I love the first few pages of this book. It tells the story of a Colombian in 2008 who was sitting on the beach with family and friends. They were talking about FARC, a drug-trafficking/regional terrorist organization. FARC had oppressed the entire country for years. What follows is a notable story of how one person engaged millions of others to take on that oppression.
The key word in that story is engagement.
The key word in this whole book is engagement.
That’s why I like it.
I’ve been involved with more than a few web/software startups in the past. So the rest of the book, the colorful events that surround pouring yourself into a new concept, is familiar to me. I’m sure that ride will be what the upcoming Hollywood film will focus on. Taking something from a concept to reality is one of the most challenging and satisfying things a person can do in business. But it’s also very personal. Of course this story is different from any other due to the rocketship market acceptance. The net result is that it’s a killer story for the masses.
Mark Zuckerberg would tell a greater story.
He started Facebook to change the world. And he has. He, and his team, have done that by focusing on one core principle: engagement.
He wants you to enter Facebook and become a lightweight user but that’s not the win. The win is moving you up the ladder of engagement by posting photos, connecting with friends and family, playing some games, etc. The win is stickiness: you spending hours on the site every day. You get value from a site that you’ve never had in your life. Zuckerberg’s done all those things in spades.
If I had to summarize Surfrider Foundation in one word, it would be engagement. That’s what we do. We engage people in coastal conservation efforts.
I see Surfrider in much the same way that I see Facebook; they are platforms… they offer a context FOR that engagement. No, we’re not a technology company…but who cares. What matters is how much we engage a person. Like Facebook, we rely on crowd-sourcing and user-generated content. I’ve used the phrase that more than 95% of our value is because of our volunteer and activist network. How you engage a person is interesting…but not the point. The point is that you are enabling large crowds of people to work together, have fun while doing it…and build value.
Our entire next strategic plan could be distilled to that one word, engagement.
Five years ago we had about 40,000 people connected to our movement. Today we have 300,000+. Those numbers offer only a guide regarding relevancy. The real value is what are those people… doing? What campaigns are they engaged with? How are we moving them up the ladder of engagement?
Good read and, from where I sit, applicable to Surfrider’s future.
Read more from Jim Moriarty on his Ocean, Waves, and Beaches Blog.
