I’m writing this on a plane on my way back from Big Omaha, still floating on this emotional and motivational high.

I went to Big Omaha for the first time last year and has such an amazing experience that I knew I would probably never want to miss it again.  To be honest, I was a little worried that, since it was growing (over 600 people this year) and since things are never quite as good the second time around, that Big Omaha wouldn’t be as good this year.  I was wrong.  It was just as amazing as the year before, only with a lot of new people mixed in with the old.

The city of Omaha has a charm that’s hard to really describe.  It’s like… hipsters in NYC and SF are always drawn to this blend of vintage and modern environments, so they manufacture it into their communities, but Omaha is actually genuinely just that.  The buildings and streets are truly old and rustic, yet lined with restaurants, bars, art galleries and artistic structures and a culture that creates a genuine feeling of growth and creativity.

Out of that culture, there’s a unique and fascinating tech scene that continues to grow in the Midwest.  More and more startups, digital agencies, designers and other creatives seem to be drawn there every time I go back.  With leaders like Silicon Prairie News continuing to bring us out and share the amazing stories of the Midwest tech scene, the future in Omaha is undoubtedly bright.

So another year… another truly epic, rich, genuine and rewarding experience at Big Omaha.  I wanted to take a minute to share why it’s so special…

The Speakers

Big Omaha did a wonderful job of bringing together speakers with many unique perspectives and experience to share their stories and inspire us.

What’s really amazing is that unlike other conferences, the speakers become a part of the community at Big Omaha.  The greater majority of them don’t just show up, speak and peace out.  Last year, I was very fortunate to spend quality time with amazing leaders like Marc Ecko, Micah Baldwin, and Ben Huh just chatting, playing games and partying. This year was no different.

You can find all the talks online.  My favorites were:

Yael Cohen – Fuck Cancer:  Yael has a glowing presence on stage and off.  Her passion and vision is just so fucking powerful.  And she drops F bombs like it’s her job (I guess it kind of is).  She has an amazing story to share so check it out.

Philip Rosedale – Coffee and Power:  This is the kind of guy that you can talk to for 10 minutes and leave with a completely different view of life.  I heard someone say about him “It’s like his brain is in a world 20 years ahead of reality”.  He pushes the limits of technology and human interaction (he also started secondlife).  His understanding of community really fascinated me.  We also learned about his insane meditation tactic, where he counts to 10,000 in his head every day.  Yep.  Don’t miss this talk.

The Community

I already spoke about how the speakers are all a part of the community and that’s true for everyone there.  Jeff and Rusty have done such a phenomenal job of creating an environment that’s genuine and focused on relationships.  Everyone is down to just chill and exchange stories without feeling like they’re being sold to.  No one is there pumping out biz cards.

For the second year in a row I’ve come out of Omaha with true friendships that I know will last a long time, new business partners, investors for my projects and an amazing network of extremely talented human beings.

It’s just so damn powerful that even if you didn’t meet someone at Big Omaha but you meet at a later date and find out that you were both there, you’ll both immediately have a common bond because you shared the experience that is Big Omaha.  You don’t leave with business cards. You leave with brothers and sisters.

And that’s how community is done.

Thank you to Big Omaha, to Jeff, Dusty, Danny and the rest of the team.  Thank you to everyone who’s made the community so amazing.  I’m so proud to be a part of it.

A lot of business experts will tell your company to “engage” people and “build community”, but what does that actually mean?

It’s important, when hearing advice like this to ask “why?” and “to what end?”.

The why, for me, has always been to create a positive emotional connection with users, resulting in a user experience that exceeds a simple matter of supply and demand.

If someone were to build the same exact product as you, it’s the community that would keep your users around.

With that goal in mind, after years of experimenting with different forms of engagement, I realized that there’s a logical flow of engagement that all communities take.  This flow, when done right, results in finding your product market fit and organic growth.

It’s called…

A lot of people think about it in a straight line… like this:

User to Product –> User to Brand –> User to User

That’s wrong.  It’s a cycle because ultimately, the goal is to improve the product and user activity.

The focus on improving engagement between users (step 3) should have the goal of improving engagement between the user and the product (step 1).

Let’s break it down so you can see how it’s cyclical…

Step 1: User to Product: People get value out of your product and they want to come back and use it again.

