3 posts tagged “collateral success”

Viral_social marketing

The latest special print issue of MIT's Technology Review has an article on visualizing "Better Friends" by Erica Naone. Apart from the visuals of the blogosphere, Twitter and others, the one that caught my eye was the visual on viral marketing - something very relevant and dear to me.

Furthermore, being deep into social media, networks and user-generated content -  the last line of the paragraph below hit home for me. I used to listen and learn from many top social networkers/producers until I noticed that I started shutting myself out with many - they have lost their influence with me. They are all the time selling products and services with the sole cause of their own popularity. They do not evangelize - they sell. Popularity is their focus - not their collateral success. One erodes the social equity built over time and involvement. Many have have many friends today online but then there is a social connection/equity even with your audience/readers/followers - the mind is fickle with all the noise and the "new new things" and "new new people" coming out everyday.

The web is becoming social - from a network of servers and pages, its becoming a network of people. We are the carriers - we consume from each other (not just reporters), we produce and we distribute.

The full article is here and the piece on viral marketing from the article below:

Viral_social marketing1

"Several years ago, a large retailer tried to encourage word-of-mouth marketing for products sold on its site byoffering incentives to site visitors who made product recommendations. Many companies are trying to use people's social connections for such "viral marketing" programs, hoping that information about products (and the urge to buy them) can spread through a network of people the way a virus might. But after studying more than 15 million recommendations generated by the retailer's incentive program, a team made up of Jure Leskovec, Lada Adamic, and Bernardo Huberman, director of the information dynamics lab at Hewlett-Packard, was skeptical. Huberman and his colleagues looked at the networks that grew up around each product--who bought and recommended it, and who responded to the recommendation--and saw that they took on different characteristics depending on the type of product. A network around a medical book (top image below), where red dots and lines indicate people who purchased the book while blue dots and lines represent people who received a recommendation, shows a scattered network where recommendations, on average, don't travel very far. The network surrounding a Japanese graphic novel (bottom image below), on the other hand, shows a thick flow of information among densely connected people. The researchers found that viral marketing was most effective for expensive products recommended within a small, tightly connected group. They also found that overusing consumers' social connections for marketing can make them less influential."

I came across this really well written post on "Why Not To Do A Startup" by Matt and Yes - I had some thoughts that are tied to some basic beliefs I have about life and people.

I think his observations were on the money with respect to startups but it is applicable only to people who are doing with the sole focus of making a lot of money overnight. They are inspired by the phenomenal exit for the Founders of YouTube or the buzz of Facebook and its potential large exit. Another parallel was this article on Max Levchin, the Founder and CEO of Slide.com in New York Times - I dont know him and nor can I speak to the accuracy of the article.

I started with a small step by joining LinkedIn very early in 2004 when social networking was not a category and then after 2 years there went on to start CrossLoop with a very neat team. I am definitely not as experienced as many others out there but there is a common question that needs an answer - whether it is startups or your supposedly-secure job in a large company:

"What Drives You?"

If you choose to have a cause that transcends the need for making money, becoming popular, paying bills, need for validation from others - you will NOT experience what Matt suggests and will have one of the most fulfilling purposes of your life. Some hardships maybe but I guarantee no regrets and and a very possible outcome could be that house in Hawaii. Think collateral success - the L-Letter should sum it all up.

Otherwise, I couldn't agree more with Matt - I have known and seen a few people living EXACTLY what Matt describes.

Imagine: A FUNomenal "ride" (and it is short)

I am a big proponent of personal (and corporate) kaizen - continuous improvement.

It got sparked off after I landed in the US. The personal growth I experienced (and still do) through it is very very enriching. The US was a new fertile ground wide open for me to sow and reap. It comes through lots and lots of questions, voracious reading and surrounding myself with people more experienced than me, surrounding myself with people with diverse backgrounds that include teenagers to help me with what it is "sick" and what is "phat" and making them feel comfortable to give me constructive feedback anytime.

Two quotes that are integrated in everything I do every day are:

• He not busy being born is busy dying - Bob Dylan

• The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.  - Alvin Toffler

Every one has a different motivation to do what they do - and each of those actions have innumerous potential "collateral successes" [more on that later] and "failures" associated with it.

Keep learning and maybe you will get to lose the 'L'

Imagine: L Earn