According to an article by Maggie Shiels over on the BBC your online connects could be earning you an extra £365/month.
But before anyone goes totally negative on the whole online friends routine, a study by IBM and MIT [460Kb PDF] has discovered that there is money to be made from those buddies.The IBM collaboration with MIT’s Sloan School of Management tracked the electronic communications of over 7,000 volunteers for three years. The aim of the work was to put a dollar amount on the effect of those electronic and virtual relationships.
Researchers found that having strong connections to managers (yes, sucking up to the boss) can boost the bottom line. On average, it adds up to $548 (£365) in extra revenue a month.
She’s referring to this research (the link in the BBC blog post wasn’t quite right when I read it).
It’s quite a long report and I have to admit that I haven’t had chance to read it, but can it really be that simple. The conclusion of the report says this:
By analyzing one of the largest organizational electronic communication networks ever collected and combining it with detailed performance data, we show initial evidence that not only are network topology characteristics associated with productivity, human capital of inside one‘s social network and tie strength to the appropriate human capital are also positively correlated with information worker productivity. We find that having strong links to management is associated with higher revenue generation, but simply knowing many managers and have minimal correlations with performance. This demonstrates the importance of distinguishing one‘s social network not only by its network topologies but also the content of the network such as the cumulative human capital inside the network and the strength of ties connecting to this type of capital.
In my really simplistic words – relationship with your management network can lead to higher earnings. I suspect that for many people that is instinctive. If you get on well with those within your management structure you will go further. If you do a really good job, but are obnoxious then you won’t go as far. Simply adding your manager to your Facebook buddy list doesn’t, for me, constitute a relationship.
Network intelligence (my phrase) is going to be an important skill in coming years, online community adds to the networking capabilities, but also requires a higher level of network intelligence.
Is there a business opportunity here that I’m missing, perhaps “NI” training could be a real earner.
Update: Business Week also covered the same research.
Graham Chastney 