Step 1 -> Step 2: User to Brand: Because they like your product and keep coming back, they develop an emotional connection to your brand.

Step 2 -> Step 3: User to User: Then because they feel an emotional connection to your brand, they begin to connect with other users who share that emotional connection.

Step 3 -> Step 1: User to Product:  A userbase that is highly engaged with the brand and with each other makes the product more valuable (community as a feature), uses the product more often, and provides you with a clear product roadmap based on real users’ needs.

So… the Community Manager should have two goals:

1. To facilitate the cycle because 99.999% of the time,  it won’t happen naturally at first.  If a community isn’t automatically forming, the CM should be reaching out to users, engaging them with your brand, and then connecting them with each other.

Note: If your product really sucks (doesn’t solve a problem or fulfill a desire), this is pretty much impossible.  

2. Educate the product roadmap until the product is so engaging in itself that the cycle occurs naturally. That’s what product-market fit looks like and that’s when you can start to scale your business.

Lets dig in a little deeper into each phase…

1. User to Product (Engaged Userbase)

In order to build a community, your product needs to solve a problem or fulfill a desire.  If you’re providing a product that people actually enjoy using, they’ll feel engaged with that product.  How engaged people are with your product will depend on how much value they get out of it.

A well designed product with an intuitive user interface that creates value and keeps people coming back will create an emotionally engaged userbase.

2. User to Brand (Engaged Audience)

Once someone is engaged with your product, you’ll want to get them engaged with your brand.  This can happen in one of two ways:

1. Your product is so good that your users automatically feel engaged with your brand.

2. Talking to people.  You can talk to people through social media, through customer service by being very responsive, through events, emails, phone calls etc.

If you get in the habit of having genuine conversations with your engaged users, you’ll be able to create an engaged audience.

3. User to User (Engaged Community)

Now you have an engaged audience of people who feel an emotional connect with your brand and product.  Time to start connecting them with each other.  You can do so using conversation platforms like forums, facebook groups or build something yourself.

This too, may happen naturally.  Again, 99.999% of the time, it won’t at first.  You have to facilitate it.

By creating an emotional connection between users, they no longer perceive themselves as just a customer.  Now, they’re a part of a community that they care about.  You’ll have yourself a community of highly engaged users with a strong emotional connection with your brand, helping guide your product toward organic growth.

“If the goal is to build an amazing product, why not just focus on product?”

Apple is a terrible example for a lot of business cases because their products are perceived to be on such a different level, but the reason they’re on that level is because they’ve reached the point where this cycle is happening organically.  It only took them a couple decades and almost going bankrupt to figure it out.

So yes, technically, you can focus 100% on your product without manually facilitating any “user-to-brand” or “user-to-user” engagement.  But they can only help you reach the organic cycle faster and more efficiently.

Now go! And build something epic.

Photo cred: "h.koppdelaney"

Today, we are experiencing a revolution in human interaction.

The “online” world has come full circle, with more and more websites and apps focused on reconnecting people with the real world around them, and the people in it.

It’s amazing how technology is making it possible for us to connect with people again.  I’m not talking about connecting with usernames and avatars.  I mean real people, with real names in real places.

With the growth of “collaborative consumption” sites and applications like Airbnb, Ebay, Zimride, Sittercity, Snapgoods, ThredUp, Zipcar, Zaarly and the list goes on, people are connecting with each other in a whole new way.  Complete strangers are turned into trusted neighbors.

But why are they trusted?  Solely because they use the same site as you?  Clearly, that’s not enough.  Trust and reputation have to be build into these products.  Users have to earn their trust.  They have to build credibility.  We want these platforms to be safe.

At Zaarly, we’re focused on building what we call a “well-lit” marketplace.  A community where you can clearly see everything that’s going on, who’s around you and feel totally comfortable.

The part that sucks is that every time you join a new site, you have to rebuild trust.  It never carries over.

There’s a huge opportunity for someone to build a solution here…

Now understandably, some aspects of a user’s reputation will be specific to that community.  But usually, there are aspects of reputation on one site that could apply to another site.

