In the early 90’s three Pennsylvania college boys with too much time on their hands decided that every actor living or dead could be linked to Kevin Bacon.  Although never a big box office draw, Bacon has been in a significant number of films and the boys discovered that if you use Bacon as an end point, you can link him in six degrees or less to almost any other performer.  So, from that humble beginning The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon was born.

 

For example, Alfred Hitchcock and Elvis Presley can both be linked to Kevin Bacon.

How many social media blogs and white papers have you read where one of the first points of advice reads:

 

 

Finding key influencers is not that hard.  Engaging key influencers is much more difficult than most people realize.  In fact, most social media managers struggle with this task because they have never been trained on how to approach an important influencer.  OK, I can already feel the heat rising from that last statement and you may very well disagree.

In 2002 Nicholas Boothman penned a book titled “How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less.”  Pinterest wasn’t around in 2002, so yes, I mean he is the author.  It was a spin-off from a book he released in 2000 titled “How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less.”  In his books Boothman states that research has shown that we have approximately 90 seconds to make a favorable impression when we first meet someone.

 

Imagine that you’re attending a major conference.  It’s time to head over to the networking kick-off session.  You’ve got your business cards in your pocket and your elevator speech is locked and loaded.  You’ve brushed up on current events and read the speakers backgrounds so you are ready to keep the conversation light and engaging.

 

And then it happens; you run into a social buzzkill.  He’s looking at your name tag now…

 

A choke point is a strategic channel which could be closed or blocked to stop sea traffic.  At the Strait of Gibraltar, where Spain reaches for Morocco, only eight miles separate Africa from Europe.  It’s a strategic location that links the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.  When the world’s economy depended on merchant ships, control of Gibraltar meant control over the flow of products and profits to merchants throughout a large portion of the world.

Have your social networking messages sailed into a choke point?