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See you soon.
Simon.

See for yourself on 6th Sept from 10am at Plott.co (you’ll need an invite code though)!

In other news, things are progressing really, really well with Plott (touch wood) and we will be opening for the initial Beta intake very soon (so get your name down whilst you still can!). Finally- We have some exciting team and product announcements to make soon- so keep your eyes peeled!!

The problem occurs because our networks are unmanaged and made up of weak connections. This doesn’t replicate the  offline social behaviour we take for granted.

So whats the solution? Well to me its quite simple. Focus on the value between connections and NOT the size of the network. (This is where experience and business will collide).

Understand implicitly what will add value to your connections and create a habitat where intimacy can grow by building a network that is obvious and simple to manage.

Broadly> It is fair to say that we are influenced by 3 connections within our network, who/what those 3 are is dependent on the topic to which we are being influenced. It is not always direct either, perhaps it is a memory, behaviour or vision that acts as the influence.

Typically we will look for 3 points of qualification (influence)  before making decisions.

This is a great rule of thumb but i think Influence is subjective and more often that not determined by the habitat and environment.

Take for example a celebrity

They influence through aspiration and authority at being (supposedly) the best of the best. The ‘influenced’ person then may become the influencer within their personal network.

A strong willed outspoken friend can often influence the others in the group alone, they will perhaps not realise they are doing it but by winning support one by one they increase the influence on the others.

However should there be resistance the connections will become the influencer.

More than the influence alone it is important to understand the characteristics of the the influencer and those whom are being influenced. Why exactly do we listen to them? What are the circumstances behind the decision? What is the situation?

Build for the influence you wish.

Attracting users is one thing but keeping them active and happy is a whole other ball game. By maintaining happy users, network effects suggest you will gain new ones as a result. Win!

These are my thoughts-
So we all know a place where your friends are is more enjoyable and your likely to hang around for longer. This is nothing remarkable or new, the question we should be asking ourselves is – why? Understanding this will go a mega way to helping you maintain happy and active users.

To understand ‘why’, we should focus on the connections a user will make, rather than on the initial user. We need to understand the end game- who will these people want to connect with and what will they want from that connection?

The initial user or ‘Primary’ will introduce other users to the site- ‘secondaries’. These secondary connections introduced in the early life of a site will rarely be other early adopters but will more likely be family or close friends who will not display adopter characteristics. Uh-Oh trouble ahead…

The needs of the secondary should be considered as they may differ from the primary
Broadly speaking there will be 3 connection responses;

1) Gets it and has a happy experience

2) Not tech savvy and struggles to pick it up

3) Tech savvy and gets it but has too many barrier connections.

If any of these 3 responses are not properly catered for it will form a barrier. I was intrigued by these barriers and non-barriers so wanted to look at the connections and the relationships further. It is only by considering the barriers that we can maintain the happiness of the network and the continued flow of ‘introduced’ new blood. Too many barrier connections will suffocate the experience and growth.

The diagram shows the relationship between a primary and a secondary connection. The blue relationship line shows a positive connection between the connections with bi-directional influence. This is the desirable. Meaning both parties are encouraging each to continue using the service- this is through activity, communication and engagement.

Within the youth of a network you would require just x3 of these positive connections (within a personal network x3 points of influence) to ensure you have happy users making happy users.

The other connection is the red tie, the weak tie. This is a primary connecting with a barrier, this influence is one way and as such such it is resisted. If it is not converted to a blue relationship quickly the primary will reach a point where they can influence no more and the connection dies. It is critical to understand why the secondary is not adopting (as per the 3 points listed above).

A neglected barrier connecting with another barrier will only have red ties and as a result you will lose the user- they are unfulfilled. More red ties than blue in your network- guess what- your network is dying!! This is why i am so keen on understanding our barriers and how to cater for them to turn them blue.

So in summary the key to happy and active users is not the user but the connections they make, specifically the response they get back from their connections. Focus on their connections, who are they and what will they want. Understand and address all these concerns and then tell me how…. Winner.

First is obvious- Make sure your product or something about your product is kick ass and something people want to use. You can only spread what you have, not what you will become- vision, plans and intentions are all very well but no good to the spread.

Point two- Actively seek out the adopters who’s interests are aligned with the benefits you deliver. They will become the best sales people you could hope for. Give these adopters cause to share your product, encourage and reward it.