There are two different kinds of reputation that are important in online marketplaces:

1. Earned: Providing a positive experience for other users.  Do you ship on time as a seller?  Do you pay on time as a buyer?  Are the items or services you provide “as described”?
2. Existing: Who are you?  What do your friends have to say about you?  Do you have a criminal history?

Earned reputation isn’t always applicable in multiple marketplaces, but there’s definitely a case for it.  If someone has a 99% positive rating after 12,000 transactions on eBay, and the majority of their written reviews are positive, wouldn’t that be relevant to me if I’m considering staying at their place through airbnb?

For existing reputation, there are many applications that can be used on multiple platforms:

• Verification: Verifying your social accounts, email, phone number, etc.
• Referrals: If someone vouches that you’re trustworthy on one site, you should be able to display that on other sites.
• Background checks:  Some sites require them.  Some of them offer them as an option.  Usually, the user has to pay for them.  So if someone gets a background check for one site, should they not be able to use it for another?

So then the question is, will there soon be a “standard of reputation” on the web?  I guarantee you there will be.  It’s just a question of who’s going to build it.  Will it be a third party solution?  Or will one company build something in house, make it available via an API, and create the standard or reputation.

Here are just a few of the companies working towards some form of standard for reputation on the web:

• TrustCloud
• Tru.ly 
• mixtent
• Honestly
• Klout (does influence translate to trust?)
• PeerIndex
• trustmob (did they disappear?)

And was quickly reminded of the old school MySpace design…

Uncanny isn’t it?

Photo cred: Amato Luis

Originally posted on TCM

A very important distinction for a community builder (or someone looking to hire one) to make is whether they’re focused on building internal communities or external communities.

The way I see it, you can build an internal community within your existing userbase, customers or audience.

or

You can build external communities which aren’t part of your internal audience.

Still confused?

Here’s a simple example:

Say there is a company that sells sports equipment.  There are two ways they can approach community management.

1. They can work to connect their customers with each other online and offline through their online platforms and by hosting live events offline. This is internal community building because they’re connecting people around their brand and vision. This community is tied directly to the company.

or

2. They can build existing communities.  Perhaps they can host a weekly happy hour for sports fans, or create a fan page for recreational athletes.  This is external community building because they’re connecting people through a common interest, not the brand. This community is loosely tied to the company, but really focused on a common interest.

Internal and external communities are both valuable.

Internal communities are valuable because:

1. A strong internal community is your support system.  It’s a group of people who believe in your brand, and will defend you.

2. Your community members can drive their own networks to your community, resulting in more customers or users.

3. You can call on your internal community members for feedback on your product, testimonials and ideas.

Internal communities can be built into your product in some circumstances, if your product includes a conversation platform.

Turntable.fm is a great example.  People can chat within turntable.fm and so users can connect and interact with each other.  When you create the right dynamic within your product, internal communities develop on their own.

Twitter is another good example.  Conversations take place within the twitter platform, so internal user communities develop on their own.

External communities are valuable because:

1. You can create awareness and leads.  In the case of the example I gave before about a sports equipment company, by connecting people with each other through their love for sports, those people will relate that back to the company because the company facilitated the relationships.  They’ll then become more aware and confident in the brand.

2. You can learn a lot.  Sometimes it’s really important to get feedback from people who haven’t already used your product.  You can pick up on trends, and identify new opportunities by talking to people in external communities.

3. They’re less work to maintain.  Really, if you’ve done a good job, the community will be self-sustainable.  The community members will drive discussions, and bring their own networks into the community.

You can also engage with existing external communities instead of building them from scratch.

There could always be overlap. The people in these external communities may also be part of your internal community.  The goal is really to convert external community members who are loosely tied to your brand into internal community members, who are closely tied to your brand.

With external communities you don’t want to inject your brand into it too much.  You don’t want to be forceful.  Build the community around a common interest, and because it was your brand that brought those people together, they will naturally relate the experience back to your brand.

With internal communities, the people are already connected to your brand, so focus on enhancing that relationship.  Make the power users and best customers feel special.  If you do this properly, they’ll help you build your community further.

Are you building an internal community or an external community?  Which one do you think is more important?

If you haven’t tried it out yet, turntable is a site where you can create a room, name it whatever you want, and start to DJ.

