Brandjack News

By Quentin Langley

The theory of six degrees is welll known, and has spawned the excellent game "six degrees of Kevin Bacon". Anyone who works in film or tv has a Bacon number.

But, just for a moment, think about someone you know who is especially well-connected. Someone you think of as a great networker. The chances are, it is someone who is deeply connected: someone who knows a lot of people in one place or one industry. Deep connections are valuable, especially in networking your way into a new job. Connections in your profession or your sector are, obviously, the sort of people who will hear about jobs that are of interest to you. But the very best connected people – the ones will low Bacon numbers or close connections to Barack Obama; the people who are a maximum of five or even four degrees separated from anyone – are the people with good random connections. It is the surprising people in your network who open up vast swathes of new connections.

So here is your networking challenge. You can use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform. The platform is not the point. The point is to add six new connections in 24 hours meeting the following criteria:

1. At least one must be someone who lives on a continent on which you have never lived. (If you have lived on six continents, you are excused this one).  (I have to rule out Europe, North America and probably Asia. 'Probably' because I lived in Georgia, on the Eurasian border, for a while).
2. At least one must work in a profession in which you have never worked. (I have to rule out PR, academia and head hunting).
3. At least one must work in an industry or sector in which you have never worked. (I have to rule out education, consultancy, energy/utilities, media, real estate, accountancy, and probably some others).
4. At least one should be a referred contact by a member of your family.
5. At least one should be a referred contact by a former professional colleague.
6. At least one should be someone who strongly disagrees with you on something important (as evidenced by, for example, their blogging).

Okay, you ready?