Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

Chapter 20. The Human Network

Discovering the new influencers through network and link analysis^[73] allows us to see the very people who define our markets. While network analysis enables us to uncover local patterns within networks, link analysis extends these observations to determine the associations between objects. Ultimately, what we should start to see and feel is something truly more profound than any one social network. We now begin to see the genesis of a Human Network, a term that I have interposed gradually throughout this book. Whereas the Social Graph (a term coined by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg) is representative of the relationships we maintain within Facebook or any one social network, the Human Network is representative of the connections that link us to one another across multiple social networks. This is the true social network, one without boundaries or limitations for collaboration and communication. The Human Network is also how Cisco Systems defines the intersection where technology meets humanity.^[74]

Technology is facilitating the social effect and it is most certainly connecting us in ways that truly make the world a much smaller place, one where we can participate in its definition and evolution–and also define our place within it.

BREATHING LIFE INTO THE HUMAN NETWORK

As individuals, our human network is composed of both professional and personal connections and they differ from each other based on shared interests as well as established relations online ...