Social Networks and a Golden Ratio

It’s bugged me for a while, and low and behold Seth Godin sums it up again. First. And that’s two posts in a row from me, with a Godin influence! Damn it that guy is good.

Anyway, Seth says “One of the mantras of networking (and the many social networking sites that people are flocking to) is that it matters who you know. The goal of having a thousand or more friends online is that you’re well known. Connected. A click away. I wonder if there’s a more useful measure: who trusts you?”

I really think that Godin is spot on. The plethora of social network sites will each raise the bar in 2008, particularly those supporting business professionals. Those that do a remarkable job will win and those that don’t will be bought – ironically for their members.

You see the way I see it, is that all the social networking sites want today is users, more users, more eyeballs, and more traffic. Their offerings are geared around this fact…….it’s an ethos based around getting users to create as many new users as possible.

That is why they create stuff like this:

And as a result, members of these sites are caught up in a fake narrative, “the larger the quantity of friends or contacts or watch lists you have – the more influence or connected you are.” Offcourse this can be right. But it’s not a rule. And it’s not the whole truth. I think continuous improvement of Social Networks will bear fruit.

It is pretty obvious Trust would be a great dimension for social networks to embrace. So would Influence or Buzz (or both). And when elements like this are developed I believe Social Networks will be onto something very significant indeed.

I hope when this concept is implemented however, it is more scientific (for example) than LinkedIn’s current ‘recommendations’, which is just a partial attempt to add intrinsic value; and is actually pretty valueless.

No, I am thinking Social Networks need some kind of ‘Golden Ratio’ that is both complex (like the actual Golden Ratio) that can be translated into something very simple and easily understood for network or community members. For instance if you park the equation elements of the Golden Ratio to one side for a moment, some very simple manifestations occur: like the distance from outstretched fingertip to fingertip equalling your height, or the length of your forearm equalling your foot size.

Suddenly it would be much easier to understand the value of connections, visualise them, interpret them and apply them appropriately. I’d really love some kind of ’sphere of Influence’ or Trust ‘rating’ to be applied to Social Networks.

Suddenly Digg, Technorati, Open Social and LinkedIn and Facebook bring on whole new dimensions – particularly for business users.

How would you like Social Networking sites to unfold or mature?

Learning from the B2C sector

There is plenty of discussion out there about B2B and B2C marketing, and whether there is a difference in the disciplines. On the one hand business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy. And yet there is a perspective that buying a product for yourself verses buying for your company is a very different, emotional experience.

Lets face it. There are plenty of good and bad marketing examples on BOTH sides of the divide, and the best marketers will be those that draw best practices from both disciplines.

To that point, this week I saw a great DM piece from Sky. This is clearly a world away from High Technology marketing, but what I received was a timely reminder that you can get inspiration from anywhere.

You see, being a subscriber to Sky+ I get to come home after a hard day at the office, open a beer, and watch my wife’s favourite TV programmes – all series linked using Sky+! It was great of Sky therefore to mail the household to explain that one of the broadcasters in the UK (Channel 4) were making a few changes in my area – and that programmes due to be recorded using Sky+ wouldn’t work on or after a particular date.

Maybe not a big deal at face value eh? Think again. For my wife to be reminded that someone in the household would need to re-select what they wanted to record is a pretty big deal. She works hard all day with two (great) kids, and at the end of a draining day likes nothing more than putting her feet up and watching some dross. With Ugly Betty just one of the programmes set on permanent record, the aftermath of a failed recording would have caused a fair old rumpus in the household.

My wife will have blamed Sky (when in fact this is a broadcasting issue apparently), complained about how poor the service is (it only takes one glitch for a consumer to feel hard done by these days) and held a grudge for quite a while (1 bad customer is worth 10 delighted ones).

The lesson for a High Technology B2B marketer therefore?

The next time a technology partner makes a software update or a major new release, make sure you do a real good job finding out the consequences for your customers, and the potential ramifications. Then in a clear and concise fashion, explain the issues and the route to resolving the issues that might surface.  Why?  Your brand depends on it. And moreover do it right, and you’ll have a brand advocate on your hands – after all my wife passed me the DM knowing I’d love it.

Best practice in building trust, building a powerful brand, and providing exemplary customer service doesn’t require you to think differently just because you are operating in B2B or B2C. Poor is poor, good is good, and great is great whomever your customer is.

Trusted advice or marketing clap-trap. Your choice.

I have written about Crowdstorm in my posts The UKs small firms – “failing to make use of web” and 13 British dotcoms to watch, and yesterday the price comparison site developed by Philip Wilkinson, the founder of Kelkoo UK and Shopgenie, was launched.

What I like about this offering is that it’s a shop comparison site plus much more.  The wisdom of a crowd (community) is leveraged to help buyers make better informed purchase decisions, based on the crowd’s advice and recommendations.  This overlays the usual price comparison elements. The result is a one stop destination for researching products and getting impartial buying advice from a crowd of experts and trusted users.

Nice.

I’ll take trusted advice over marketing clap-trap anyday.

Go take a look at there offering.