What is social network?

What is the importance of "social butterflies" in traditional(offline) business social network?  Can similar concept be adopted to online SNS?

• In offline social network, especially in business network, "social butterflies" is a group of people who are very social-able, looks pretty, attending different circles, parties, meetings etc. What is the importance of social butterflies? What do they contribute to the network?  How did they accomplish it?  I feel sometimes I can make a new friend by offline introduction easier than by SNS, so can we adopt the idea of social butterflies to SNS?  What technology do we need to have?

• Answer:

  Another way to say "social butterflies" is "power networkers." They are usually people who do the match-making in business and introduce people with problems to people with solutions. Networking is a time consuming process. You have to spend time getting to know all these people, this is time that people who are managing a business or are working on projects do not have. By getting to know a power networker, you have access to that networker's considerable circle, saving a lot of time. Another issue is social aptitude. Getting to know people require you to be out-going or at least not shy. As such, it is difficult for people with technical but not social skills to get jobs. Having a power networker as a bridge would open up a lot more opportunities for those people. As to how power networkers can be encouraged on an online social network. My hunch is that it is not necessary. Savvy networkers naturally would utilize as many channels as there is to reach as many people as possible. They exist on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all the other social networks. Just focus on building a good product and a good experience, and the network will grow.