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Intrinsic Value

I did a TEDx Talk a few weeks ago in Moldova, I got so much help, it was really fun and I met some great people!

The video went live yesterday morning and I was really happy that a bunch of people gave me nice feedback as I wasn’t sure  how well received it would be

At the time of writing this it currently has 422 views on YouTube, not very successful compared to other TEDsters many of whom who have Millions!! Even my last TEDx – The Power of Connection received over 3,000 views.

Whilst in the ‘Absolute’ it is not successful the ‘Model’ for how it is getting the views is amazing to me!

Whilst I got more views in the past, only people who knew me posted comments and  shared the video so it grew and then plateaued within a week.

The Value was not intrinsic in the content it was with me so only if people knew me personally they posted  it

But it is these posts from the new talk that excite me……

I have never spoken to these people yet for one reason or another they have found my talk and seen enough value in what was said to share it again into their worlds.

I am FULLY aware it could be a fluke, one was actually a friend, Jordan’s mum and lots of other forces are at play!

….But if it is true that someone not linked to me will share the video to someone else and so on then the message may create a life of its own.

This Idea that the thoughts I shared might have enough resonance and intrinsic value that people who don’t know me may enjoy and share is far more exciting to me than the idea that I may get some 000,000s on the view count through clever promotion

Some call this the virality of a piece of content or product and many tech businesses measure something called the Viral Co-Efficient which looks at when one person gets added how many more get added through them as a result.

It is very likely that the video will not be a huge success but the glimmer of hope that the ideas I am articulating may have value that exists outside of my personal relationships is so extremely exciting to me 🙂

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Volundraising. Fundteering.

Just for fun I am coining the terms “Fundteering” and the unpronounceable “Volundraising”

Volundraising

After sharing the Volundraising idea with a couple of friends today, Matt said “What about Fundteering” which I immediately agreed is far less of a tongue twister.

My extensive research on Google (lol) suggests no-one else has been bonkers enough to use or even reference these mashup words.

Well it is almost true…There is one Dutch Newspaper from 1915 that Google claims uses the word “Fundteering” somewhere in it, I dare you to find it!!!

Fundteering

They both have the following definition….

Using Volunteering as a Vehicle for Fundraising, to engender trust and support from others for a cause. 

In essence  using authentic actions to encourage others to give time or money

The Topic of Authenticity has been high on my agenda recently.

The reason I believe most monetisation strategies in the social networking world, including Facebook’s early models are #failing is because they don’t lean into our authentic voices.

They rely on cheating or hacking the social contracts we build with one another in these spaces to force brand exposure…not very polite.

 The true power of social media lies in peoples passionate, authentic voices and real relationships with brands and people. 

Through various conversations and work I have been doing over the last 6 months including a conversation over a beer with Damien from Vinspired.com this weekend at the CharityHack.org (Which was a lot of fun)  I have come to realise how volunteering is so incredibly powerful as a fundraising tactic as time IS money and sharing volunteering exposes very expensive social proof in a different more palatable currency

When we get fatigued by prostituted voices, 

The sound of authenticity resonates loud and clear