Paul has a great blog and some killer ideas. Things are changing,
staying in front of them is a good idea.

So glad I found it from Paul Dunay's slideshare presentation on Facebook marketing.

It makes me want to spend more quality time on social media sites because I now know the long-term value it will bring to me!

Thank you so much.

Your online social graph isn't a short term or current asset. It's a
long-term asset. Like that of your home. How much would value
would you give it if it got you a job 50% faster than if you didn't
have it. To measure the value of your online social graph, add up
every time it created an opportunity that made you money, or saved you
money.

Ask a VC what his/her social graph is worth if it found them one of
their portfolio companies that exited at 50 million. Ask a fledgling
author what their social graph is worth when it helped promote and
sell 250k copies of her first book. Ask the start up band, what their
social graph is worth while they use it to sell 100's of CD's a week
and sell out venues as they tour small clubs around the country. Ask
the HR manager who got the Dir. job at a competitor because of the
impressive posts she had on her blog.

Our lives will go through our social graphs and online presence. How
far you go can and will be measured in cash and opportunity.

I agree, an expanded social network, by itself doesn't define an
individual. The concept is one's online presence in it's total,
including blogs, group participations and other writings combined with
their followers. It won't be acceptable for professionals in the
future not to have some written presence such as a blog, wiki
participation, group participation etc. This will create a living
resume, giving recruiters and employers insight into the talent and
capabilities of candidates.

to your point technology and healthcare talent will be evaluated by
their participation in groups, by blogs, etc. To compete we will need
to express ourselves online to demonstrate our capabilities, similar
to professors today.

think of an online presence being all encompassing. Providing
insight via, ones bog, followers on Twitter, Contacts on Linkedin,
Friends on Facebook, comments on blogs, (care of disqus), and
participation in groups. etc.

Thanks for the insightful comment.

A well construed introspection on matters of future opportunities requires an equivalent statement. Thanks for triggering the thought!!

Influence will be measured horizontally against peers within similar
vertical groups. There will always be celebrity, however it's not
about being the celebrity, it's about having a social graph one can
leverage to improve their well being. Rather than a resume, a blog
can provide tremendous insight to employers. If you have a crappy
blog, with little substance and tons of followers, it won't help you
as much as a great blog with powerful content and fewer followers.

The same holds true for the number of followers. If you amass 1000
authentic followers, and can get them to “respond” to requests and
needs that will be far more valuable than 10,000 inauthentic followers
who don't know you and aren't responsive to your engagement.

The value of a social graph will be measured by how well you can use
it to drive your life's purpose, career, dating, collaboration,
information etc. It's closest to your statement of finding and
leading or participating in a tribe or tribes thats right for you.
You don't need to lead a tribe or be a Seth Godin to wield
influence. Everyone will wield influence some more than others.
Just like some people live in 10m dollar homes, some in 600k dollar
homes and others in 200k dollar homes. Regardless of the size, almost
everyone has a home. Everyone will have internet influence, how much
one has will determine their life.

My question is, what will really determine that influence as the playing field does start to leverage. Right now it's still dominated by celebrity (Godin, Brogan both fall into that category, although probably an interesting comparison).

Will it be a Social Media popularity contest? Is it a matter of finding and leading the tribe that's right for you, making it less about quantity and more about quality? Being genuine, playing nice, helping others – all of those things will be required, but what will put someone in the top 10 – 20 % of influence?

Fun discussion.

Shawn

It will be a dramatic cultural shift. How we build, use, manage, and
leverage our social networks is fundamentally changing.