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Power of LinkedIn: The Weak Ties

It is again that time of the year — job hunting season. When underclassmen are eagerly looking for summer internships and when seniors are finalizing their full time offers, LinkedIn inevitably gets more attentions. Although everyone is updating their LinkedIn profile with the newest headshot and beautifully written description of the most recent projects, some can’t help but wonder the effectiveness of job searching through LinkedIn, a site that greatly reminds people of Facebook.

Well, it turns out, although “the things that LinkedIn members see online are often silly and superficial, and the connections often tenuous,” what really strengthens the company and its members are not these appearances, but the connections among the members.

Mentioning the phenomenon discussed in the 1973 paper, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” the author of this article talks about how the weak ties provide resources that often cannot be obtained in a tightly bonded community. Due to the strong triadic closure property, people strongly tied to the same person often are connected as well. Therefore, strong ties often do not expand, and resulting in small cliques. Weak ties, therefore, act as bridges and connect the cliques together, connecting people to outside resources, and in LinkedIn’s case, job opportunities and potential candidates. The connection and endorsement systems that are used on LinkedIn are ways of presenting those weak ties.

Contrary to its name, weak ties are affecting the global network immensely. With the help of social media, weak ties are bonding people who may not have met each other. It is essentially responsible for the small world phenomenon that we observe today. And you may never know that you will be landing the best job through a weak tie on LinkedIn.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-09/the-growing-strength-of-linkedin-s-weak-connections

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