Created by the people for the people

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“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

For this presentation pretend

Treat them as such and you will believe3

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

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Then it is time to adjust

And these are the new rules

A market paradigm shift has occurred

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Paradigm Shift 1*

Researching = Listening

What are people saying about you?7

http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/ladder.html

Paradigm Shift 2

It’s a conversation not a shouted monologue

Marketing = Conversation

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Paradigm Shift 3

Sales = Invigorating

Help people recruit others

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Business Engine Shift 4

Development = Embracing

Yes you know best but don’t second guess

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Business Engine Shift 5

Support = Supporting

Help people support each other11

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

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Partner Participatory Cycle

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An example for YourMobile

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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

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* 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

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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

Joiners

Active in Social Networks

In the initial stages all partners will have to be Joiners

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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

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Creators

Shoot VideoHost PodcastsShare photosWrite Blogs

Build Software

We need Creators to build Social Objects and Capital

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Data from Forrester Research Technographics® surveys, 2007. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see groundswell.forrester.com

Objectives, strategy and technology should marry with the demographic + online behaviors

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Objectives

Goals that couple with our business model and can be measured by who we are listening, talking, invigorating,

embracing and supporting

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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

Technology

The last thing to think about!32

Who does what?

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I provide the community for partners

Community Development & Strategy34

You provide the technology that bonds community

New Mobile Technology Provider35

Others elected by our partners fill the important gaps

The Talent36

Lets stop here and give it time to digest

In the meantime start thinking about the people.

Our partners

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OK, a quick scenario implementing technology

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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

Interested?

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Express it

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Are my friends In?

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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

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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

Find Me

http://twitter.com/cama

http://growing.grassrootnetworks.com

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