Many years ago I was a serving Army officer, waiting in Germany for the Russians to attack Western Europe. 

We used to pride ourselves on the quality of our equipment, our training and of course our “stiff upper lips”. We just knew that we would win should the Russian 3rd Shock Army cross the inner German border in an invasion of Europe.

But we always had a nagging doubt that the quantity of men, equipment and military might that was going to come our way. A nagging doubt that the quantity might just have a quality all of its own.

In the modern world I think that the quantity v quality argument still prevails. In terms of social media networks, there is a need for volume to make some sites “work”.

“Social Networks are among the most powerful examples of socialized media. They create a dynamic ecosystem that incubates and nurtures relationships between people and the content they create and share”.  (www.briansolis.com Mar 2009)

I suppose it’s often a case of the more the merrier, and the greater the chance there is of bumping into someone with a common interest.

But how deep will that interest be? If we remember that the volume of an area is the result of its height multiplied by its width, I believe that in business terms we don’t need to go wide, but we do need to go deep.

Brian Solis is on the button though with his comments about an ecosystem incubating and nurturing relationships. Because the success of any network is only the strength of the relationships it can create. So at Junction 31, The Online Business Network, we try to ensure that people meet the right people to help them to grow their business.

It’s not necessarily about quantity, but it is about quality of relationships. I’ll look at relationships in more detail in a future post.