| Colour Key: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Direct connection to John Veitch. | This was on, 1 July 2007. While that is some time ago the pattern won't have changed | |
| Second Degree Connection. | People connected to one of John Veitch's direct connections, but not to him. | |
| Third Degree Connection. | The Orange Numbers are in John Veitch's third level on contact. He can see who they are. | |
| Not Visible to John Veitch | Red Numbers are "invisible" to John Veitch. He doesn't know who they are. | |
The numbers represent the number of direct LinkedIn connections each member had on 1 July, 2007
You can see 2300 (John Veitch), 765 (John Dierckx) and 8 others with 100+ connections.
Study the table below and draw your own conclusions. The Median number of connections is FOUR
| 2300 | 765 | 181 | 135 | 129 | 127 | 124 | 111 | 105 | 102 | 92 | 86 | 72 | 72 | 70 | 64 | 56 | 55 | 49 | 47 |
| 46 | 44 | 43 | 40 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 38 | 35 | 35 | 35 | 34 | 34 | 30 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 27 |
| 27 | 27 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 17 |
| 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
You can see that about 35% of the members are invisible to almost everyone because the are poorly linked. One of the best features of LinkedIn is the ability to ask questions of your network, but if you only connect to ten people, only ten people will ever see your question. Your chances of getting the best response is small.
Generally speaking networks of more than 30 people start to be useful. People with 30 or more connections are the top 10% of all members. (34 in the above sample.) On this basis 90% of the network can't get any real value out of membership yet. To do that they have to build more connections. Spreading that understanding is the purpose of this page.
There are at least four people who have started to build a network, but are connecting in a narrow way, to personal friends, or to people in the same profession, perhaps. They show up as red numbers 23, 16, 10 and 10, but all the people with more than 10 connections, and showing an orange number, might also be following a conservative linking strategy.
For New Zealand as a whole, there are about 10,000 Linkedin members, 220 of them have more than 100 connections. The top connector has more than 8,000. Some 3,500 are invisible because the have inadequate connections to other members. About 30% of the members are CEO's or business owners or senior board members. A small number of companies encourage many staff members to get involved. Government departments and local body councils are noticable by their lack of representation.
Return to the "Kiwi Scrum Setup Page" if you came from there.
The Kiwi Scrum advice on building your network is here.
You can link to John on LinkedIn here:
Write to John Stephen Veitch
Copyright John
Stephen Veitch, July 2007
