#Chapter 2 - Psychology of networks
- Mo Ca
- Dec 7, 2018
- 10 min read
How to understand the psychology of networks
to better understand your community?
In the previous chapter, we explained to you how important networks are and how to build a successful community. Although the methods have become more modern, and more accessible thanks to the Internet, the psychology behind them has mostly remained the same. In this chapter, we will discuss the psychology of networks and how you can use this to improve and expand your network. To do this we are going to discuss a couple of terms and definitions. And above all, we will try to answer important questions which are why people are constantly seeking a group? Why this is also real when it comes to online networks? After reading this chapter, the terms "social identification" and "social comparison" will not have secrets anymore for you.
"Psychology is always a word that can make people afraid. And we totally understand that. However, this chapter is really necessary for you: you need to understand the psychology of networks to better understand the people in your community. Let’s focus on it in this new chapter written by the team YouPro."
Why do people need to be in relations with others and to engage in networks in general?
Why be part of a group and engage in networks?
A lot of philosophers and specialists have discussed the fact that people need others to accomplish themselves and to be part of something. For instance, in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1943), you can see that your need for belonging (3rd step) leads to the last motivational steps: the self-actualisation.
As a matter of fact, being part of a group allows you to get social identification (Tajfel, Turner, 1979). Indeed, part of a person's concept of self comes from the groups to which that person belongs. Groups give a huge boost to people’s self-esteem and give them a sense of pride. For many people, belonging to a group means belonging in the world. This also brings forward a certain dislike to other groups with different values or characteristics. Therefore, you don’t just have a personal selfhood but multiple selves and identities associated with your affiliated groups. Just think about it: you don’t act the same when you are with your parents, your friends or your colleagues. So you are clearly part of various relational networks (even if sometimes you may not have the feeling to be part of it):
• Family circle: parents, sisters/ brothers, cousins
• Close circle friends, neighbours
• Proximity » relations: merchants of your neighbourhood, doctors
• People met during your studies
• People met during work experience: to build your network as a startuper, you should also pay attention to people older than you, who have experience and can help you. You need to create a real and strong relationship with them because you can learn from them. Having them in your network would be very useful.
• Members of sport or leisure clubs
• Members of association
Those various networks are building your social capital (Bourdieu, 1986) which is the possibility to mobilise those communities every time you need it. It is said that the more social capital a person or an organisation has, the most favoured he or it is when it comes to social dynamics. So you know what to do as an upcoming startup. If you want to have a better grasp of what is the social capital theory, you can see the following video.
You now get that people have a certain need to categorize things and people in groups. (Tajfel, Turner, 1979) Therefore, when looking to connect your network with more people you have to look at the differences and similarities between your interests and theirs. Often you look to join a group because their interests are similar to yours. You need to clearly show people what your interests are and how you can cater to the needs of the people, how you can give people a reason to feel connected with you. As an upcoming startup, you need people to get:
• A social identification: when looking to connect your startup to a network you have to look at what your values are. You need to see if the content and products that you are offering actually have value for your target audience. If you are trying to reach students, for example, you need to make sure that these people feel included by adjusting your tone.
• A social comparison. It is natural that people will subconsciously compare your brand to other brands. This means that you need to keep a close eye on your connections and branch. If needed you need to keep your distance from said persons or companies. But it can prove beneficial as well. If a person or company which is connected to your company does something positive you have to make sure to highlight this success.
When looking at this phenomenon it is important to realize that the comparisons and views that people have are constantly changing. Always look if these perceived views are what you wanted to show the people. We hope that now, you get why people need to be part of groups, it would help you to understand your community.
What your networks can provide you?
“Your network is the people who want to help you, and you want to help them, and that’s really powerful”. Reid Hoffman (2014)
Now you have understood why you need others, let’s talk about what can your networks provide you. Your numerous networks, but above all your professional one, can really help you with diverse things:
• People can give you information about how to build a startup, how to recruit when creating your startup. They can also give you tips and useful insights to make your startup a success.
• They can share their own professional experiences as workers in a startup or creator of a startup.
• They can help you develop new ideas because interactions and discussions are ideal to think differently, from various points of view and expand your field of view.
• Those people can also promote you if they are interested in your startup idea: what can be better than supportive people?
Now that we have discussed why people need to be part of networks in general, we are going to take a look at how this works in an online environment.
Why do people participate in social networks?
Have you ever asked yourself “why do I use social media?” or maybe thought “why do people spend a lot of time on social networks?”. Some people are using social media for the sake of killing time or merely using it as a tool for networking. There are many discussions on this matter, as people have their own interest and motives in using social network sites. For millennials, social media is no stranger to them, as it became part of the lifestyle for the majority.
Social media is essential in every aspect of a business, may it be in marketing or networking. It is a powerful tool that you can you use to create your community and network, taking into account that it is inexpensive and mostly free to use. Despite the power of social media, there is still a lack of knowledge in understanding the logic behind why people use it.
To start, you need to understand the Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT) (Lariscy, Tinkham, & Sweetser, 2011). The basis of the theory is that individuals seek out media that fulfil their needs, which then leads to ultimate gratification. For example, people use LinkedIn to find information about a certain subject, which fulfil their informational needs and they will feel a sense of satisfaction. According to UGT, people receive gratifications through the media, which satisfy their informational, social, and leisure needs (Phua, Jin, & Jihoon, 2017).
