Six degrees of separation - (the 29%)

You’ve heard the term but what does it really mean?

It comes from a social experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 70’s and it’s objective was to see how many people would need to “touch” a letter to get it from one person in the mid west to a complete stranger in Boston.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_phenomenon


The rules were you couldn’t call them direct and you had to send it a person who you personally knew who might be able to move the process forward. On average it took around six contacts to achieve that. Most people who are very social and especially salespeople think that they are only a few contacts away from making “it” all happen.

But it is a myth

Because only 29% actually got the letter through to their intended target – the rest failed.

The best ones in the survey who achieved it did it in 2-3 attempts and the weaker 8-10 connections.

With the average path length being 5.5 which got rounded up to 6, hence the term “six degrees of separation”.

Interesting story but what does that mean to you?

Think for a moment about your connections and what you need to grow your business.
How well connected are you?
And what about your Sales Team?

Can they get you in front of the customers who want and need your product?

Are you/they in the 29% who can connect to whoever they need to in order to get the job done?
Or are they in the 71% who couldn’t deliver?

What is your Social Networking strategy and what are you now doing differently to improve your “network” and your projects results?

What is Web 2.0?

And how does that apply to me?

Well first off I like this definition which I have "lifted" from Wikipedia which is:

"Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, folksonomies and blogs."

Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, folksonomies and blogs.

Watch this video - it is a little bit techie but it is going to give you some more background to this wave of change that is happening to our businesses.



This applies to you because people(your customers) have access to more information than they have ever had before, they are talking about your project, they are voicing and sharing opinions and they are making decisions before you or your people ever get face to face with them.

Do you know what they are saying?
Are you involved in the conversation?
Do you have an active voice in the marketplace with these customers and prospects?

Or are you of the mind set that "We have a website, and we have the brouchure and thats all they need to know" AND the Sales People should just be selling it - because my project is "unique" !

I've got news for you - those days my friend are gone - and to paraphrase from a a popular business book from last century - that cheese has moved.

YES you still need to execute the basics well i.e. the Corporate Identity of the Project, Branding, Marketing Collateral (Physical and Digital) Launch Event, Media Strategy, P.R., Have a strong Sales Program with Great Sales People BUT you need to do more if you want to break free of the competition and be an innovator and not just another follower.

Specifics you say? We are getting there......but we need to have the foundation in place first and to mix metaphors - so we can be all on the same page ( at least to start with)

And yes we are getting to the Real Estate Specific stuff real soon ;-)