Know-How Exchange : Customer Behavior

Good Question. I was thinking about this very issue while flying back from Florida last week.
I am a business man so I can give you first hand information.
1) What do I like? Ability to connect with others of similar interests, ability to network far beyond my normal boundaries, and ability to get first hand knowledge on places I plan to visit.
2) What don't they do? Generally speaking, they don't weed out the fakers and frauds. They don't keep spamers out well enough and they trend toward younger people (not really as big an issue as the first two)
3) I think I hit on that one above. I know there are some "business connection" sites in existence, but I have not been overly impressed by them.

Hope this helps
Frank Hurtte

Dear Bill

You’ve addressed a question to issues which I’ve been pondering for some time.

I joined Ecademy in July 2004 after a recommendation from InsightExec the organisation behind CMC, the successor to the highly successful to CRM forum. Back then, they were owned by BT or British Telecoms who wanted to move into the CRM arena and they were promoting Ecademy as a free networking forum. InsghtExec is now independent again and is a serious European contender in the on-line CRM community business, similar to CRMguru.

Why all this background? Well, I wouldn’t have been drawn to a social / business network without a recommendation from a credible person or organisation. Interestingly, CMC no longer endorse or even mention Ecademy on their site. Thus recommended, I joined; interested in the potential for something I had never taken an interest in. It appeared to be free, offered face to face local meetings and had some considerable potential for networking over the web. I’d already heard of the maxim that everyone is connected to everyone else in 6 steps – maybe I could leverage some advantage out of this.

Initially I enjoyed some meetings and politely responded to requests for information from other Ecademy members. I was even invited to join other personal networks such as LinkedIn and Spoke from impressive sounding people that I didn’t know. If I was that susceptible to flattery I would have been flattered. The trouble was that most of the people I met, pleasant though they were, were fellow service providers, usually representing small companies or partnerships. I could easily have found 100 accountants, 50 lawyers and 200 web designers to fulfil our needs at Unimax, but no potential customers. Well, maybe they had, in their networks some larger companies or some manufacturers or they had clients who needed the odd sales database. I guess that one thing that I don’t like about it is that for me at least, it doesn’t offer introductions to people who might be interested in what we do.

The communications from Ecademy continued, but with more of an emphasis on upgrading my Guest Membership (Free) to one of a range of paid for memberships – Green Star Networker at £25 a year, Power-Networker at £120- a year and Black Star at £600 a year. Wow – and I though that it was going to be free for the benefit of the members.

Now I start to feel a little uncomfortable with evangelical preachers who start to offer “spiritual healing” in an American Accent, despite the fact that they live in Birmingham (UK Midlands - Brummie!) and I get really uncomfortable when they tell me that their book and video is on sale at the back of the church. So it was with the social / business networking experience. It was obvious that I wouldn’t be able to build much of a network unless I subscribed to a higher level of membership – I get an email every 2 months from someone browsing my details – how come all those paid up members are not queuing to get their dose of CRM services from Unimax, eh!? They can all read, can’t they?

So I started to ask myself who benefits and how they benefit from this type of association. Well it is probable that Thomas Power and the other founders don’t do too badly out of subscriptions and advertising. And I’ll grant you that the more intensive networkers are likely to get some business out of it. If you have a few thousand in your network and those all have at least a few hundred in theirs, the likelihood of getting business becomes a statistic rather than a matter of luck – and with those sorts of numbers, you can afford to trade on very small response rates. The stats are out there, but I stopped watching the antics of Mulder and Scully when the X Files went off terrestrial TV (That should tell you something - this skinflint won’t pay for a satellite subscription, so what chance Black Star membership?)

However, before a membership spy from Ecademy or LinkedIn spots this and erases my membership, let me say that there are many reasons to join up, for those who want to carry out this kind of social / business activity and I have nothing against the founders or the Power(Full)Members getting rich. See Bill McDermott on https://www.williammcdermott.com/20reasons.pdf for 20 reasons why you should be in a network. I am however, cautious about how I use contacts. It is part of my natural conservatism. This isn’t something I can place on a wish list of things Ecademy could do better – its something which I don’t want to be involved in.

