Mitch Joel’s book, “Six Pixels of Separation” identifies six social needs that entrepreneurs need to appreciate in order to connect with their potential consumers.
The six key points…
The six key points from a Research Brief entitled “Emotional Business Bonding on Social Networks” by Jack Loechner, lists them as follows:
“1. Online social networks provide people with the ultimate tool for defining and redefining themselves, as evidenced in profile pages on Facebook and MySpace.
2. The need for autonomy, recognition, and achievement are essential to our sense of self-worth and are fulfilled in online communities, blogs, and social networks that provide a way to develop and manage a virtual reputation.
3. People have a need to both seek (help from) and provide help to others. Mutual assistance between strangers is a phenomenon that has been uniquely enabled by the Internet.
4. Online communities are becoming the way people find, create and connect with others “just like me” – people who share similar tastes, sensibilities, orientations, or interests.
5. A sense of belonging or affiliation alone is not equivalent to a true sense of community. Achieving a real sense of community requires long-lasting reciprocal relationships and a mutual commitment to the needs of the community as a whole….
6. People want to be reassured of their worth and value, and seek confirmation that what they say and do matters to others and has an impact on the world around them. Meeting all 5 + [1} of these social needs generally requires the level of intimacy and facilitation that are the hallmarks of smaller, invitation only online communities.
These six points do illustrate that we are moving toward a world where online reputation and personal branding are taking hold.
More from Six Pixels of Separation…
The big idea in a world of Six Pixels of Separation is to embrace community as the new currency. Understand and believe that your business and how it is perceived in the marketplace are going to get increasingly complex in the (future). How you are positioned, how people see you, and how you speak back to them are going to be the global validation for your growth.
In a world where we’re all connected, one opinion quickly turns into everyone’s opinion. How you build trust in your brand, your business, and yourself, is going to be an important part of how your business is going to adapt and evolve.”
Social Networks are just fads…
Joel writes that many entrepreneurs consider online channels such as blogs and social networks to be “fads”, and have not paid enough attention to what the net result could mean: more and more people finding and making brand decisions based not on “corporate spin” but on what a mass of individuals have experienced and reported.
Embrace online communities…
Accepting these six key points, it makes sense that entrepreneurs embrace online communities as a platform for consumers to connect emotionally with a given brand, with the ultimate goal of turning such consumers into loyal advocates.
As always, you are invited to comment/contribute to this post to improve this blog.
We all know the saying “it’s a small world”. Well, exactly how small is it? There is a so-called “urban myth” that we are all connected by “six degrees of separation”, which theorizes that:
I know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows you!
Six of one…half a dozen of another…
Six Pixels of Separation…
Well, there I was at the Winnipeg Airport on Friday, (Oct.15, 2010) searching for a resource book about connecting websites to potential customers and a book by Mitch Joel, entitled “Six Pixels of Separation” literally jumped off the shelf into my hand.
In this book, I was introduced to the original “six degrees of separation” theory and I decided to do more research on Google. What I found was absolutely fascinating!!
Six Degrees of Separation…
My Google research led me to a highly acclaimed BBC documentary video “Six Degrees of Separation” which I highly recommend to anyone who is interested how the emerging science of Networking can, and will, affect all aspects of our future, from personal to business.
I invite you to comment back about whether this is as much of an “Aha” discovery for you as it was for me?