Rewarding doesn’t only mean prizes but perhaps a more enriching experience will be earned once a network has been established.

Finally arm your early adopters- Make your product easy to spread. By this i mean message as well as interfaces, consider the Flu- spread by simply breathing!
Get these stages right and the whole process becomes self perpetuating, then you just sit back and watch the world get infected.

I’m not a big Netball fan, never got it. Only played it a few times at school and i couldn’t get my head around not running when you had the ball, probably my bullish nature (sure i gave away more than my fair share of fouls but i don’t think its a guys sport anyway!).

What you could do though was PIVOT… interesting.

Its only recently i have understood the true value in pivoting and just how good it can make you. Now i’m not talking about netball i’m talking about our start up.

Niggling doubts had set in about a month ago concerning the direction our start up was headed, i wasn’t sure it was right for the vision and i didn’t feel as passionate about it as i knew i wanted to be. Members of the team were also voicing fair concerns, i knew something had to be done.

I took a long look at what we were building, i instantly saw the features and elements that stoked the fire within me – like shining beacons on darkened hills there they were, the ideals i cared about! It was clear just how much they had become suffocated in the mass. We were building a monster and it was my fault.

Its easy for ideas people to get carried away- ‘honestly chaps if i just add this little feature, as well, everyone will love us and throw themselves at our feet in the street, it will be embarrassing!’. At this rate we would never launch.

Soooo….

We had a meeting where we clearly outlined the vision, THIS is WHAT we want to do- this is where we are heading- we’ve gone wrong! So we set the sights and with laser like focus the cutting of the fat began. We started all over again, salvaging various elements of code and design along the way like shipwrecked survivors. This took bottle but it was the right thing to do.

Now, in the chaos after the storm, before the hurricane we are happier than ever. I feel much more confident with what we are building- it feels true again and this is so important when you are the one selling it.

What i’m trying to say, (i appreciate there is a lack of detail- deliberate- i’m being sneaky), is that it’s ok to get it wrong, sometimes its the only way to get it right. You haven’t wasted the time it was an essential part of the journey, a hard and fast education!!

Have the vision to see where you going and the balls to keep it on track, if it is going array then its your job to bloody well change things up. The biggest crime is to end up building something you aren’t passionate about. We only fight for the things we love.

Photo: Lucy Percival

Really impressed by the new start up www.about.me such a simple idea done beautifully and very well. Everyone has one page, photo and bio.

Check it out

Check out my about.me profile!

I was impressed by a recent viral campaign that spread through Facebook. The message being spread went thus-

Change your Facebook Profile Picture to a favorite cartoon character from your
childhood and invite friends to do the same until December 6th.There
will be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of childhood
memories. This is for violence/abuse against children

Some said this was a campaign by the charity NSPCC (note: they released a statement saying it had nothing to do with them).

I was asked by a few people if i thought it was a real campaign, of course the answer was no, but if it raises awareness its surely a good thing…. isn’t it?

Wow wait a minute, time to disagree with myself. The more i thought about it the more i grew concerned that this was just a more diluted solution to ‘contributing’. You see 1000 people changing their profile pic is great, thats the easy part- but then what? We sit back and think ‘ahh there is my good deed for the day’, but what have we actually done? Not spoken out about it, not made a donation- ours is a diluted contribution, how have we backed anything?

Surely 100 donations, 100 volunteers is more beneficial than an avatar change highlighting what we already knew- that child abuse is bad! Better still… change your avatar once you have made the donation!

So social media is great for spreading the word but i worry that it is making things ‘easy’ rather than sincere. This was proven when another message round saying….

WARNING! The group asking everyone to change their profile picture to their favorite cartoon is actually a group of pedophiles. they’re doing it because kids will accept their friend request if they see a cartoon. It has nothing to do with supporting child violence. it was on a TV show that warns you about internet frauds. Its on tonight’s news. Pass this onto everyone who has a cartoon profile picture.

WOW… people sure changed back quickly. This shows that confusion still reigns strong and no one is sure of their convictions.

Oh and i changed mine to Transformers!

Building a Startup is like taking a load of counterfeit/knock off Viagra… Up one minute, down the next… up, down, up, down…

Just praying for that happy ending

Our super exciting project is being polished off under the code name ‘Project Kent’ (we name our big ideas after Superhero alter egos- clever!). I have spent the last week or so working through possible names waiting for one to grab me- it’s like falling in love, when you know you know!

