Summation: The Connector

Summation
with Auren Hoffman

The CONNECTOR

Tools for Increasing Your Network

Connector tips below are from before August 1, 2003. For more recent items, please see The CONNECTOR ...

SAVE TIME BY STOPPING SPAM. CLOUDMARK.

Spam takes a lot of time to get through. The delete key is fairly effective, but good spam filters are much better.

I use Cloudmark to filter my spam and I have to say it works very wells (filters about 90% of my spam and rarely has false positives. Some spam filters force the people sending you mail to go through a lot of work to complete the electronic communication. That might be good if you're Jennifer Lopez or Bill Gates, but that kind of system will prevent important messages from getting to most of us. Cloudmark uses collaborative filtering tools to work across networks to effectively eliminate spam.

To get one month free of Cloudmark and a special price of $2/month afterwards go to: www.cloudmark.com/spamnet

and use the referral code: r105hl

And then let me know what a difference spam filtering made in your life.

MAKING PEOPLE REMEMBER YOU

Have a distinguishing physical characteristic:

Some people have a physical characteristic that they can be remembered by. Maybe one is really fat, amazingly beautiful, utterly ugly, has a goatee, has blue hair, is really tall, is totally bald, etc. If you have something distinguishing about how you look, you are very lucky. People will tend to remember you much better. Think of Cindy Crawford -- the first thing most people think of is her imperfection (her mole right above her mouth).

Dress differently:

If you don't have a distinguishing physical characteristic, you might consider making one. Uber-networker Gregory Slayton (see July '02 profile at http://www.summation.net/friends.html) always wears a baseball cap. He hangs out with the President Bush and he still wears a baseball cap. I've met other people that wear bow ties. Some always wear sandals. Dale Fuller, CEO of Borland, always wears all black. Some always wear their company logo. Make yourself recognizable.

Accent your name:

People tend to remember odd names. I'm the only "Auren Hoffman" in the world, so people remember it. If your name is Michael Smith or Jenny Chang, you might have to find a way for people to remember. I've known some people who have gone so far as to adopt nicknames.

E-MAIL/WEB TIME MANAGEMENT

The Connector is not just someone who knows tons of people, s/he is someone who truly understands time management. Here are some quick tips to increase your productivity if you are a wired worker:

** Modify the start page of your web browser.
When most people open a new web browser window they see a news page like MSN, Yahoo, Netscape's home, AOL, Drudge, etc. These sites are trying to captivate you so you stay on them -- and they usually work. Instead of doing something you planned to do, you get caught up in the newest story.

Change your default page to blank to decrease your temptation to be diverted.

** Turn off instant messaging.
This might be a huge sacrifice, but it stops distractions. Do you really need to chat with people during the workday? Let your friends send you emails which are much easier to manage on your own time.

** Change the start-up window when launching your contact manager.
Most people use MS Outlook to manage their emails, calendar, tasks and contacts. When launching the program, instead of having the first thing you see be your emails, change the default screen to view your tasks. This will force you to take on the many to-do items you have for the day.

To make the change in MS Outlook go to Tools/Options/Other/Advanced - and change the option "Startup in this folder:" to Tasks.

** Check your email regularly, but not every second.
Never check your email more than once every 30 minutes -- don't get sucked into the e-mail trap that kills most people's productivity. If you only do one small thing to change your habits, do this.

** Turn off all email reminders.
Email reminders kill your productivity because they distract you. And if you are not going to check email more than once every 30 minutes, you do not need to know the second you get an email. Turn off all sound, cursor changes, that little icon in the bottom right-hand corner, etc. Any reminder you getting an email will distract you. And, of course, either close or minimize you contact manager.

** Powering through emails.
If you get home from a few days of vacation and are faced with hundreds of emails to respond to, block out a few hours to power through all of them at once. Then sort the emails by subject so you can immediately identify long threads and you only have to reply to the last one.

These little changes sound stupid, but they will massively increase your productivity.

PARTY PLANNERS

You know the people that are always planning parties and events? Those people are a special type of connector. Generally they are very social people who truly enjoy creating large events (or planning a vacation) and inviting many people to share the experience with them.

Many people, me included, rely on these planner connectors for social outlets. Without them, many of us would be confined to our living room watching movies every Saturday night. Most of the vacations I have taken have been planned by someone else -- whether it was my recent trip to Sundance or a summer trip to Mexico.

A "connector" delivers value to all those who know her. Party planners deliver a ton of value. Everyone wants to know the party planner. So these connectors are always getting contact information from people and always have a reason to send mass-broadcasts (because parties/vacations are done often). We all know people like this -- people we rely on to increase our "fun" intake (or even our brain intake).

KEEPING YOUR CONTACTS UP-TO-DATE

To be a Connector, you want to make sure you always have the most current information on all your contacts. There is nothing worse than sending someone a holiday card and having the letter returned to you because you have the wrong address.

Luckily, there are many software applications that help you keep your contacts up-to-date. If you're like me and use Microsoft Outlook as your personal information manager, then you have at least three software choices:

* Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com). I use Plaxo because it is the simplest program and because it is free (at least for the time being). My experience with the product has been terrific and the customer service is outstanding. There is one glaring bug that sometimes erases email addresses that you have to be careful of, however.

* GoodContacts (http://www.goodcontacts.com). GoodContacts also works with ACT! and is a bit more graphical than Plaxo.

* Infotriever (http://www.infotriever.com). Infotriever is based in Toronto and is probably the most fully-featured product.

"SPENDING" YOUR CONTACTS

To be a Connector, you need to make connections between people constantly. To a particular person, your network of contacts is only as good as the last contact you put them in touch with.

Your contacts are the opposite of cash. If you spend cash, you lose it –- but if you keep cash tucked away in the bank, you earn compound interest on it.

If you keep a contact tucked away, it goes stale and you'll lose the ability to call on the person in the future. But if you "spend" the contact by contacting that person or putting them in touch with others in your network, you earn massive interest.

The more contacts you have that know each other, the more you gain because of the amplified network effect. If you are more than two degrees of separation from someone, then you are too far to utilize that person. So it is in your best interest to get your contacts to know as many people as possible. If you know 100 people and they each know 100 people, even if there is a 30% overlap, you still are now connected to over 7000 people! That's Metcalf's Law (where the value of a network grows exponential with every new user on the network) in action.

SUMMATION

Are you a connector?... Contact Auren