15 Second Executive 'Speed Read'
Social online networks can bring more and more people into your life. While this offers obvious value, it also presents you with a significant challenge – “How do you make sense of the increasing connections and volume of information you’re being offered?”
Information overload is a symptomatic reflection of the seemingly infinite amount of information being presented and the limited attention we have available to process it.
Unless a social network gives you more than mere access to people and information, you may not enjoy the full value it offers!
Social Network Economics 101
In his book “FREE” (which I highly recommend – it challenges your beliefs and pushes your reality envelope – in a good way!), author Chris Anderson cites an old truth in economics: “Creating an abundance in one thing creates a scarcity in another”.
In a social network, that ‘thing’ is your ability to give your finite attention to what is essentially an infinite amount of information.
This is perhaps why a significant number of members in many social networks are inactive as evidenced by the absence of logins, posts, messages, comments, uploads, downloads, etc. NOTE: I’m referring to active social network members whose use of a social network site is seen in the active exchanges they make with other members.
The Attention Crisis -- Yours
As the connections you can access on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and countless other social networks grows, your attention to give to whatever information these connections are offering you on a 24/7/365 basis (I just received a new friend request from someone in Mumbai, India . . . who knew?) is shrinking.
The Solution: Relevance / Focus / Participation
Perhaps what we need more than anything is not more social networks, but more relevant ones. Networks where you feel you belong. Networks where you feel glad you’re a member. Networks that make you want to log-in often and look around extensively. Networks that invite you to participate with your fellow members.
In “Permission Marketing”, author Seth Godin reminds us that we only have so much attention to give to anyone or anything.
Seth was referring to the limited mental attention we have available to deal with our daily avalanche of marketing messages. But it’s a universal truth. There are, despite my personal wishes, only 24 hours in a day I get to use.
The problem is . . . I have more ‘to do’ than all the time in the world permits.
The challenge is . . . to invest the limited time I do have (and since my need for sleep is non-negotiable, there’s less than 24 hours a day to give to anything I might like anyway!) in networks – online and offline – that offer the best likelihood of helping me reach my goals as efficiently and effectively and quickly as is humanly possible.
So, when you find any network – online or offline – that helps you do that . . . celebrate!
All Networks Are Not The Same
I belong to a handful of social networks . . . online and offline. I’d belong to more but . . . there’s that time constraint I just mentioned! I recognize their potential value (and yes, satisfying my ongoing desire for social affiliation is one of them). But realizing their actual value requires a commitment of time, energy and (least of all) money.
In the world of atoms – the offline networks I belong to require my time, energy and a small amount of money to join. To me, my limited time is more costly than their fees. You probably feel the same way. ‘Time Robbers’ are more heinous than any other kind.
In the online world . . . the world of photons and fiber-optic networks . . . where the cost of anything is distributed among so many that the unit cost / user to provide a service is ‘too small to meter’ . . . it’s also ‘too small to matter’.
Thus the online world is predominantly a ‘free’ one. You don’t pay Google to search. Content is offered largely without cost (to you, anyway). You can get free email from many sources (gmail.com). And you can join ‘groups’ on almost any topic or interest (think MeetUp.com) without any fee.
The Freemium Model
One of the take-aways from Chris Anderson’s book, “FREE” is that online services make money not by charging you for admission . . . but for valuable services . . . built around free access – i.e. premium services that don’t come with a ‘basic’ or ‘free’ membership.
Even The National Networker follows this model. Basic access is free but other aspects are available, if desired, at a price. Thus a ‘free’ membership can turn into a paying membership if ‘premium’ benefits are desired and cost-attractive to you. NOTE: if you're not aware of what the benefits of a premium membership ($1.50 / month!) on this site is, click here!
'FREE' is also an excellent way to gain ‘eyeballs and trackballs’ quickly and affordably.
Why Freemium Works (And, When It Doesn’t)
In addition to LinkedIn and Facebook, I also belong to Biznik. This is another online social network that caters primarily to people in business and helps them to build an intentional community of their choosing with like-minded, supportive business owners.
At last count, Biznik had roughly 30,000 members and it’s growing steadily.
If LinkedIn was a major university, Biznik would be akin to a small college in Vermont! But I don’t pay money to visit LinkedIn and I do pay to visit Biznik. I don’t have to – Biznik offers a free or ‘basic’ membership level, too. So why do I pay to be on it?
It’s not that LinkedIn doesn’t ask. There’s an ever-present offer to ‘upgrade’ from ‘free’ to a ‘premium’ membership. But the value proposition LinkedIn offers isn’t compelling enough to move me to feel I can’t live without it.
It’s not that a LinkedIn premium membership isn’t valuable enough to pay for it. It is. Look at all the people who are premium members! But they are largely hunting for prospects or talent for themselves or their clients. It’s not a fit for me. So, I passed on it.
I would argue that I am paying for my ‘free’ LinkedIn membership because LinkedIn can give its premium members access to ‘my’ network members. I’m OK with that.
On Biznik I am a paying member. I could be non-paying there, too. But I’m not. I have my reasons. All good. Basically, it’s a fair price to exchange for the value they offer me.
Biznik got it right. At least for me. And apparently, with a lot of others, too.
Connections or Relationships? Sites like Biznik allow you to build your own community within the larger membership.
On other social networks, you can easily build connections (you probably have a few million people available to you on LinkedIn, am I right?). But here’s the key question: “Are they more likely to be 1 or 2-dimensional contacts or 3-dimensional relationships?”
If you’re going to belong to any social network and pay your hard-earned money for the privilege . . . it better be one that offers a decent ROI for your time, effort and money!
A Case In Point: Biznik.com
Recently, I spoke with Biznik co-founder Lara Feltin who shared that there are some significant changes coming to Biznik members. Apart from the SHINE project –– a movie about entrepreneurs that’s about as real as it gets, one other big change is the introduction of a new premium membership level Lara’s calling “ClubVIP Pro”.
This is a premium membership level that offers access to online and off-line resources designed to help Biznik members build their inventory of essential business skills as well as valued relationships more quickly and easily than might be the case if they were to travel the highways and byways of business ‘alone’.
In fact, that truism is now reflected in Biznik’s tagline – ‘Going It Alone. Together’.
(To view how ‘free’ vs. ‘paid’ memberships compare and what they provide, click here)
What I find attractive about social networks like Biznik is that they are helping their members to make sense of the huge volume of information the network members offer. This can be summarized in three (3) words:
Relevance . . . is provided by a network’s value proposition and this serves to initially attract members.
Focus . . . is provided when the information is structured to be both meaningful and manageable. This addresses the challenge of ‘too much information to process’.
Participation . . . or, more specifically, creating easily accessed opportunities for ongoing participation between the members is what keeps people coming back and bringing others to be a ‘party to the party’ at the online networking site.
With all the social networks you have to choose from, these three criteria should help you identify which one/s will best serve you and your objectives for your business.
Final Thoughts
The abundance of information that social networks can bring into your life is creating a growing demand on your attention to process and respond to it as well.
Following the ‘less is more’ philosophy, social networks that align their offerings around the desires of their members are not only more likely to survive but thrive in terms of members, revenues and profitability.
In a world where we hire other people to do things we could do but choose not to do it’s only commonsense that any social network that reduces the ‘noise’ of incoming data by ‘screening and cleaning’ it for our consumption will become the winners in the online ‘beauty contest’ whose crown is the undivided but limited attention you have to give it.
at billd@sellmoremarketing.com or by phone at: 860-798-6964.
For more please see Bill's TNNW Bio.
Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free - Click HERE.
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