“This population is made up not of customers to
whom you must sell, or even constituents to
whom you must pander, but of partners on
who you can rely and with whom you can act.
Treat them as such, and you might be surprised
by how much you get done together”
Douglas Rushkoff2
If you had a pre-launch startup that
• knew how many partners “Beyond Reasonable Doubt” would open their wallets (to invest)
• had a value proposition road tested before spending any cash
• knew how and when their customers would leave the competition and partner with you?
Would you be interested?4
Being interested is NOT enough
Can you change?
Beliefs on how business interacts with people must be tweaked
5
Paradigm Shift 1*
Researching = Listening
What are people saying about you?7
http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/ladder.html
Partners express
what they want
when they want it
how much it costs
And who manages it
A great company can be built when
By providing…12
What: Features, Demographics, Friends, Competitor Data, Values, CapitalBranding, Company Name, Strategy
When: Signup, Launch, Contract Exits
How: Spend limits, pricing, costs, profits
Who: Employ, partner, advertise
Through Participation Partners Contribute
How do we make all this information useful?13
What: Projections, Forecasts, Optimal Service Offerings, Intelligence, Open Democracy Tools, Project Management
When: Go Live Dashboard
How: Price Indicators, Working Capital
Who: Hiring Guidelines, Criteria
We Synthesize to Support Community Decision Making
The What, When, How and Who evolve as the company grows
14
How do we discover our partners?
Startups that engage a select audience via the correct medium and offer an opportunity to
define their own value proposition can mitigate many risks facing new ventures today.
Meeting needs realtime17
A Social Strategy Framework*
• People
• Objectives
• Strategy
• Technology
18
* http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/12/the-post-method.html
A Great Partner?
• 15 to 35
• Early Adoptor
• Regular internet user
• Off plan
• Own handset outright
• Do not have company phone
Sure, but what else do we have to know?19
If we know how our potential partners engage the online realm.
We can build a winning crowd of participatory partners
20
Forrester defines five characteristics of online behavior*
• Spectators
• Joiners
• Collectors
• Critics
• Creators
21*http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/ladder.html
Spectators
Read Blogs and News Portals
Listen to Podcasts and Music
Watch You Tube and Video
We need a lot of Spectators22
Collectors
Make Lists
Tag Content
Aggregate RSS feeds
These guys are important to generate presence and identify our territory to
the market 24
Critics
Comment on Blogs
Engaging in Discussion
Edit Wikipedia
Critics are critical for the discourse required to make solid decisions
25
Creators
Shoot VideoHost PodcastsShare photosWrite Blogs
Build Software
We need Creators to build Social Objects and Capital
26
27
Data from Forrester Research Technographics® surveys, 2007. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see groundswell.forrester.com
Objectives
Goals that couple with our business model and can be measured by who we are listening, talking, invigorating,
embracing and supporting
29
Objective Example?
Identify and listen to twenty, 18 to 25 year old Australian males with a social
networking presence who have opinions on mobile phones and influence peers on features and providers. Collect 300 size
record set outlining x, y, z
Spectator, Joiner, Critic
What will we do?30
Strategy
What we are going to do to get a group of online users to participate in self
organizing company owned by them…
How do we get there?31
Lets stop here and give it time to digest
In the meantime start thinking about the people.
Our partners
37
Strategy Scenero
Invite partners to join a group to be involved in an experiment to born a mobile company that they have part
ownership and control.
How do we get there?39
Then what?
• NING to move off Facebook Platform*
• Talk Shoe to open up verbal discussion* (weekly partner meetings)
• Voting systems
• Video for new employee resumes
• Presentations to the partners from US
44
Chrisbrogan.com ‘s strategy used with the grasshopper crewhttp://grasshoppers.ning.com/
This company, your company the above strategy will not work without extraordinary people
Are you into the greater good?45
The personal competitive advantage of such individuals will be
selflessness