What is your Networking Diversity?

Everyone knows it is important to have a broad network to succeed in business. A broad network also helps when you want to create some buzz if many of those people are advocates of yours. We are currently hiring for a position that requires some tech, some design, some writing and marketing savvy and good communication and project oversight skills. It is not a great salary for a computer programmer, but an excellent salary for people in other fields. We wanted to use WOM to find the candidate, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that someone I have known for 6 months was able to forward it to someone she thinks is a perfect fit. The key was that she is graduating this semester and she is one of those people that you know is going to do well the first time you meet her. I assume she has to hang out with similar people, even though I knew she would not be interested. So how deep is you network? How many people do you know and are very different from you? A diverse network is going to be more interesting and more powerful, because it gives you access to more varied groups. You may not know all of these things about everyone, but if they are a strong connection of yours, you will have a good idea of many.

• Age
• Race
• Religion
• Occupation
• Nationality
• Interests and Skills
• Location of Residence
• Sexuality
• Marital Status (With or without kids)

Do an audit of your Top 50 in the network and see how diverse you are.