Investment portfolios.



Airline seats.



Chocolate fudge cakes.



What do these three things have in common with the size of your online network? Big is good, bigger is better, and biggest is where you want to be.



As marketers, we have stuff to do, and failing to reach our objectives is not an option. Our brands and businesses require us to make things happen. Customers, sales, revenues… it’s up to us. Having large online social networks gives us the juice we need to make things happen.



Over the past few months, I have seen a surprising number of articles attempting to convince me that whether I’m a B2B or a B2C marketer, the focus for my portfolio of friend, follower, and connection-based online networks should be “engagement.” Hogwash.



Size matters. Size gives you power. Size gives you control. Size gives you leverage.



Everyone is an expert in something, but no one is an expert in everything. One of the reasons to be active on social media is to learn how to use cutting-edge and proven marketing strategies and tactics. If you follow one marketing professor on Twitter, you learn his/her approaches. How much better if you follow all of the top marketing professors on Twitter in the areas of B2B marketing, B2C marketing, public relations, corporate branding, and marketing research? The larger your network, the smarter you can be.



In the concept of six degrees of separation, all of us are, at most, six steps away from any other person. This is the heart of LinkedIn’s business model. If I have one connection on LinkedIn, I’m two degrees away from everyone my connection knows. Whether I need to buy or sell, I have a personal introduction to everyone in my connection’s network. As a marketer whose livelihood depends on your ability to get things done, would you rather have one connection on LinkedIn or 1,000?



What if you had a large mailing list of people who want to receive your communications because they’re interested in what you have to say? Each of your messages can reach more target customers. The larger your online network, the more people you can sell, real-time, 24×7×365.



As marketers, part of our value is to persuade our target audience to take action. If you’re Ashton Kutcher and develop the largest online network, you’re not just in the media, you are the media. You can directly broadcast to your five million-plus member audience anytime. That’s marketing. You want each and every one of your communications to command a level of credibility so high that other media outlets are forced to report on them.



As my boss likes to say, “Your message can only go as far as the size of your network.” Besides, as any five year old will loudly and unashamedly tell you when you’re standing in line with him at the bakery, “Who wouldn’t want the biggest chocolate fudge cake?”



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Additional Reading



“It all starts with having the largest possible audience.”

-Dan Zarrella, Hierarchy of Contagiousness



“Marketers must connect on social networks with people they don’t know, namely their customers.”

-Charlene Li, Groundswell



“I have always admired the way successful entrepreneurs put themselves in a position to ‘get luck’ by developing relationships with relevant people and taking advantage of promising opportunities.”

-Jeff Bussgang, Mastering the VC Game



Boston, MA. — February 26, 2010 — SocialGrow Inc., a Microsoft BizSpark program member, today announced that it has launched the alpha release of its patents-pending SocialGrow Application at http://socialgrow.com. The SocialGrow Application automates the search and connection processes across multiple professional and personal social networks. The SocialGrow Application also helps social networks around the world to accelerate their membership growth. At launch, the SocialGrow Application is compatible with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace, with additional global and regional social networks being added throughout the month of March.



“By automating the process of inviting people to join users’ social networks, SocialGrow makes it easier to connect with people you don’t know and faster to connect with people you do,” said Marsh Sutherland, President of SocialGrow. “Facebook and LinkedIn users know the larger their relevant networks, the more people their professional and personal messages will reach.”



“SocialGrow simply allows Rec.fm to grow our customer base faster,” said John Appler, President of social recommendations website and 2010 SXSW Web Awards Finalist Rec.fm (http://rec.fm/video). “By quickly expanding the number of users creating and using our ‘high fidelity’ product recommendations, SocialGrow has also accelerated our revenue growth. We are very fortunate to be their first business customer.”



SocialGrow was recently named Microsoft BizSpark’s most promising “Start-Up of the Day”, and selected by MassHighTech (The Journal of New England Technology) as one of their “Five Start-Ups To Watch.” Additionally, SocialGrow’s Chief Marketing Officer Ken Herron was named one of the “Top 5 Chief Marketing Officers on Twitter” by Systemic Marketing for his use of Twitter on @SocialGrow (http://twitter.com/socialgrow).



Twitter-Friendly Quotes



Microsoft BizSpark @SocialGrow today announced the launch of the Alpha release of its software application at http://socialgrow.com.



“We make it easier to connect w/people you don’t know & faster to connect w/people you do” – @SocialGrow President @marshsutherland.



“@SocialGrow allows @recfm to grow our customer base faster” – @SocialGrow business customer and @recfm President @johnappler.



About SocialGrow



SocialGrow Inc. is a global social networking software, consulting, and professional services company. SocialGrow’s flagship software application helps individuals, small businesses, corporate enterprises, government agencies, academic organizations, and non-profit associations around the world to more quickly and easily grow their social networks. SocialGrow was founded in July 2009 by Marsh Sutherland, Ken Herron, and Charbel Elkhoury. SocialGrow’s mission is to help people realize the value of social networks. For more information, please visit the SocialGrow website at: http://socialgrow.com, and follow SocialGrow on Twitter at @SocialGrow (http://twitter.com/socialgrow).

We, SocialGrow’s three co-founders, wanted to share with you our perspectives on an exciting and productive week.



Ken’s take (Ken is SocialGrow’s CMO):


“As a new company, you of course want as many potential users of your product to know about, and get excited about it. From the marketing perspective, participating was a great way for us to share with people who use online social networks that our new software automating the process of adding new connections to their networks is under development. Our participation allowed us to tap into the exciting new features of Windows 7, while reminding people who use Macs, Linux, and older versions of Windows that SocialGrow will work for them, too, just as it will on their iPhones, BlackBerries, Android phones, and other mobile phones which can access the internet. In short, our participation in Incubation Week was not only a great opportunity for our company to make our new product even better by leveraging Windows 7’s key features, but an opportunity to further share our story with people who otherwise might not have heard about us.”



Charbel’s take (Charbel is SocialGrow’s CTO):


“The Windows 7 development training at Microsoft was an incredible learning experience. We spent time on Windows 7’s key features, including: federated search, jump lists, accelerators, multi-touch support, and taskbar management as well as developing with SilverLight. SocialGrow users running WIndows 7 will be able to send an invitation to connect with someone simply by highlighting their e-mail address. Having the opportunity to work side-by-side with the very same software architects and developers who support Microsoft’s biggest enterprise customers enabled us to achieve unthinkable results in just a few days’ (and nights’!) time.”



Marsh’s take (Marsh is SocialGrow’s President):


“My expectation going into Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Windows 7 was that we would have a few hours on the first day with a Microsoft advisor to help us architect the SocialGrow software to take advantage of Windows 7’s new features, who would then check in on our progress over the remainder of the week. I had no idea that our “advisor” would be one of Microsoft’s premier enterprise software architects, Rich Crane. Not only did Rich code our product alongside Charbel until one in the morning two nights in a row, but he also brought in two additional Microsoft software architects to do the same! Add in the Proteans offshore development team who coded around the clock, and it was an amazing team effort. I want to thank Rich and the MTC’s incredibly generous architects, developers, staff, and of course Microsoft itself for giving SocialGrow such an incredible jump start with our application development effort. And yes, my inner geek loved Silverlight’s cool-front end, just wait till you see it!”



Sign up now to receive SocialGrow’s blog updates via RSS and to follow SocialGrow on Twitter. Follow our story as we develop and roll out the first release of SocialGrow’s web and mobile phone software application to help you grow your professional and personal connections — faster and easier — on your online social networks.