You can have up to 5 DJs at a time, and everyone else is in the audience.  You can rate songs as “awesome” or “lame”.

Pretty simple… and they’re definitely not the first to create a social music listening platform.  Many others have done really well like blip.fm, spotify, last.fm and more.

There’s something unique about turntable.  Something that has launched it to over 140,000 users in the first month.

What is it that turntable did so well?

Gamification

They got the gaming aspect down right.  If you can do that, the rest (social share, WOM, user retention) all thrive.

They nailed the gaming interface on two levels.

1. Real time recognition

Being a DJ on turntable in a popular room is scary!  Will people like the songs I play?  I like indie music, but there are a lot of indie snobs out there.

But we do it because we want to be perceived as a great music curator.  We want people to know that we know the best songs out there.

We do this in real life naturally. Think about when people come in your car and you play your favorite, relatively unknown band, and everyone loves it.  Think about when people DJ at house parties.

The thing is, in real life, you don’t have these passive aggressive “awesome” and “lame” buttons for people to judge you.

So turntable works really well in real time.  You want to impress the other people in your room.

2. Long term recognition

Real time isn’t enough.  Recognition needs to be ongoing…long-term.  It needs to be cumulative so that it constantly drives activity.

When you join a new room, you want the people in that room to know what you’ve accomplished.  With their point system and avatar (visual) system, turntable executed on this really well.

The visual aspect is key.  As soon as you join a room, you can see the hierarchy of users’ experience.  The people with cooler avatars are the ones with more experience (and respect).

Interestingly enough, they don’t actually get any physical rewards for this.  They have no more power than anyone else in the room.  Someone with 1 point can do the same exact thing as someone with 1000 points.  The driving force is all based on social equity and respect.

This is the same exact system that has been online gaming so successful time and time again.  This system of “leveling up” creates a tension amongst users where from day 1, all they want is to improve their status.

3. Insert the share

The key to getting people to bring in their own networks to Turntable wasn’t to just ask people to share a room.  It was to make a room unusable, unless someone else was also in the room.

Of course, you could only improve your status if you’re a DJ, and the best way to become a DJ is to start a room from scratch.

Users wouldn’t tweet it out just because they wanted to share something interesting.  They’d tweet it out, because sharing was the only way that they could improve their status.

It’s all really fucking genius.

Photo cred: Feel Mystic

It’s time for my next big leap.  Today is my first day at Zaarly as the Director of Product Marketing and Community.

I can’t even explain how excited I am for this opportunity.

While Zaarly is an idea that will be extremely difficult to build into a reality, if we can make it happen, it will have a huge impact. The chance to be a part of something like this only comes once in a lifetime.

What will I be doing?

While product marketing is a very common position, my actual role is pretty unique.  I’ll have the opportunity to apply my experience in three areas: community, marketing and product.

Essentially, I will be working to make sure that all three areas are well aligned, building a strong community, and translating the needs of that community into the product.

So I get to focus on the specific things that I love.  Connecting people with each other and building an amazing product for them.

On top of all that, the Zaarly team that I’ll be working with is epic.  My brother from another mother Shane Mac and I will be working directly together along with Adam Hofman, Eric Koester and the rest of the squad. I also have the amazing opportunity to work with Bo Fishback, who has become an amazing friend and mentor over the past few months.

They’re all good, genuine people, who hustle their ass’ off and put a lot of focus on being honest and direct with each other.  I thrive in that kind of environment.

As far as location, I will still be living in NYC while occasionally traveling to Zaarly’s other locations, and to the cities where Zaarly is growing.

…and now for the big question

What about BlogDash?

I’ve thought a lot about how I could potentially phrase this part.  I’m just going to be completely honest.

This was hands down the hardest decision I’ve had to make in my career.  I poured everything I had into BlogDash.  It’s my baby and it’s all going SO well.  We’re getting customers every day, we’re getting more and more traction.  It has all the signs of a good market fit in the making.

I was not looking for a new job.  Things just seemed to align in a really weird and powerful way with Zaarly.  When it comes down to it, this was an opportunity that I just could not pass up.

I think about what we did with BlogDash.  We did a lot of things right and plenty of things wrong.  I know that I have a lot to learn as an entrepreneur, and I strongly believe that my experience at Zaarly will fully prepare me for my next endeavor.

