Social Networking Platform for Private Online Communities
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. (June 17, 2015) – introNetworks’ CEO and Co-Founder Mark Sylvester is pleased to announce that it has received the 2015 California Small Business of the Year award for their 805connect project. [Read more…]
This Guest Post is from Emma Siemasko, Content Marketing Specialist @Grasshopper. You can follow Emma here on Twitter: @EmmaFayeS
Marketing and PR are important for any business. After all, would you buy a product or service you knew nothing about? Probably not.
But billboards, radio ads, and Google AdWords can chew up a balance sheet faster than a cheetah running towards an antelope.
What if I told you that there are people out there willing and able to promote your business for free– people who love your brand and already tell family and friends about how happy they are with your offerings? Wouldn’t you want to leverage that free publicity?
Um, yes.
According to a study by Bazaarvoice, personal recommendations carry far more weight than advertisements. In fact, 84% of millennials (ages 18-33) report that user-generated content has “some” or “a lot” of influence on their purchasing decisions.
It’s not just us young people, either. Seventy percent of baby boomers (a.k.a. my mom) reported the same thing.
Advertising as a standalone medium just doesn’t cut it anymore. People are reading reviews, checking out social media pages, and taking recommendations from family and friends before buying. I read roughly 30 online reviews before deciding which shampoo to buy.
This makes it all the more important to have a stable of real people who want to talk about your brand.
Creating an online community of brand ambassadors is as simple as identifying those happy customers and letting them do you a big favor: promote your company to the world through social media posts, blogs, and reviews.
30 Years ago, the TED Conference was started as a place to share ideas about Technology, Entertainment and Design. This year is a celebration for all of us. For introNetworks, it’s the 11th anniversary of the beginning of our company. We created a network for the attendees at TED2003 and from there grew our business around the world. To say we are grateful to TED is an understatement. Looking back, I would say that our ‘Idea Worth Spreading’ has been, ‘one connection can change your life’. We have spent the past 11 years honing in on how to make sure we (and you) are talking to the right people, working with the right person, selecting the right people for teams and groups.
We understand that right is relevant to the task at hand. Today will be different than tomorrow in terms of what skills, or experiences you need to tap into. [Read more…]
How do you make your content compelling, so your community will engage with it and by extension, with you? Here’s a simple way to think about how to frame online conversations and make them relevant.Clever marketers use snappy headlines to grab the attention of our inbox. They have learned how to influence our behavior, even though most Community Managers are not trained in human psychology and clever marketing strategies. Considering that we all suffer from partial attention span disorder, it’s interesting that when something catches our eye and keeps our interest, we will continue to pay attention even if there are other things demanding that same level of attention. So the question we ask ourselves when looking at low audience participation tends to focus on the content; How applicable is it, How interesting is it, How relevant is it, even, How graphically compelling is it? These are areas to consider when sorting out what you are going to post or start discussions about. [Read more…]
I was recently at a conference of writers, speakers and consultants one of the attendees spoke up during a Q & A and said, “It’s really easy to remember. You have a What? a So What? And a Now What?”
Which got me thinking.
I thought that there was a distinct parallel between this easy to remember tip and how you might use it to communicate the purpose of a private network that would be powerful and memorable.
Ironically, most private, purpose driven communities assume that their members know why the network exists. Bad assumption. When asked, they typically give the wrong answer.I talked to David Nour, a friend who was at the same conference, so I asked him to define his What, So What and Now What as he runs an introNetwork community – his answer is below, I then suggested he write to his members. He did. [Read more…]
Let me guess – you launched a private community and it was a dismal failure. Or you’re too stubborn to admit that it’s dying a slow death. Here is what happened – you hired me to build you a beautiful garden. I come back in 3 months and everything is dead. I tell you to fire the gardener and you ask – what gardener! So in 3 months you haven’t watered, fertilized, pruned, or otherwise taken care of the garden and you were magically expecting a beautiful basket of fruits and vegetables?
That’s exactly what happens with many private communities. Regardless of the provider – not really but I’ll get to that in a minute – it’s NOT just about a cool tool….
I am often asked about the ongoing care and feeding of an online community and I have found that making the analogy to tending a garden resonates with everyone. We all have had the experience of trying to grow a tomato or keep a house plant alive. It’s not easy. There are tricks, there are a ton of tips, but until you have actually done it successfully, it can be really frustrating.
Plant it and it will grow, is similar to build it and they will come. Neither are true. Right? You have to do more than just build it or plant it. You have to nurture, cajole, seduce and dedicate precious time to assuring success. That tomato doesn’t grow itself, it needs help. Your community will not grow itself either.