What am i thinking?

Does a name have to be relevant? Perhaps not, but it had better be memorable. Don’t get too crazy with the spelling, the best names are spelled as they sound- easy to hear & spell!

‘Oh check out my glass website  its called fragile.com you spell it-  t-h-r-a-j-i-l-e.com’… err no!

2 syllables works just lovely- Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and on and on… one syllable works lovely as well. In my experience if you go for a longer name they work best when they are rhythmical.

So back to me- we’re pretty close on deciding now, i think we have a shortlist of 4 and are gonna run them by a million people to make sure we hit the spot. Then the fun begins trying to get the domains….

I have just got in from the Derby Entrepreneurial event for GEW. (I will post this tomorrow as its late). One particular discussion stood out for me- the question are Entrepreneurs born or made? There was a show of hands to discover where the audience opinion lay and the majority fell with Made, nurture triumphs over nature- ha take that!

I voted for ‘Made’ but not by the same definition- i wish there was a 3rd option for neither.

This would have been my choice- I shall explain.

We cannot call ourselves entrepreneurs, it is not a title we bestow on ourselves, it is a title we earn! You are only an entrepreneur when somebody else recognises you as such- until this point you are a ‘Want-repreneur’! (which is still a kick ass thing to be FYI)
Sure it is a sexy title that most of us would like to have- ‘ooh he’s an entrepreneur, little bit edgy more aloof’, use the title too much though and it becomes meaningless… allow us to title ourselves and then anyone who has ever thought of enterprise or sold their second hand washing machine is an entrepreneur.

When we deliver value and make a difference through enterprise, in something that we are truly passionate about, then perhaps we earn the title. Until then ‘Entrepreneur’ is a trophy-title that brilliant, ambitious and risk averse people kill themselves over every day to achieve.

Mortar firing at night

Chinook after a supply drop

Customary hero pose!

A sneaky penguin that came everywhere with me.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. We will remember them.

I was asked a couple of days ago to talk about Derby (our current location), why i felt it wasn’t right for us and its title of being a ‘High Tech’ city. I felt like i gave the city a bit of a bashing but i was fair.
The thing is- to be called a ‘High Tech’ city is crazy, Tech is such a broad term and impossible to be used in such a broad sense. I know this title has been earned by Rolls Royce and other large industrials. But in truth the region is poor for high tech industry as-well, just ask many of the composite companies that inhabit the region.

Vision and knowledge coupled with technical ability is an incredible partnership and can lead to building a great product. But look around at what is happening to this ‘talent’- the area is actually saturated with ‘creative tech businesses’ but few are actually doing anything interesting or remarkable. Majority are treading the same murky water!!

(Granted some are absolute crap but thats another matter).
Geographically Derby has the potential to be set up perfectly as the UK Silicon City, travel links, cost of living etc make it perfect.

So to the help- Business Link and the University etc are no help to a ‘cutting edge’ company at all, they don’t understand what we are doing, they are so far behind with knowledge and attitude. Networking groups are set up to pitch and sell and just a few gems exist to connect and help. (To get my questions answered currently i’m harassing experienced visionaries all over the word. The likes of Oli Barrett, Paige Craig and Steve Buckby have been brilliant- thank you).

The solution and you would do well to listen to me- ‘If you build it they will come’!
Incubate and support new innovative companies. Support with knowledge and resource, don’t just rely on the ‘Old Heads’ with tried and tested methods, the world is moving much faster now. Develop a thriving scene, events and dare i say it … parties, get people with people. provide the opportunity and platform to make exciting things happen. Then the talent will come and will do the rest. Quick before we all go.

Come on Derby don’t call yourself a High Tech City- we all know you’re pretending.

Over at Liquid24 towers its been crazy busy of late. We are currently in stealth building what we believe will be the next Big ‘Location’ thing (As i keep dropping hints about- the latest clue is the pic above).  I am in and out of meetings at the moment talking to potential advisors and investors as i try to understand whats going on and just exactly how best to execute. I have so many questions, how, when, what and where?! But too few people to ask. Sometimes i feel like a stalker in my quest to get the right people to ask questions of.

Every day is progress though- I’m meeting a lot of great people and a fair few are interested in taking a piece of the pie, which i find greatly encouraging. I just need to be sure there is value there.

Times are tough with long hours and constant fire fighting but i wouldn’t have it any other way, i love the hustle.