Combine the power of the Internet with the evolution of digital media, apply the principles of “social networking,” and you have the main ingredients for the recipe that is revolutionizing the way business is conducted today. All you have to do is look at the wildly successful companies that have been built on the social media platform (MySpace, Ecademy, Linked-In, Flickr, Facebook, etc.) or the unprecedented growth of the Blogosphere and you’ll quickly know it. will recognize. Social networks are here to stay.

While social media clearly allows large corporations to be more productive by extending their brand and having better communication throughout the entire value chain, it is its impact on small businesses that is perhaps most impressive. The ability of social media to level the playing field for the individual professional and small to medium business is truly amazing. It was the Internet that established the global economy, but it is social networks that are making it happen.

A bit of history… The term “social media” in its most classical sense is best defined as the study of how people interact with each other. Study the dynamics between nodes (people) and links (their relationships). Since the term was coined in 1954 by JA Barnes, its importance has leapt from the halls of academia to gain visibility in the boardrooms of global corporations. It has evolved from the study of human relations in sociological, anthropological and psychological settings to the study of professional relations and organizational theory in business settings.

When all the buzzwords and tech jargon are stripped away, social media is all about aligning interests and motivations to build influence. There are smart, well-established business people with virtually no networks and little real influence, and there are what on the surface appear to be shadowy individuals with huge networks who wield tremendous influence.

Social media analysis has shown that the greatest amount of power and influence within the corporation does not necessarily reside at the top of the organizational chart, as one might think. Studies have found that the people who have the most influence in a company are the most trusted people with the broadest base of connections, and not necessarily the person with the highest rank or the biggest title. Likewise, the same applies to external networks… It’s about quality (are the people in your network meaningful?), character (do the people in your network trust you and do you trust them? ) and the relevance (are the people in your network capable of exerting an influence that is aligned with your needs?) of the people in your network who matter.

The last and most important ingredient in building your network is that you must be a contributor… The old axioms “you will reap what you reap” or “give and you will receive” have never been truer than when applied to social media. If you are truly motivated to provide value and benefit to your network members, you will receive value in return. However, if you are a user and abuser of your network, only taking from others and giving nothing back, you will bleed your network dry only to see it crumble before your eyes.

With the right motivation, careful construction, and active management of your network, there’s no reason to assume you won’t be successful. Focus on leveraging the most important spheres of influence for the mutual benefit of your network members. By adopting the suggestions in this article, your network will grow geometrically as it spans industries, geographies, and cultures.