Shortly, we’ll be liveblogging Richard J. Goossen’s presentation on “Harnessing the power of a crowd”, CEO of MakeGood and author of “E-Preneur – From Wall Street to Wiki: Succeeding as a Crowdpreneur™ in the New Virtual Marketplace.”

If you’re livetweeting this event, feel free to use #IIMA in your updates.

Ean Jackson is introducing Richard Goossen and his book, “E-Preneur”. Richard is on the faculty of Trinity Western University. You may follow him on Twitter through @make_good.

A couple of things that Richard is pointing out on the outset: the world of the Internet is fascinating because things change so quickly. He’s done this same presentation in April, and Facebook had 100 million users. Now, it has 400 million. Eventhough things change, somethings stay the change, such as principles related to how innovation happens that have worked for hundreds of years.

Richard is referring to Peter Drucker (the father of entrepreneurship), and that his principles still apply nowadays.

Richard’s introduction to the context to the principle of crowdsourcing: he’s mentioning John Harrison, from England. He’s relevant because he was involved in the one of the original concepts of crowdsourcing, and in managing the principle of longitude. The parliament in England at the time used the principle of crowdsourcing to come up with a solution to the longitude problem, in 1714. At the time, Cambridge had been around for approximately 400 years, and yet, they couldn’t figure out the problem.

John Harrison was a cabinet maker in West Yorkshire, and sickly as a young lad. He retired as a millionaire after solving the issue regarding longitude by using crowdsourcing as the solution. So, if John Harrison was able to achieve such advances in a time where communication was so more challenging and technology was not where it is now, imagine what can be done nowadays.

Richard is now speaking about the Generational Test and is showing a slide of Bonanza as a generational test, and how, in conferences, most people 25 and under cannot make the reference. There’s a generational divide. Richard is showing a classification of Gen Z as the generation that comes after Gen Y (born after 1981, until now). Gen Z doesn’t even know a world where Facebook doesn’t exist. At the rate of how technology changes, generations should be classified in gaps of 5 years.

Global brands – circa 100 have taken hundreds of years to become established – such as Ford, etc. Now, in 1990s, brands like eBay (established in 95), Google (98) and Napster (99), the pace of change keeps going faster, are some of the top brands in the world, and have only been around during the last couple of decades. Wikipedia (2001), Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006) – all these brands are now so ubiquitous. This illustrates how quickly things change.

The New Virtual Marketplace

Going from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

• Web 1.o is static, unidimensional – where as 2.0 includes user generated interface, where we’re co-creators.
• Network effects: the more connections there are, the more important a social network becomes.
• Long tail (expanded by Chris Anderson’s book). Most retailers can’t stock all the books that the audience is interested in, but Amazon is probably able to. Companies can now make $ off micro-niched markets.
• In the Cloud (pushed a lot by Google): your computer will not have any software on it. All programs you need will be online. Just log into the cloud and programs will be available. The concept of having a computer with your own program in it might be outdated for the next generation. Akin to “when I was your age, I had to walk 20 miles to go to school”.

All of this means a lot to today’s businesses.

The Madness of Crowds

One might think that the crowd is a mob. Key thing to think about is a point in “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, relating to tulips. Tulips were a reference to a person’s worth at one time in Holland.

How do we get to the wisdom of the crowd? Can the crowd be wise? “Under the right circumstances, groups are smarter than the smarter people in them”. Three types of problems where the crowd wisdom can be helpful:

• Coordination problems
• Topics like “who will win the Superbowl”
• Cooperation problems – motivating people to fix the problem

“The wisdom of the crowd is best when individuals are acting separately, but addressing the same issue”. (paraphase from the book that Richard is referring to). We have been wired to be collectively smart. How this influences business:

• Open Innovation (for e.g., Firefox)
• Collective Intelligence (term used by Tim O’Reilly. There’s an interview w/ Tim in Richard’s book, e-Preneur).
• Crowdsourcing (coined by Jeff Howe, from Wired Magazine) – throwing a problem out to a group of people who will respond independently to the problem.

The Crowdpreneur

Crowd Power + entrepreneurial application = crowdpreneur

How do we harness crowd power for an entrepreneurial application?

