Immigrants have historically relied on social networks to find their way in a new country. This is certainly true in the United States, across any number of ethnic groups, and is probably generally true everywhere.
There is an expression in social networking (SN) circles that "a friend of a friend is a friend." I believe that this statement is pure hyperbole. But even so there may be a grain of truth in it, depending on how you define "friend."
Must immigrants, I believe, have people they call uncles and aunts that are in reality no such thing. They are simply good friends of the family. People use these words as terms of endearment because the implication is really that they are more than just friends, they are kind of an extended family.
I believe that the real power in SN, from a business perspective, is not to just to increase your Rolodex by several orders of magnitude, but rather to build an extended business family. Trusted uncles and aunts that are not really part of the family (i.e. business) but can be trusted as if they were.
The goal is to take a small percentage of the introductions that SN provides and move them, through conversations surrounding mutual interests, to "business friend" and then to part of your business extended family.
Why? Because most of us prefer to do business with people that we trust. It reduces transaction costs and allows deals to get done quicker. Trust will never become commodity. Nowhere is this more true than in the practice of law.
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