I did everything I could to make the transition easy for my partner Marc, and the rest of the team.  Marc has been extremely supportive of my decision.  I can’t thank him enough for the amazing opportunities he’s made possible for me over the past couple years.

Will I still be involved in BlogDash?

Yes but to what extent is still undetermined. I will likely be stepping back and assuming the role of an advisor.

I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, and where the site is going.  It has a real opportunity to make a positive impact on the media relations space, and we will do everything we can to make sure that that vision becomes a reality.

I’m confident that the rest of the team will be able to get through this transition, and we’ll continue to build BlogDash into a successful business.

The other stuff…

As far as my other side projects

My involvement in u30pro, TCM and Ask Summit will continue as normal.

I can’t thank all of you, my friends, family and readers for all your support these past few years.  It’s been an insanely awesome ride since I first started this blog and got involved in the social web space.

If you have any questions at all regarding this announcement, you can reach me at spinks at zaarly dot com.

Let’s do the damn thing!

Photo cred: Kathryn

How much time do you spend worrying about the name/url of your company?

I think we tend to place an inflated amount of value on a name because it’s such a long term position.  When it comes down to it, I don’t think it matters that much.

Here’s the advice that you usually hear when coming up with a name, and why it doesn’t matter.

1. It should be easy to spell.

Of course, on the web, you can get around this by buying all the common misspellings of your name.  Still, if it’s easier to spell, that’s probably better.

It doesn’t really matter because usually people discover websites by seeing and clicking a url.  No spelling necessary.  Even if you discover it offline, it’s probably written down somewhere.

Examples: tumblr, xanga, scvngr, disqus

2. It should be easy to say clearly.

This is more important than being easy to spell.  I had a company (Scribnia) that was hard to say clearly.  It was a huge headache especially at loud events/conferences.

That said, it has its advantages as well.  Something unique will stand out and may stick in people’s minds.  People never really remember the name of something the first time you tell it to them anyway.  They usually need to write it down.

Examples: readwriteweb, behance, scribd

3. It should be descriptive.

In some cases, using a name that provides some insight into the context of the company will make it easier to get the concept across. It makes it  easier for people to grasp what you do.

This one really doesn’t matter in the end. There are countless examples of companies with names that have very little to do with the actual service, at least not on a simple level.

Examples: google, foursquare, amazon, zappos

There are many other little things to take into account when creating your name but in the end, I’d argue that it really doesn’t matter that much.

Following the usual advice may help you a little bit, but none of these things will make or break your company.

My only advice would be to think about the emotion that your name gets across.  A name can make you look cheesy, professional, cool, boring… Find a name that feels like aligns with your brand and go with it.

What do you think… does a name really matter?

Photo cred: Andrew Mager

People seem to complain a lot about social media conferences.

I’ve definitely had my share of complaints too.

I think that most of these conferences suck because they weren’t set up properly (or for the right reasons), which I won’t go into in this post.

What I want to talk about is our unrealistic expectations of the content.

People come to these panels and speakers and expect to come out feeling like an expert in that topic.

Thing is, you can dive into 1000 webinars, speakers, books, roundtables, premium communities etc… but until you actually do something, you’re not really going to learn.

Doing is the only way to really learn.

You can be taught how to use tools, and how to organize strategies.  But the actual methods and concepts that make a company or professional great can only be learned through experience.

What works for one company probably won’t work for another.

Sitting there and listening to some dude talk about how his company had a viral video will do literally nothing for you.

We expect epic content, and then we complain when it’s all so basic or we’ve heard this stuff before.

This is especially true in the social media space, because it’s still pretty new as far as tools and strategies.

The tools and strategies in the social media space still haven’t been developed that much.  They’re still very basic.

We can’t be taught how to actually make this stuff work.  No speaker can make you good at your job, especially not in an hour or less.

Same can be said for blogs, books, webinars, etc…

Get your hands dirty and start making mistakes.

Then you’ll be the one speaking.

Use conferences for at least one of the following:

1. Learning the basics
2. Networking
3. Inspiration

When I first got started learning about social media tools, I loved a lot of the content, because it taught me the basics.

My favorite conferences recently are SxSW and Big Omaha.

