Linqia Nominated for TechCrunch awards

To our surprise this morning - after receiving an email from one of our partnering social networks SliceThePie - Linqia has been nominated for a TechCrunch award.

It took some time to dig through each of the categories to finally find our nomination. We're thrilled to be in the category The Europas: Best Startup Founder(s) (EMEA).

Please vote for us!

Taking Esther Dyson to The Moon and Back...

As entrepreneurs we do things for different reasons. We're motivated primarily by our own dreams and with that momentum and passion we create a tail wind for others to join. Esther Dyson (pictured on right), an impassioned business angel, has a tremendous tail wind which 1,000's of people have joined. Being extremely humbled natured and unassuming, this lady is a rock star in her own right.

This week, Esther invited me to attend a fabulous NextWomen event organized by Simone Brummelhuis (pictured on left). An avalanche of attendees pounced on Esther as she arrived and sang her high praises thanking her for everything she has contributed to the technology space over the decades - in particular her impact on women in technology.


I would guess that Esther meets at least 20-100 people every day so over 20 years that's a lot of people to remember! Because she has impacted so many of these people when they cross her path it's like meeting a long lost friend. Most of the time Esther has no clue who they are and in a sheepish tone says 'please excuse me but who are you?'.

The first thing that amused me about Esther when we first met on a rainy afternoon in Barcelona back in March 2008 - was that her feet were sore from walking, we were drenched from the spring rain and she gave me approx 25 minutes to inspire her to investing into our company Linqia. With time running thin and no suitable cafe in sight, I whisked her into the foyer of a wanna be 4 star hotel, she placed her backpack to the side of the club lounge and swung her knees over the arms of the chair asking me 'so what are you all about?'. As I shared the purpose and reason why I started Linqia, she took out her camera and started taking photos. It felt awkward but this is how Esther Dyson remembers people and if they have a story to tell she'll anchor it to the photo. Otherwise it's just another face in her flickr stream.

Following the event in London, we again went in search of a place to sit and eat. "I'd prefer to sit somewhere quiet... non of these noisy pubs if we can avoid them". We found a nice Italian restaurant in Covent Gardens. She ordered Tomato soup and I ordered Spinach soup. When both bowls came out she wanted to taste mine and thought it would have been a good idea for the kitchen to mix the two. The green soup drizzled onto her red soup and it kind of looked artistic. These are the little moments you remember when you fondly think about an encounter with someone like Esther. It's not about the hard core business to be done and who can do what for each other. I've come to adore this lady for who she is and can comfortable proclaim that she's the Mother Theresa to entrepreneurs.

Here's my second dream (Linqia's social vision is my first). To enable Esther Dyson to fly to the moon and back.

With the reasonable investment Esther Dyson has entrusted in our company I would like to think that when the moment arrives to return this investment it's enough for a ticket to the moon and back. Esther has just completed a 6 month stint at Star City, Russia now proudly a fully trained cosmonaut. This type of training doesn't come cheap. At US$3 million it's either for the super rich or the hard core enthusiast. For Esther it was the later, driven by her desire to conquer her own reaction to the Russian system and survive it. She likened it to climbing Mount Everst. It was one of the proudest moments in her life to become a certified Cosmonaut.

I asked her - "so when do you fly to the moon?" and she told me it wasn't so simple. She'd need US$40 million to do so. My eyes opened widely and my response "We better speed things up with Linqia then".

Roundtable with 5 UK Social Networks: Monetization, Content & Engagement

Every social network - even Facebook - are experiencing the same challenges. The key questions are 1) how do we monetize our membership base 2) how do we increase engagement 3) how do we attract quality content. If you were to prioritize the three you would focus on attracting quality content which would increase engagement and ultimately lead to monetization.

To date, 53 social networking platforms reaching over 42 million members have registered to the Linqia Marketplace. It's not so easy to register to the Marketplace - certainly not a 1 minute process, and we deliberately kept it this way. If we're to help crack this monetization nut and drive value into social networks we need to understand what they need and how to deliver this value to them. We speak to each social networking platform who registers for at least 30 minutes to an hour. But it's quite not the same as exposing these valuable conversations in real life around a table with a handful of people who are have similar stories and challenges to share.

So we decided to make a step in the right direction and start a series of roundtable inviting social networks to gather and openly discuss with each other. This week we were in London. Almost all social networks we approached enthusiastically accepted our invitation.