When I left St Andrews University, I had an address book of friends and contacts to be proud of. Many of them went on to hold ministerial positions in government or senior posts in industry or the professions and as contact begats contact, the list grew. However, I have always felt uncomfortable asking for business, money, sponsorship or endorsements from people simply because I know them. Others have not been as reticent as I can see from the list of people I know who have asked favours of me – and good luck to them.

It’s just not my style. I remember with amusement my father solemnly announcing that “There’s a cabinet minister at the door. Want’s to know if you’d like to go to the pub for a drink” I didn’t ask to meet up with him nor did I ask for any Government contracts when I did. I went to quite a few pleasant dinners, but there wasn’t much business I could transact with the Chairman of BP – we were worlds apart. (Nice guy though)

And as for trading on my contacts – I simply wouldn’t do it. You can tell that from the Ferrari count in the Alker household. So I came to the conclusion that if I wasn’t going to milk my direct line of friends and contacts, I’d be highly unlikely to do the same for someone who is in the network of someone else who I don’t even know. That’s the rub for me and probably the reason why I’ll never be a Power Networker. I’m just not exploitative enough!

I think that these networks have a valuable place in the world – both on a personal level and on a business level. To get the best out of them and not to be taken for too much, you need to find a balance. So beware of any argument, which I see from time to time which suggests that the success of the whole network and your success in it depend on you recruiting at least 10 or 20 or 100 people into your own network, because they will recruit 10 or 20 or 100. 10 people won’t work because in 6 steps, you’ll only be linked to a million – that’s less than it says on the can. 100 sounds better, but that unfortunately links you to 250 times more people than there are on the planet.

Getting your networking in balance can be a tricky business!

I can’t answer your three questions because given their modus operandi, there’s nothing that I would want a social network to do or to do better. I get introductions from people who know me and know what I do. I don’t object to getting referrals form people who’ve only read about me, but I don’t think that it’s something I would spend, say 10th as much time as I devote to a Sales, Marketing or CRM forum, where I can offer something concrete and be judged on what I say, write or do.

Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions

Steve, it has been a pleasure reading your post. My weekend at St. Andrews was a weekend of vice. But i guess people with different mindsets look at things differently.

Billd - my experiences with these networks start with OpenBC which was recommended to me by a trust German surgeon and MBA mate.

It is assumed that B2B all want the same thing when they opt in for these network sites wheter at a fee or not. However, if we analyse the nature of these B's in B2B then we can start looking at things differently.

Someone said above that they have not been able to acquire much contacts for new business. some have said that their purpose was not to meet those with similar interests and industries. So generalise them into 2 types of people with different intentions:

1 - Managers - Business Owners
These people are looking for contacts and other business to expand their network hoping to find or stumble on new business for their organisation. So for them, business development is the key reason why they join in the first place. Another reason could be that they wish to share/obtain information with regards to their industry, market or segment so that they can do their business better.

2 - Entrepreneurs
These people probably have a full time job. They might even own a few small businesses but whilst their reason for joining may be the same, but they have a different approach for searching for others. I for example am not "very" discriminative in my selection. I look for interesting people, see their profile, look at their services, try to think how this service/product can be value added to be sold elsewhere at a profit. Or if i dont have the time/resources, i'll probably just hook two people up so they can benefit.

I feel that the entrepreneurial type will get so much out of existing models of these B2B networks. Since these networks often include people from all walks of life, industries, functions, levels of experience, you can always excercise some creative/strategic thinking by trying to link two business together. My case in point: My cotact, the director of Colliers international residential departmnet wants to start her own high end merchandises in Australia. so i hooked her up a former executive for Bains&Co who now works as partner in a sourcing company in China and who has experiences in the high end.

Although i have experiences in textile merchandising but: 1 i havent done ties before
2 i dont have the time
3 these people will thank me in the future.

In conclusion, these B2B networks will work wonders if you are flexible in your demands and generous in your attitude.

Charlie

LinkedIn is great, a really useful business tool, that finds me lots of business contacts. They tend to be senior professionals too.
I use it probably a couple of times a week.