The Music Of Social Networking

I recently watched an interesting BBC4 documentary on legendary music producer, Quincy Jones. Jones produced the biggest selling album of all time (Michael Jackson’s, Thriller) along with the second biggest selling single of all time (We Are the World). As Lionel Ritchie explains in this clip, part of Jones’ success was due to ability to connect people together, “…there’s a giant address book you see him on the phone and he’s just calling and he knows just who to call to get that done…” [3:22 in the clip]

Quincy Jones’ spent a lifetime building his own network, eventually working with jazz legends and up-and-coming hip-hop artists on the same album. The documentary mentions how he could never turn down working with old friends and because he always tried to help out the people in his network they responded whenever he needed help on his own albums.

In order to get anything out of a network you have to give first. So just how can you be valuable to your network?

Offer to help
If you offer to help people you’ll eventually be rewarded. The important thing to remember is that building a network takes time and effort. You could promote a worthy cause, offer your services to someone for free or just offer your time to listen to people.

Reciprocate
Most major religions follow the Golden Rule, which basically means, “treat others as you would like to be treated”. If most major religions can agree on this concept then it indicates that this idea can cross cultural divides and whoever you interact with in the world they will probably appreciate this.

Be useful
There are lots of ways to be useful. You can connect people to useful information. This could be as simple as linking to an article or recommending a book. You could also connect people together from your network. If you know somebody is looking for a designer and you have a designer friend, then you could recommend those people work together.

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   Building a targeted network takes time and effort. Automated software will get you thousands of followers, fans and friends but not necessarily customers, referrals and business partners. The Grammy award winning musical artist Quincey Jones is a great example of what can be accomplished with social networking. His two best selling albums of all time speaks volumes for the effectiveness of social networking. Success in social networking as exemplified by Quincey Jones is essentially just following the "Golden Rule" of doing unto to others what you would like done to you. That's what makes the music of social networking.