1. Katrin Janssen and Clare Rees from Second Life (Linden Labs)
2. Ze'ev Rozov from Sportingo
3. David Langer from GroupSpaces
4. David Courtier-Dutton & Grace Hammond from SliceThePie

Thanks also to Jonathan from VitalFootballUK who I spoke to over the phone and Chris Seth from Piczo & Stardoll for lunch. These guys contributed significantly to the conversation.

Monetization
Social Networks monetize through traditional banner advertising, google adwords, sponsorships, premium membership, premium features, content integrations (music, video, stills & editorial) & virtual goods.

Katrin shared how Second Life generates healthy revenues from selling land and virtual goods - although virtual goods are not where significant profits exist as most of the transaction value is distributed amongst members. Second Life has sold land equivalent to the size of Sweden.

Challenges
CPM rates have dropped significantly - on average to 20-30 cents per 1,000 impressions. Members of social networks generally don't pay attention to advertisements as they are focusing on interacting with other members and building their profiles. Social Networks have shifted their business development attention to attracting high value sponsors and integrating branded campaigns. Big spenders are Disney, Bacardi, Nike, RedBull, Cisco to name a few.

But what about the smaller brands and content producers? Well, the key insight is in the complexity to integrate. Many relationships are handled through expensive account managers where human contact cannot be avoided - the process isn't automated. Whilst times are tough, a Social Network may dedicate resources into an opportunity that's worth €2,000, the larger Social Networks tend to invest into campaigns/ sponsorships worth €50,000+.

And on the other side we have niche Social Networks who are too small for the big brands with the big budgets to pay any attention to them. They miss out on vital funding and potentially compelling content to drive engagement because it's not worth the time for the brands to develop these smaller relationships. The brands want to deal with the bigger Social Networks with millions of members.

Content
We're experiencing a tipping point with 1,000's of developers , brands, agencies and individuals generating compelling content bringing opportunities to monetize directly and indirectly. Whilst content is king - attention rules in the equation. Social Networks are investing heavily into developing their platforms to enable easy, automated content integration as well as establishing relationships with content providers. The types of content which are appealing to various audiences include videos, competitions, games, polls, jobs, offers, virtual goods and music. Product quality content, embed engaging offers or advertising and response rates increase significantly - after all - advertising works where the eye balls stick.

Engagement
Total number of members in a social network mean nothing if the members don't return often or at all. There's probably a good reason why a person has invested the few minutes or more to register to a Social Networking platform - particularily today where there are infinate choices where to hang out on line. In addition to a great usability - user experience is most important and finding ways to entertain and stimulate engagement is a big challenge for social networks. Whilst there's loads of content available, sourcing targeted, appropriate content is difficult. Second Life have attracted a dedicated, passionate group of community gateway leaders who act as a concierge to all new members. The gateways are geographic as well as interest based.

GroupSpaces has a significant upside through building their social networking platform from existing off-line communities who needed an online presence. It's widely known that if you can engage members to meet off-line then the social network is far more valuable.

Conclusions
I was surprised to hear that Social Networks were keen to find ways to cross promote and cross polinate offers. For example, bands on SliceThePie could easily promote their music and events in Second Life.

Looking into the future, syndicating value sources and enabling distribution of user generated content, profiles, friendships, paid content from large and small producers is commonly shared amongst the participants of our roundtable. Social Networks who offer more than a generic social networking experience and focus on their niche - whether it be hosting your second life, being a football enthusiast, a rock band looking for a record deal, a colleague or a teenager developing who they are will continue to thrive.

___________________________

Future roundtables will be held in London at Hub Culture, Barcelona, Madrid & Hamburg. If you are interested in attending please contact us.

Linqia Social Network Marketplace: Release 2

After speaking with over 30 social networks in the last four weeks, we incorporated feedback and released an improved version of Linqia's Social Network Marketplace. Thanks for your valuable comments and suggestions. We're listening and iterating fast!

What's new?

Homepage
Our visitors wanted to see how many social networks had already registered.

You'll now see:

• The number of social networks, reach to members & countries
• A scrolling bar of registered social networks
• A much better login tool
  

We're proud to report that during the last 3 weeks 37 Social Networks (e.g. XING, Ecademy, PinkSofa, Twidox, Sportingo) from 28 countries have signed up to the marketplace. In total they are reaching more than 35 million members.





