Creating value in the Connection Economy
Give Gifts and Be Trustworthy
One Saturday evening, some friends and I were having drinks at a bar and a young man moved his chair away from his buddies to have a chat with us. We spoke at great length, cracked a few jokes and learnt a lot about each other’s lives. He was older than us; probably in his late 30s.
“You guys are so lucky in your generation”, he said. “It easier now to connect with anyone than ever before, share your ideas and tell your story to a broader audience. You have the tools and power in our hands to reach so many people around the world”. He also spoke about how he had started using Instagram to grow his construction business.
The world today is fast moving away from the industrial age to the connection age. The industrial economy thrives on capital and assets, while the connection economy is fuelled by trust and connections. In order for you to be a valuable person in the industrial age, what you had to do was create a factory, hire a lot of men/women and pay them (minimum) wage to mass produce a certain product. These products would be advertised via mass media and sold to the general public (the majority). That was the only way of being seen. This process requires a lot of capital, investments, assets and other big moving parts.
The good news is, today we do not need all of that to be of value to anybody anywhere in the world or simply put, a total stranger. You may be taken aback by the word STRANGER, and this is because all our lives we have been told that stranger equals danger. We should stay away from strangers, and there is no need to be of help to some random individual who has nothing to do with us personally. The connection age begs to differ, by shifting our mode of thinking, to begin seeing strangers as an opportunity. In the connection economy, there is easy access to a broader audience, and value is created by helping others, building relationships and fostering connections.
The world is shifting from this industrial mentality to a connection mindset. Where it is easier now, more than ever before to reach more people and connect with strangers like ourselves all while using very little or no capital. Being more connected and trusted is the most valuable asset going forward.
With all that said, here is what I adapted from James Altucher, on the business model of the 21st century :
You have a huge excess of something, for example, a skill, knowledge in a particular domain, car seats, rooms etc. Some people (strangers) want access to that excess. Nurture your excess and find a way to connect with those people who want access to your excess and deliver that excess in a trustworthy way. This is true value.
There are various platforms and channels available today with the power of the internet to enable creatives offer their excess. It could be excess car seats (Uber), excess photographs (Unsplash), excess knowledge (Medium, Quora, Newsletters, starting your blog), skill (Upwork, Fiverr), empty rooms (Airbnb), graphic designs (behance, dribbble), and so on. Most of these platforms are built with review systems which verify the trustworthiness of the giving party.
Marketing is no longer about being interruptive but about gaining trust. Connecting first, then building trust.
So, how do you figure out your excess(es)?
Start by Giving First, Give without expectation, Give that excess which you have out freely. It does not have to be perfect, it does not have to be complete.
Think of it, like validating a business idea. You cannot do that by hoarding your idea, you have to go and test it with real users. So giving freely helps you determine if people need what you are giving. This is the opposite of industrial work. A gift is the work of a human that’s personal, original, changes someone else’s life for the better.
In pre-Internet days when you stumble upon an interesting topic in a magazine, it will just be for you, and you could not share it or discuss it, or develop a rapid wider community around it. With the internet now, it is easier to share information: we have in our hands what was only previously accessible to huge corporations and governments.
Furthermore, Trust is the currency in the Connected Economy. You build up this currency by being reliable, generous and consistent, and you spend this currency when those customers/clients will tell of your great works to their friends. As we know, word of mouth is the best form of marketing.
What we have now, is an economy where value is created by connections and value is created when we transact with people we trust. Trust is the glue that holds the connection economy together. Be Generous and Give Gifts.
The internet is the home of the connection economy. What are you going to do with it?