Companies currently using crowd power: Cambrian House / VenCorps, Chaordix (the crowdsourcing engine for companies), Threadless, whereto you can “submit an idea for a chance at fame, friends and twenty-five hundred dollars!”. Simple concept: “when people tell you what they want, you give it to them”. Another example: NowPublic: the crowd determines what news will show on their website. It’s “Crowd Powered Media”.

Now, Richard is using Fluevog as an example of crowdpreneur & shoes – crowdsourced shoes! But you need to have a crowd to launch a project like this. It worked for Fluevog because of their number of followers. This ties back to John Harrison’s time in England, but technology allows for crowdsourcing to happen a lot faster. In addition, Fluevog can take this risk, because even if there weren’t crowdsourcing, they would still succeed.

The Crowdpreneur & Good – Make Good

Make Good:

• A community that is “good for business”
• Crowdsourced ideas for giving
• Changing the nature of doing good

It’s an unbiased way of advertising of what the company is doing that is good. This related to crowdsourcing because they’ve been looking at which causes should be supported by going to the wisdom of the crowd.

Takeaways

6 Principles of Crowd Power

• If want to be the room where the conversation takes place, give them good drinks!
• Vetting vs. Creating: there’s a big difference.
• Give credit to people who are the experts.
• Give people recognition
• Reward! Make it worth people’s while to participate. Now Public is an example.
• This is not 18th Century French Court! The language on a site, for example, should not sound like a brochure from an accounting firm, etc. Make it engaging!

Crowpreneur – Business Model

• It reduces risks
• It expands resources (NowPublic, for e.g.)
• Fosters Brand Loyalty (e.g. Fluevog). Now it’s no longer an unidimensional transaction. When there’s a sense of ownership, there’s a sense of loyalty
• Increase in revenue/sales (Threadless)

The Future of Crowdpreneur

• Shift Worldwide
• Cameesa – Crowdfunding Tees (www.cameesa.com). Different from Threadless, because through this site, the idea is that you put the concept out there, and people come together to make the shirt happen.
• www.Indiegogo.com – a collaborative way to fund ideas & innovation

“The future is here; it is just not evenly distributed yet”

J. Craig Ventor, Genomic Research Scientist, Web 2.0 Summit, October 2007

Related posts:

1. Harnessing the Power of a Crowd with Richard J. Goossen

Since these attacks occur primarily on Direct Messages and email notifications about Direct Messages, this is where we have focused our initial efforts. For the most part, you will not notice this feature because it works behind the scenes but you may notice links shortened to twt.tl in Direct Messages and email notifications. Special thanks to @wfarner and @ram for building this service and helping keep us all a little safer!

Posted by @delbius at 4:34 PM

No related posts.

1. Success, he says, won’t come from what you do online, but from “the activities of the users in your channel.” Mitch Joel.

2. “People want to buy and interact with brands that stand for something,” Seth Godin says. “This is where it gets really hard for you — because that means you have to stand for something.”

3. Prufrock Coffee, an unassuming coffee shop in east London, England, offers customers a “disloyalty” card, Godin says. Get it punched by visiting eight competitors, and Prufrock will give you a free coffee if you come back. What better way to turn customers into fans? How can you leverage your competition to YOUR advantage?

4. Zippo reignited its own brand, says Othmer, by creating an app that puts a picture of a Zippo lighter, with flame, on your iPhone screen. People hold it up on concerts at arenas where lighters are now forbidden. So maybe you don’t need to make an iphone app. BUT what can you do to reignite your own brand?

5. Chicago-based Max Lenderman, an adman specializing in experiential marketing, says six million new cellphone subscribers sign up every month in India. Nokia markets in remote villages using travelling vans that double as stages for acting out commercials. After online, says Lenderman, experiential/event marketing is the fastest-growing form of marketing. Okay – maybe you aren’t going to start your own travelling Punch & Judy opera – but maybe there’s something you CAN do thats radically different.

I love articles like this. They give me pause – and make me think – I don’t expect speakers to cut up the food on my plate and put in my mouth. I expect them to create an appetite in my brain for more. Stir it up. Sounds like this conference did. Congratulations to the presenters and attendees. Now what can you and I do as friends of IIMA to stir it up in our own digital lives?