Usability
Further we've improved the usability of the site:

• For our commercial partners we've integrated a new filtering system to select relevant Social Networks.
• For social networks, all information is captured during their sign-up to ensure we don't miss any important criterias
  

Coming up

• Any visitor will be able to see detailed information of all registered Social Networks
• Improved registration process for Social Networks to better select Countries & Categories
• Featured Commercial Partners in the Social Network's opportunity inbox
• General usability & design
  

Have your say!
If you have any further feedback or comments you would like to share with us, please reach out. We are eager to develop the marketplace according to your needs.

Bold, Courageous & Outright Fun! How P&G Immersed 200 Executives in a Powerful Social Media Experience

They called it 'Digital Night' and the gathering happened Tuesday evening at the Proctor & Gamble headquarters in Geneva. Our primary mission was to raise £25,000 for saving babies from Tetanus under the UNICEF initiave by 2pm the following day using any social media channel or tool. The secondary mission was immerse executives into the digital world.

200 executives flew in from all parts of Europe - England, Germany, Spain, Portugal... along with 50 digital and social media experts from MySpace, Google, WPP, LABEL and a host of other companies we're invited to help with the extravaganza.

Absolutely mind blowing! Bold! Courageous! Incredible experience I've encountered to date.

Here's what happened.

I arrived with my colleague John Horniblow from the LABEL team (see John's blog post) - an agency based out of Geneva after being invited by Filippo Catalano from Proctor & Gamble. To be honest - I thought it was a gala ball so I kind of dressed up in a fancy dress and dusted off my makeup to 'blend' into the crowd. To my surprise it was a bunch of curious and enthusiastic people dressed in suits with laptop in hand and mobile phone in the other.

A pre-briefing session attempted to induct us into what we were about to experience over the next three hours. It was a tad confusing - which I believe was intentional - and promised to be fun and educational. The lights went out, a man with a funny hat appeared on stage with a Brazilian accent and held a technical gadget in his hand beaming it into the crowd. I had to chuckle when it didn't work and he managed to bridge to the next presenter without loosing his spirit.

We were seperated into four teams - each themed with a Pampers product. I followed John into the 'New Baby' room and sat at a table in the back. Our leader explained in greater detail what our next steps where, what the screen behind him represented and what tools we could use. He then prompted the room to start brainstorming how we would approach our mission to raise £25,000.

Wow! We are about to create as much buzz as 250 well connected and creative people can achieve in a little over 2 hours. How exciting!

"why don't we reach out to really rich people we all know!" said one participant..." what about convincing high traffic news sites to feature a link to the campaign" and another "what if we optimize existing sites to drive more traffic to the fund raising site" and "what if we reach influencers on Twitter?" and "how about creating a video and uploading it to YouTube?"....we had so many ideas within 8 minutes.

The leader was smart. He threw suggestions back to the room and asked how we should go about executing on our ideas. But first he said "we have to put our money where our mouth is... start by making a donation yourself"

Our strategy entailed each table to work on the following:

1. The big fish - reaching rich people
2. The influencers - reaching influencial people via Twitter and Facebook
3. Content creators - creating blogs, groups, videos and themes
4. SEO - optimizing existing sites
5. Media buyers - approaching high traffic websites to feature our links

And so we started.

The lady sitting next to met didn't know what Twitter was and had a Facebook account although wasn't very active boasting 15 friends. I suggested she download the Facebook application for justgiving.org - which was the hosting platform for donations, and invite her friends to participate. She also identified a number of groups relating to the topic of Tetanus and asked the group admins to spread the word.

I ran a little experiment myself. My idea was to use SocialToo to send a message to each of my Twitter followers and inspire them to RT the key message + link. My only challenge was - I didn't bring my laptop and didn't have my password! Rats! So my second idea was to reach out to the most influential people in my Twitter community and send them a message directly. This worked! Big time! 7 out of 10 requests Retweeted my post and many more retweeted their posts representing exposure to over 100,000 people. Thanks to each of you! You're true champions.


Every time something exciting happened, the leader announced it to the team.

"We just scored 100 million page impressions... take a look! we're on the T-mobile and Bilt sites in Germany!"

"Prominent tech blogger @mikebutcher tweets!"

"Salma Hayek just donated £500 pounds!"

"Join the group we just created on Facebook"

"Tweet about the blog we just created"

"Vote on the video we just uploaded to YouTube"

and so on....

