I watched an extremely interesting program on the science channel this weekend. The program was called “Connected: The Power of Six Degrees”. It explained how seemingly unconnected components of a complex network are connected.
The scientists used the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game to confirm their theory. That is, every actor in Hollywood can be connected to every other actor in no more than 6 steps.
What was even more interesting was the fact that this phenomenon could be described using fairly simple math equations. The researchers confirmed their equations with many other organically growing networks like the spread of disease, the World Wide Web and neural networks.
This really got me thinking of how quickly a business referral network could expand. Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook take advantage of this viral expansion of connected individuals.
How could Astonish Results help our clients maximize and expand their network of customers? What tools could we provide to accelerate the connections? How can we make the connecting and spreading of our customers’ brand to their customers viral?