[Read more…]
It’s a little bit early to be sounding the clarion bells, but we are just so excited to working with these folks that we couldn’t help writing about them. Alumni Revolution is the next step after Democracy Prep, a network of open-enrollment, high performing, “no excuses” public charter schools operating in Harlem, New York and Camden, New Jersey. The mission of Democracy Prep is to educate responsible citizen-scholars for success in the college of their choice and a life of active citizenship. A simple philosophy guides Democracy Prep staff, students, and alumni alike:
Work Hard. Go to College. Change the World!The Alumni Revolution is designed to take graduates from Democracy Prep and provide them with mentors to help guide them through the challenges of College life. When the founder, Seth Andrew, of AR first talked to us we felt like we were a perfect fit – and figured that out in less than ten minutes. That conversation led to the creation of MentorMatch, launching in February 2014. Over the past few weeks we have been working diligently with Seth and his team to fine tune our Visual Matching Engine to accurately capture the aspirational dreams, experiences, skills and hobbies of the scholars (They call them Revolutionaries) and mentors that are being recruited to help in this effort. The site will take advantage of two powerful capabilities of the platform. First, it will capture information in multiple dimensions that will assist in automating the matching process itself. Second, the network will allow for any mentor or Revolutionary to be placed at the center of the network so that Alumni Revolution can broker the very best pairing for both people. By way of background information, Seth showed me his TEDx talk where he described the mission that Democracy Prep is all about. After watching it, I became one of their newest fans and this project instantly became one of the jewels in the crown, as the impact it will make won’t be measured for years to come, yet, the potential to help them find and match perfect mentor/mentee pairs is amazing. Take a look at his talk and you will see how much passion he has and how this project has become so successful. We are proud to be working with Alumni Revolution and look forward to the launch of their site in February.
introNetworks today announced that David Nour has been appointed to its Board of Directors. Nour brings over two decades of experience in working with technology companies. He will help guide introNetworks’ growth with a focus on expanding its relationship visualization platform partnerships and maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of its go-to-market strategy. “Relationship Economics is exactly what our platform has delivered to past clients such as TED, NASA, Xerox and the Clinton Global Initiative, and I can’t think of a more appropriate expertise to join us at this stage of our company’s evolution,” said Mark Sylvester, introNetworks CEO. “I’m pleased to have David’s thought and practice leadership in strategic relationships join our Board, and am excited for our team’s opportunity to work with him.” Nour is currently CEO of The Nour Group, Inc. focused on enterprise growth through strategic relationships, disruptive technologies, and adaptive innovation. He has pioneered the phenomenon that relationships are the greatest off-balance-sheet asset any organization possesses, large or small, public or private. “introNetworks is the definitive leader in visualizing intelligent and highly-relevant relationships,” said Nour. “All indications are that they will continue on a growth trajectory, and I look forward to bringing a strategic and relationship-centric growth perspective at the Board level to help manage and leverage emerging opportunities.” Nour is a senior leadership advisor to clients such as HP, Siemens, Amerinet, and KPMG. He is the author of several books including the best selling “Relationship Economics” (Wiley), “ConnectAbility” (McGraw-Hill), “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Capital” (Praeger) and “Return on Impact” (ASAE). His unique perspective and independent insights on business relationships as well as social and mobile innovation have been featured in a variety of prominent blogs and publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Knowledge@Wharton, Associations Now, Huffington Post Business, Medium, Entrepreneur and Success magazine. He annually delivers 50+ global keynotes at leading industry association conferences, corporate meetings, and academic forums. Nour is often a guest lecturer at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and Georgia Tech’s College of Management. He is currently an active member of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF), the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), and the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG). A native of Iran, David came to the U.S. as a teenager with a suitcase, $100, limited family ties, and no fluency in English. He earned an Executive MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and a BA degree in Management from Georgia State University.Visionary Executive Brings Extensive Track Record of Strategic Business Growth to Leading Relationship Visualization Technology Company
For those of you that are lucky enough to be in Hong Kong for Siggraph Asia you will want to watch this short video to make sure you don’t miss a single connection while you are there.
To get the most out of your time onsite, you will want to make sure that you have signed into the eventNetwork. If you don’t remember your login or password, send us an email to – or enter the email that you used to register for the conference with in the Retrieve Password field on the front page, then you can get started.
We have been to hundreds of conferences and know how hard it is to make connections, especially if you are new to the industry. This video will give you some great tips on how to find people, how to send them a message to meet onsite and how to find people once you are back home.
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