Ian Dainty recently published an article on EzineArticles.com on Metcalfe’s Law and Marketing. He muses:

Mr Metcalfe (Photo credit: DanieVDM)

If you aren’t using Social Media to its utmost, and posting messages at least once a week, you’re missing out on thousands of potential clients. And the more messages you post, the more your network, and their network, gets to know you and believe you and trust you, because they see you know what you are talking about.

Metcalfe’s Law claims the potential value of a communications network increases exponentially with its size.

Specifically, it proposes that for a network with ‘n’ endpoints (think of these as devices, or people), the inherent usefulness of this network is on the order of ‘n’ times ‘n’ or n².

Metcalfe’s Law was intended to be an approximation and a relative measure of value for comparing two networks or the growth of one. For example, under this Law a network with 10 endpoints (value = 10×10=100) is approximately 4 times more useful than a network half the size (5 endpoints with value 5×5=25).

For our purposes, let’s apply Metcalfe’s Law to marketing. If you have only two marketing methods, let’s say it’s email marketing and direct mail; then you have the power of 2×2=4 effectiveness.

Robert Metcalfe's Law. Image via Wikipedia

But let’s suppose you use two more methods; your website and LinkedIn. Now you have four methods, and according to Metcalfe’s Law, you now have r 4×4=16 effectiveness. This means that you don’t have double the effect, but four times the effect.

If you added four other methods, instead of two, say your website, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, then you would now have six methods, and 6X6=36. Now you would have nine times your original effectiveness not just four times.

Does Metcalfe’s Law really apply to marketing? Probably not as directly as it does to networking. However, there is some correlation to marketing, and especially Social Media marketing.

With Social Media marketing, you can spread your word from platform to platform, with just the click of your mouse. So, this helps you spread your message exponentially, as opposed to linearly. And it once it is set up, much of it becomes automatic.

How many marketing methods are you using to spread the word about your company? And of course with Social Media, you just don’t reach the exact people you message, you have the potential to reach all of the people in their networks also.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6902389

via Metcalfe’s Law and Marketing!.

What is your experience or estimate on the benefit to use several channels in Social Media?

Do I hear you say that you don’t have the time to work the Social Media? In other words — you don’t have time to reach out to your customers! Really?

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• Metcalfe’s law – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (worldwright.wordpress.com)
• Consumerization of IT: The Social Networking Problem (pcworld.com)
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