Basically, every person participates in online networks for various reasons. When was the last time you used Facebook to keep in touch with your long-lost friend? How often do you check your Instagram, scrolling through all the photos to entertain yourself? As you can see, you also have specific reasons for using your social media daily. There are seven reasons why people are on social networking sites (Whiting & Williams, 2013):
1. Social interaction
To communicate and interact with others, where people use social media to keep in touch with people they do not regularly see or new friends.
2. Information seeking
To find information about events, businesses or products and also for self-education.
3. Pass time
People use social media when they have the idle time or when they got bored.
4. Entertainment
To provide entertainment and enjoyment, for example, playing games, listening to music or watching videos.
5. Relaxation
To relieve stress, however, entertainment and relaxation are two separate constructs. Relaxation provides relief from stress and entertainment focuses on enjoyment, or in another word “to escape from reality”.
6. Communicatory utility (communication facilitation and providing information to share with others). It helps to facilitate communication instead of providing social interaction. This reason gives people to talk about something or as a reference.
7. Convenience utility (providing convenience or usefulness to individuals)
It gives convenience in terms of being accessible at any time and anywhere, for example, people use social media to advertise.
Therefore, it is essential to understand these motives and needs, in order to provide the right content to your community. Always have a purpose for every interaction that you want to make on social media. As a startuper, you need to keep in mind that their desires are mainly to seek and share information, interact with other entrepreneurs, developing networks and sharing ideas. So you need to fill these gaps in order to provide values for them. But we will talk about it later on in chapter 4 for instance.
So now you know why you need to be in networks, no matter online or offline. However, relations are only relevant if you keep maintaining them. Read the last part of this chapter to get some useful insights on how to maintain your network.
How to maintain your young professional network
(online and offline)?
Networking is more than handing out business cards and going out to lunch. It’s about building relationships, getting people to know and trust you and want to do business with you. The personal and professional connections that you socialize with can be leveraged to boost your business exponentially.
In the early stages of your business, you will need young professionals. While networking isn’t about sales, it gives you a great opportunity to get in touch with other young professionals, who are in the same situation as you. Here are some tips to increase interaction with other young professionals:
1. Listen to other young professionals.
Your target group is the key to success. What content are they interested in? Are the comments positive or negative? What do the comments contain? From these questions, you can draw a lot of meaningful information about what your next content should look like.
2. Build close-knit communities on social media.
Social media has completely changed the way businesses interact with their target audience. Start creating social media groups on Facebook. Just look at how many members one Facebook group has. In this kind of groups, you can develop connections with other young professionals. The better quality connections that you have, the easier it is to convince investors to put money behind your startup. (Alton, 2018)
3. Have a method to generate leads.
No relationship succeed overnight. Your networking property will be ineffective without a way to keep communicating with your connections. Building an email list is the most efficient way to do this. You can simply set up email capture forms on your website and social media pages.
Keep an eye out for people who identify with your business idea. Not everyone is going to understand your vision. The people who are connected to that plan will be your most valuable property. They open up new perspectives, challenge the status quo, and come out as leaders within your business.
Best practice from
Eline Krommenhoek
In the previous parts, we gave you a lot of theoretical explanations and some tips. But what’s better than tips coming from a young professional? You surely have a lot of questions like how to make people continue to follow me? Where should I meet people to interact directly with them? And what should I talk about with them? On this topic, we have conducted an interesting interview with Eline Krommenhoek. She is 25 years old and works as a freelancer for networking organization. She answered exactly these questions, so let's see our tips from the interview with Eline:
Best tips to maintain your network
1. Go to events that interest you
To create your professional network, you should also go to networking events to meet people and become visible in the professional field you are aiming at. What is very important is that you receive from your network but you also give. There will be a lot of people with whom you can talk. They will understand you and your vision and share your interests. You have to see them in real life and be interested in their story. Indeed, your professional network should not only be business focused but also be on the personal level. If the people you are networking with have the impression you are really interested in what they can say, what you can learn from them, it would be easier to make them adhere to your ideas. They can even promote it. It is really a first important step because your good connections can make you meet other people and multiply interactions with other. Your professional network can become wider and more relevant to the creation of your startup.
2. Make contacts with older people
When we get graduated, you often have a great network of friends. However, friends are not in a position to help you or give you a job. Therefore, it is important to surround yourself with older people who may already have several experiences and can give you helpful tips. These people will recommend you to others.
3. You are missing a topic of conversation or you don't know how to get on people? The key: be interested.
A lot of people want to talk about what they do what they're interested in. So if you know what someone's speciality is, you can talk about it, and you see people getting happy and you know that's the feeling that they want. Make sure that you have good conversations with people. Then they will remember you and recommend you to other people. So you will get step by step more connections to other people.
In this chapter, we have taken a look at why people connect to a network and how they do it. There are a lot of interesting aspects when it comes to the human group dynamic. Maslow showed that all humans have this need to join a group in order to achieve a clearer view of themselves. We also have seen that when we take a look at how people act online we can see that their need to be part of something is still real. We hope that thanks to this chapter, you understood better the psychology of people as to maintain your network and respond to the needs of your community. In the next chapter, we will get deeper into how to make your community to engage with you, to get involved.
Team YouPro
Comentarios