Steve Deller
Past President
Past Director, Education
IIMA

No related posts.

IMC is also coming to Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona & San Francisco and please email us if you’d like us to hit your city.

Lennart Svanberg
Producer
http://InternetMarketingConference.Com

Written from Stockhom covered in snow.

Related posts:

1. Internet Marketing Conference – Agenda ready for Stockholm & Montreal & Calgary

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending VKI Studios 1st training session, in a series of 4, which focus on essential aspects of Internet Marketing. The training session I attended was “The Art and Science of Persuasive Web Design”, which takes a look at different persuasive methods, content techniques and examples of how they can be used online.

The session was taught by Michael “STUCK BY LIGHTENING TWICE” Straker, a very upbeat and knowledgeable Usability Analyst at VKI Studios. I have to say I was very impressed by Michael’s knowledge both inside and outside of the topic. In one instance while fielding a question he jumped directly into B2B concepts and provided a clear and concise response.

During the morning Micheal led us through a powerpoint presentation outlining the various persuasion methods, including:

• Trust
• Persuasion
• Logic vs Emotion
• The Contrast Principle
• Decide-o-Phobia
• Social Proof
• Scarcity
• Diffusion of Responsibility
• Rule of Reciprocation
• Obedience of Authority
• Disrupt then Reframe
• The Power of People we Like

After reviewing the concepts we spent the afternoon looking at everyone’s website and brainstormed ways we could use our new arsenal of persuasion to improve conversion/usability.

Session Highlights:

• #1 for me was the quality of the presentation. A concept was presented, references for the concept were then provided from trusted academic and professional sources, then examples were given and finally an engaging question to really make you think how you can use the concept. Excellent.
• The printed packages were a nice touch – I didn’t have to waste my time taking notes on the slides instead I could just jot thoughts I had on how I could implement them on my website.
• Overall the atmosphere was relaxed and inviting –thanks to smiling guys at the front for throwing out my Timmy’s Garbage for me.
• The small size of the group really gave us the opportunity to talk in length about examples specific to us and remain engaged the entire time.
• I had the pleasure to meet some interesting people in the industry: @ShermanHu.
• Overall VKI Studios really focused on quality in every aspect of the training session, and it showed.

Session Letdowns:

• Wish there was more info on VKI Studios website about this event and other upcoming events (update: I found the page via a Google search: Internet Marketing Training).
• I couldn’t get the Contact Us Map to work on my iPhone when I was trying to find the place (this might have been just me).
• I didn’t really understand if the workshop started exactly at 9 or if we were to just show up at 9. For future reference just show up at 9.

As mentioned above VKI studios is doing 3 other sessions that if are anything like the first, will be well worth the cash. Topics include: Search Engine Optimization, Google Analytics & Google Website Optimizer Bootcamp & Pay Per Click Marketing

More information on VKI’s Internet Markeing Training Sessions

*Serena has been involved within the web industry since 2001 and specializes in Organic Search. She is currently employed as the Director of Marketing and Web Development for ShowTimeTickets.com. Prior to Serena’s career she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University.

Related posts:

1. Crash Course on Persuasive Web Design
2. Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

Doug Haslam is making a career transition.  This is the first time in about ten years that he’s left one job without immediately having another to go to. Doug is truly one of the nicest guys in social media. He was one of my first friends on Twitter.  Doug is generous by being helpful to all he “meets” online. He is so witty that it’s no surprise that he had a ton of followers when the Twitter universe was small and that actually meant something. With his Boston references and Sox chatter, he always helps me stay connected to the Hub of the Universe, even from 3000 miles away. I am confident that Doug will find a great opportunity that suits him soon.  He is just too bright, too connected, and too much of a real PR professional that understands social media as well as traditional media. As you can imagine, Doug has a wealth of social capital that will no doubt help him. He’s also got some pretty good insights on using social media to find a job.  Having been through it myself, I know he’s got the right approach that will propel his career. Still, I know that a little help from his friends will be appreciated.

So how can you help Doug? Even if you don’t live near him or work in his industry? If we’ve learned anything from social media over these last few years, it’s the importance of community and the connections we make within that community. In my experience, there are three things that will always help and always be appreciated.