Everybody was awe inspired, excited, tapping away at their keyboards, calling friends. One P&G executive received 4 emails from other participants asking him to donate money! One colleague was giving away tickets to the Blue Man Show for the person who donated the most money from his network.

By the end of the evening we had raised £2,650 and collectively with the other teams over £10,000. We created so much buzz appearing on the Twitter Trend Topics.

To sum up the evening, the key takeaways were:

1. Create a social media event within your company to raise awareness and a real life experience around social media
2. Incorporate a powerful story or drawcard that gives people a reason to spread the message
3. Provide some basic guidelines around do's and don'ts so participants don't go completely crazy
4. Invite experts to participate and help those who have little experience around the tools they could use
5. Offer real time reporting about the progress of the event, what people are doing that's working & celebrating success
   

You'll notice that one of my followers responded with a slightly negative comment:

Soph@mariasipka sad world. P&G gets more publicity by not pay 25k by themself, instead they make a social media campaign and let others pay.

My response to Soph:

@Soph It's actually a fascinating initiative to educate P&G execs about giving up control & adopting sound social media practices. Amazing!

This is perfectly OK! Everybody has their own opinion and you'll never have everybody on the same page.

Collaborative Communities at Next09

Our team attended the Next09 conference in Hamburg this week and rate this event as amongst the best in Europe. With over 1,300 participants, 100+ speakers and moderators and a host of innovative sponsors and partners, the event exceeded our expectations.

We were invited to present to a group of more than 200 people on the topic of 'Collaborative Communities' focusing on the role of an online community within the sales process/ cycle of a company. One of Linqia's key missions is to increase the % of vibrant, active and engaging online communities drawing on the wealth of knowledge and experience our team has accumulated over many years.

Collaborative Communities by Maria Sipka

View more presentations from mariasipka.

Following the presentation, feedback and comments again proved that companies are still in the early days of exploring the possibility of integrating social media and online communities. There's uncertainty around where to start, what type of resources are needed internally and externally, the cost to setup and manage, which technologies to use and how to deal with the level of transparency the web has lead people to expect.

We were thrilled to meet so many wonderful people and companies including Petra Vorsteher from Smaato, Lars Burk from Tesa, Jeff Jarvis author of What Would Google Do, Erik Hauth from Wer-Weiss-Was, Tim Leberecht from Frog Design, Philippe Wyssen from Red Bull AirRace, Jurgen Ahting from Wer Liefert Was, Judith Andresen from Sinnerschrader, Nicole Simon for organzing a sell out Girl Geek Dinner, Thomas Stehle from Gutscheine, Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK and being the first to officially blog about our fund raising success at Linqia, Endru Tedjasukmana from Universal McCann , Henriette Weber from Toothless Tiger, Johannes Haus and Jackson Bond from the XING team, Chris Messina and Florian Wilken from Blog.de.

The Social Network Marketplace Beta is Live

In addition to securing our second round of finance early April, the Linqia Marketplace has launched in Beta. To date, 28 Social Networks have registered reaching 31,013,411 people globally.

The Linqia Marketplace connects commercial partners to Social Networks. Linqia's Marketplace acts as a supporting business development arm for key decision makers (CEO, Business Development, Key Account) at Social Networks.

Offerings from Commercial Partners could include:

• Sponsorship
• Content (Videos, Photographs, Editorial)
• Merchandise
• Market research
• Applications
• Advertising and much more!

Key decision makers at Social Networks are invited to register for free to the Linqia Marketplace and specify what type of offerings they are interested in receiving. Commercial Partners select relevant Social Networks, create an offer and send their messages to key decision makers via the Marketplace.

Whilst Social Networks are invited to register for free, selected Commercial Partners pay a small fee to send their messages to selected Social Networks - paying only for response. Over the next six months, Linqia will work with qualified Commercial Partners to present their high value opportunities to Social Networks.

Today, there exists over 2,000 Social Networks and Commercial Partners have limited ways of finding, identifying and presenting their offerings to Social Networks. Furthermore, the process of searching, filtering and contacting the key decision maker takes considerable time with low responses. Simultaneously, Social Networks experience challenges in sourcing relevant and high value offerings from Commercial Partners to enable them to increase engagement from their members which inevitably leads to monetization and growth.

If you are a key decision maker at a Social Network register here.

If you are a commercial partner who would like to participate in our pilot, please contact us or register your profile at the Linqia Marketplace.

For general information or inquiries, contact us or visit the Linqia Marketplace.