We have been asked to create our visual network either on our connections in Twitter or LinkedIn. I am new to Twitter so I decided to create mine based on my connections in LinkedIn which I have been using for my professional network for a couple of years now.

My Network Visualization on LinkedIn 

I created my visual network using Socilab.com through LinkedIn and I categorized my connections by industry. The blue dot in the middle is me and shown in the above image, my connections are concentrated mostly in the educational industry in the red and blue ovals. I also have small connections in the oil and gas industry which is shown in the green oval.

Quality vs. Quantity

When it comes to growing my network, I learned from this exercise that some connections can have no real value to me. For example, I have 236 connections in LinkedIn, however, only 167 of my connections are “effective” connections. As described in Socilab, not all connections will add value to my network since many of my connections are redundant, meaning I know the same people that these connections do, so there is nothing exclusive really added to my network by being connected to them.

Next Step

I will continue working on my connections in LinkedIn and after seeing my network visualization, I have a better idea how to grow my network effectively. I am now going to seek meaningful connections rather than redundant ones and focus on quality over quantity.