network. Each community can be regarded as a network and how individuals participate in each community determines their impact (or reach) into each of those communities.

The Three Components of Every Network -- PAN, CAN, and FAN

Whether or not you define your network as the sum of all the communities you are affiliated with, or a special combination of communities (eg., profession vs personal networks) -- there are three basic components to every network --

• PAN = Potentially Active Network
• CAN = Currently Active Network
• FAN = Formerly Active Network

Your PAN, or Potentially Active Network, is defined by the universe of community members you have yet to interact with.

Your CAN, or Currently Active Network, is defined by the universe of community members you are currently interacting with.

Your FAN, or Formerly Active Network, is defined by the universe of community members you have previously interacted with.

How Do PAN, CAN, and FAN Components Fit Together?

Your CAN is the "business end" of your network. This is where all value is delivered between relationships. No matter how active one is socially, there is a practical limit to how many people who can be in your CAN at any one time -- beyond which the ability to exchange value deteriorates rapidly. For most people the upper-limit of their CAN is relatively fixed -- from 150 to 300.

Members of your CAN come from only two sources -- your PAN and your FAN.

When you meet someone new, that person moves from your PAN to your CAN. When your CAN exceeds your fixed limit, ideally members drop out of your CAN to become members of your FAN in order for your CAN to continue to exchange value at peak efficiency.

Your FAN is a valuable resource which grows over time. FAN members form a reserve which can, at any time, be quickly mobilised to become part of your CAN. Many very valuable professional (and personal) relationships are built between people who rapidly cycle through their respective CANs and FANs.

High-Performance Social Networking -- Managing Your PAN, CAN, and FAN

In order to optimise one's personal network, one usually needs to approach their PAN, CAN, and FAN differently. It is how one combines their orientations towards each of these three components which determines their personal networking style.

THE 8 BASIC NETWORKING STYLES ( PAN | CAN | FAN )

1. Tony Soprano ( - | + | - )
2. Alumnus ( - | - | + )
3. Promoter ( + | - | - )
4. Solipsist ( - | + | + )
5. Fugitive ( + | + | - )
6. Celebrity ( + | - | + )
7. Balanced ( + | + | + )
8. Potted ( - | - | - )

#1 - The "Tony Soprano" Networking Style ( - | + | - )

The Tony Soprano, or Mobster, Style is a closed networking style which focuses exclusively on their CANs -- at the total exclusion of their PANs and FANs. This is a basic style and there is nothing "wrong" with tending to your CAN religiously. After all, our CAN is where the "rubber meets the pavement" in your network. Only in your CAN can you provide value to your relationships. It's how well you treat members of your CAN which determines how valuable you are to others and whether your FANs are truly your fans and not just your detractors.

This style focuses on one's immediate friends, family, and associates. To improve this style one must improve one's approach to interpersonal relationships. Most self-help approaches focus here and even Tony Soprano is seeing a psychiatrist.

However, Tony Soprano runs a static or closed network which draws no value from new relationships from his PAN or old relationships from his FAN. For the mobster, this is a highly appropriate networking style since new relationships, as well as former relationships, bring with them serious risks to the mobster enterprise.

In fact, for the mobster, the "A" in PAN, CAN, and FAN is quite literal - where "Active" generally means "Alive." Therefore, the three components of a mobster network are -- Potentially Alive, Currently Alive, and Formerly Alive.

#2 - The "Alumnus" Networking Style ( - | - | + )

The Alumnus or Ghost-of-Xmas-Past Style is a closed networking style which focuses exclusively on their FANs -- at the total exclusion of their PANs and CANs.

You know these guys and gals. They frequent all those Alumni Associations we accumulate over our lifetimes. They are walking treasure troves of all those insignificant moments in our lives which we -- a) have conveniently forgotten or b) wish we could forget. Like "Ghosts of Christmas Past," they haunt us with constant reminders of how thoughtless and fallible we were in our youth (not now, of course). They bring the inexorable "consequences" to otherwise "inconsequential moments" in our lives.

My gut reaction to these annoying individuals is always the same -- "Get a Life!" -- which is appropriate. While they may provide FAN value through focus on the past, they often provide little, if any, value to their CANs and have little, or nothing, to offer their PANs.

#3 - The "Promoter" Networking Style ( + | - | - )

The Promoter or Salesman Style is an open networking style which focuses exclusively on their PANs -- at the total exclusion of their CANs and FANs.

These are the guys that give "networking" it's traditional "bad name". When someone says they aren't a networker (like I do), it is really these guys that you are referring to. What people are really saying when they say they aren't a very good networker is that they aren't a "shameless self-promoter."

The classic "old school" example is the door-to-door salesman. Total PAN focus -- "Get in and Get out." Work a neighborhood and move on. No follow-ups. No one to have to get to know. No CAN. No FAN.

For most of us, the complete lack of CAN and FAN, would mean a terrifying souless existential drift in pure social artifice. Think "Death of a Salesman."

#4 - The "Solipsist" Networking Style ( - | + | + )

The "Solipsist" or "Senile" Style is a closed networking style which focuses on both their CANs and their FANs at the total exclusion of their PANs.

This style means very warm and personal CAN and heavy reliance on the past FAN. So, while it may be a very dynamic networking style, it is relatively closed to new inputs. Think "Grandpa" telling great stories to grandchildren, always being there for those around him, but annoying the hell-out-of a sales clerk.