1. Reach out to him and make an introduction that you think will be meaningful.
2. Write a Linkedin recommendation for Doug.
3. Write a blog post like this one which will introduce Doug to your blog community.

These actions are not hard to do and take it from me, not only are they appreciated greatly, but they do help.

##

This article was submitted to us by Warren Sukernek is Partner and Vice President of Strategies at Lift9, a social media services firm specializing in social media analytics and research. With its research staff in Vietnam, Lift 9 provides its clients with actionable insights based on listening to the social web. Warren develops monitoring programs for marketers and implements listening best practices.

No related posts.

Related posts:

1. Olympic Hockey Tweetup – Vancouver February 18th
2. January 2010 IIMA Newsletter
3. The Buzzword Social Media Is DOA In 2010

IMC Stockholm is also ready in terms of who will be speaking, and quite possibly this is the best agenda ever in Stockholm.

IMC Calgary is heating up with lots of great speakers & trainers that will rock Calgary for 2 days.

There are still lots of openings for speakers to our upcoming events in Vancouver, Copenhagen, Helsinki, New York, Barcelona & San Francisco so please fill in our form here if you’re interested.

Lennart Svanberg
Producer
http://InternetMarketingConference.Com
Follow us on Twitter

Related posts:

1. Calgary starts next week, Stockholm in 2 weeks.
2. Top Resources for Internet Marketing News
3. The Complete Internet Marketing Glossary

This event is scheduled to start on: Feb. 18, 4:30 PM PST, this is a free opportunity to celebrate with friends. Come join us to cheer on our Canadian Men’s Olympic team. At 8:00 PM PST, we have a special guest joining us.

Show your support by following this link. http://bit.ly/Olympic_Tweetup_Feb18

Organized By: Jason Baker, Shane Gibson & Stephen Jagger with the support of Social Media Club Vancouver and the International Internet Marketing Association.

Related posts:

1. Call for Speakers – iPhone Forum Vancouver

For its first edition, 80 famous international speakers will take stock of the latest trends in the “New Business & Technology” fields, in general, and “ eCommerce” or “Internet and Web Monetization” areas, in particular. Trademark owners and professionals are invited to share their experience during two days dedicated to “The Internet of Things”, “Mobile Monetization”,  “eCommerce” and many other tools for marketing management.

15 March – the afternoon is dedicated to “The Internet of Things: When dreams become reality.” The session begins with Patrick Grossetete of ArchRock, who talks about “Key note: Turning Dreams into Reality”. Then, Carlo Simon, of the Government Center of Communications, answers to “Emergency communication and the Internet of things – the u2010 success story”. The speech which follows, entitled “Large Scale deployment of IPv6 and infrastructure applications”, is presented by Cody Christman of NTT Communications. The 3 last speakers, Sebastian Ziegler of Swiss IPv6 Committee, Junaid Islam of Vidder and Gert Döring of Spacenet, confirm the usefulness of IPv6 in their respective interventions: “Using IPv6 for green building and datacenter”, “IPv6 Two-Way HD video – the first viral IPv6 application”and the “Real Life Deployment of IPv6 at ISPs”.

16 March – in the morning, “Internet and Mobile Monetization” is at the heart of discussions. Alexandre Hoffman, of PayPal Europe, talks about « Online commerce trends and barriers: emergence of alternative payment methods addressing consumer and merchant pain points”. Then, Jean Marc Fendel, of Cetrel SA, explains “How to combat fraud in the e-money area”. Fabrice Heurtaux takes over with “How to monetize Internet & Mobile contents with the micro-payment”. Finally, the half-day ends with a Q&A session.

On the afternoon, professionals discover “eCommerce” trends and “Gartner’s Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2010 and Beyond: A New Balance”, presented by Brian Gammage. Then, Richard Nash, of eBay, unveils “New eCommerce trends”. Anne Murrath highlights eCommerce with a financial point of view: “Ecommerce tax optimization”. The second day is over with a Q&A session.

Register with a complimentary code from the International Internet Marketing Assocaition – : IMA4207. Follow this link to complete your registration here.

No related posts.