At SxSW, I didn’t go to any speakers or panels, but it was amazing for networking.

Big Omaha had some of the most inspiring content I’ve seen.  Had I gone to learn the secret to building a successful business, I would have been sorely disappointed.

So before you complain about the content at a conference, think about why you’re there, and check your expectations.

Or maybe I’m totally off on this one.  What have you thought of all these social media conferences lately?

Have you heard about Zaarly yet?

Zaarly could be a world changing platform. It could alter marketplaces the same way ebay or craigslist did in their time.

The product is extremely simple, but the implications could be vast.

Here’s how it works:

You can use it on the web or on your mobile device.

Step 1: What do you want?

Step 2: How much are you willing to pay for it?

Step 3: How soon do you need it?

And boom…you Zaarly it, and someone fulfills it for you.

Here are a couple simple examples:

1. You want someone to bring you a coffee in the next 30 minutes. You can zaarly it, and someone (anyone) will bring it to you.
2. You’re in a new city for a day and you want to get a tour.  You post to zaarly that you’ll pay $100 for someone to show you around the city for the day, and someone will do it.

Those are really really simple examples, but when anyone can buy anything they want, the opportunities are endless.

Give it some serious thought, and I’m sure you can pick up on the major implications this kind of platform could have, if it works.

Here are a few of the big ones:

1. It creates new services and industries

The supply and demand system concept has always been flawed.  Dan Ariely talks a bit in Predictably Irrational about the way people value things, and how irrational our natural gauge of “value” actually is.  The power has always been in the supply…the seller.

There’s a lot of demand that exists that we don’t know about.  Supply is only created if someone identifies the demand and builds a solution for it.  When anyone can simply ask for things that they want, we can see the true demand that exists.

Now, there’s a place where anyone can say what they want and exactly how much they’d like to pay for it.

I couldn’t get my computer monitor delivered from Soho to the Javitz center before, because that service just didn’t exist.  Last week, because of Zaarly, someone brought me my monitor for $25. Something that didn’t exist before, suddenly exists, because I wanted it.

What if my simple Zaarly posting started a whole new industry?  Why shouldn’t there be a service that simply picks things up for you, and brings them to wherever you want it?  Zaarly can create one off transactions, and it can also create entire new companies or industries.

Think about what other services could exist if we just knew what everyone wanted at any given time.

2. It can help the unemployed

So you lost your job.  Now what?  You should start looking for a new full time job, and either apply for unemployment, or pick up some shitty part time job to pay the bills.

Now, you can go onto Zaarly and find random jobs.  Maybe someone needs their dog walked.  You offer to do it through zaarly, complete the task, make some money and do a good job.  Maybe they ask you to do it again in the future and now you have a steady source of income for a while.

Say you’re short on the rent by a couple hundred bucks.  What do you do?  You can’t pick up a job on the spot and get a paycheck in time to pay the rent.  On the spot, you can pick up some random tasks through Zaarly, make some quick cash and get the rent together in time.

3. It can change the charity model

Zaarly is already doing this.  Check out what they’re doing to help those affected by the storms in Joplin.

Usually, when you donate to something, you have no idea where that money is going.

Now you don’t have to go through a charity to help someone.  You can use Zaarly to put money toward something specific, and have someone onsite fulfill it.

Will it work?

That’s the big question. The challenges are enormous. This isn’t the first time that something like this has been attempted.

It doesn’t matter if everyone in the world is posting something that they want, people ready to fulfill those tasks have to be there too.

There will also undoubtedly be a number of wrong ways to use Zaarly (drugs, sex, you know… the usual) that could cause a lot of issues.

I do know that the team has thought about these issues thoroughly, and will continue to do so as the userbase grows.

I think if anyone can do it though, the current team at Zaarly can.  I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a number of them personally and with Bo Fishback at the helm, they have a good shot at it.

It also feels like the right time.  The platforms that tried this before were too early.  The level of trust and connectivity required for something like this to work just didn’t exist yet.

I didn’t write this post because they’re my friends though. My friends start new companies all the time.  I wrote it because I think if Zaarly does work, it could change the world for the better on a huge level.  Any time I hear about a company like that, I want to tell every damn person I know about it.

So… what will you Zaarly first?