Recognise The Solipsist can be a pure or a combination style --

Solipsist =

1. Solipsist, or
2. Tony Soprano + Alumnus

#5 - The "Fugitive" Networking Style ( + | + | - )

The "Fugitive" or "Witness Protection" Style is an open networking style which focuses both their PANs and their CANs but at the complete exclusion of their FANs.

Think people who don't want to become part of Tony Soprano's "formerly alive network". For whatever reason, they make a conscious decision to re-invent themselves or to void a past which provides a "net liability" to their future success.

They can have very warm and meaningful relationships, but once you are "on the outs," you'll never hear from them again. Think "dating behavior" of high school students.

While Fugitives may be very open to new relationships, they often have "A Plan for Their PANs" -- i.e., very specific criteria for who is in their PAN and who isn't. Hence, why you could also call this the "social climber" style.

Recognise The Fugitive can be a pure or a combination style --

Fugitive =

1. Fugitive
2. Promoter + Tony Soprano

#6 - The "Celebrity" Networking Style ( + | - | + )

The "Celebrity" or "Careerist" Style is an open networking style which focuses on both their PANs and their FANs. Celebrities may deliver a lot of value to many people but they tend to do it at the expense of their CANs. Celebrities tend to build "value delivery channels" which are largely one way. The Celebrity style is a very open networking style. Millions of people may know them through their books, articles, songs, shows, etc. but the celebrities networks tend to efficiently "shunt" people from the PANs directly to their FANs without touching their CANs for very long, if at all. They also largely out-source both their PAN and FAN management activities to others. This is a practical necessity for celebrities and careerists, who rely on growing and maintaining huge networks with their "Personal Brand" at the center.

Recognise The Celebrity can be a pure or a combination style --

Celebrity =

1. Celebrity
2. Promoter + Alumnus

#7 - The "Balanced" Networking Style ( + | + | + )

The "Balanced" or "Ideal" Style is an open networking style which does not focus on anyone at the exclusion of any other. They find a balance between their PANs, CANs, and FANs, that creates a personal network which is both open and vibrant and a source of high quality relationships both for them and for their relationships.

Recognise The Ideal can be a pure or a combination style --

Ideal =

1. Ideal
2. Celebrity + Tony Soprano
3. Fugitive + Alumnus
4. Promoter + Solipsist
5. Promoter + Tony Soprano + Alumnus

#8 - The "Potted" Networking Style ( - | - | - )

The "Potted" or "Terminal" Style is a completely closed networking style included here for completeness. This is the networking style of choice for Tony Soprano's "Formerly Alive."

Think: "I network, therefore I am."

How to Build Your Own High-Performance Networking Style

Step 1 -- Diagnosis

Ask Yourself Three Questions --

1. Which networking style do I feel MOST comfortable with?
2. Which networking style do I feel LEAST comfortable with?
3. Which networking style is my current "compromise" between comfort and discomfort?
4. Which networking style is the most successful style for my personal objectives?

Step 2 -- Treatment

If #3 equals #4, then keep up the good work.

If #3 does not equal #4, then Focus on your Answer Variance

So let me "eat my own dog food" for a minute -- Case Study: Me

My Diagnosis:

Q1: Which networking style do I feel MOST comfortable with? A1: Tony Soprano.

Q2: Which networking style do I feel LEAST comfortable with? A2: Promoter.

Q3: Which networking style is my current "compromise" between comfort and discomfort? A3: Solipsist.

Q4: Which networking style is the most successful style for my personal objectives? A4: Ideal.

My Treatment:

Shift from a Solipsist to a Balanced Networking Style

The Two Best Choices for Me

1) Add Promoter style to my Solipsist Style

2) Convert my Solipsist Style to Tony Soprano + Alumnus and then use the Alumnus to backfill into a Celebrity Style

As much as I hate Promoter Style, I'm leaning towards choice #1 because if I just add a bit of "Promoter" I can preserve the value of my Solipsist style -- which excels at growing high-value relationships which are leveraged again and again over a lifetime.

Sounds simple, right?

But remember: lot's of treatment plans are simple, yet few of them ever get executed.

It sounds simple to quit smoking, but, as any former smoker will tell you, it was torture to quit. The same with weight loss, exercise, diet control, etc. -- all sound simple, all are hell to accomplish.

It's really very uncomfortable to change one's behavior. And it's no different when trying to change your underlying networking style. People gravitate towards their own comfort zone. It takes a lot of internal work to overcome your emotional inertia. Which is my most people are never able to push themselves out of their comfort zone.

For me, even though I think I have a very open networking style, I actually don't always "make myself freely available."

During the late 60's, I remember when William Kunstler, the "celebrity" radical defense attorney, was a surprise guest during a Dick Cavett interview of two very conservative attorneys. After some awkward initial adversarial sparring, Kunstler shifted the topic to "pro bono" legal work. Both conservative lawyers said they never ever refused the opportunity to do pro bono work, to which Kunstler responded "Yes, I'm sure that's true -- but what have you done to let people know that."

It's one thing to "be open" to your PAN, it's quite another to promote that fact and to deliver on it.

Related Posts

• Sacred Cow Dung: "Right Sizing" Your Pans, CANs, and FANs
• Co-evolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans
• A Friend in Every City Â>> Blog Archive Â>> Networking why quality emerges from quantity.
• Sacred Cow Dung: TRUE TRUE But IRRELEVANT: PC Magazine Six Degrees of "Who Cares?"

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Posted by: Michael Pokocky at January 25, 2006 03:19 AM

Posted by: JP at February 2, 2006 08:45 PM

Posted by: KT at February 6, 2006 08:22 PM

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