

Ask HN: Would businesses pay to identify "Connector" or "Maven" users? - deepkut

At our startup, we've developed an algorithm that analyzes your Facebook friends and the connections between them to determine your fraternity and sorority. We find groups of friends in which everyone is friends with everyone. The algorithm runs in less than a second for ~1000 friends.<p>We've seen tremendous success, one sorority girl will sign up and the algorithm will accurately list ~150+ girls in her sorority given just her friend data.<p>Though we're now considering a pivot to offer a B2B service in which we'd identify "Connector" or "Maven" users. Connectors/Mavens are the special types of users that help spread the word for your product and the users you want to provide special attention to, e.g. customer service, special offers, etc.<p>We'd also help you identify the key people to invite to your site. So if John is friends with a Connector, we provide you the code to put on your site to invite this Connector.<p>---&#62; The burning question:<p>Would businesses want this? Would they be willing to pay? Is this a clever application of a powerful algorithm?<p>Our algorithms run in real time essentially so we're convinced we're opening some new doors. I apologize for being intentionally vague :)
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playeren
I've been pondering a probably similar concept since the fb graph became
accessible. These are my thoughts on this matter:

Yes, it is potentially worth a lot to businesses. But not by itself. Think of
all the cool things a company could do with this information - those are the
things you should be providing to the company. Otherwise you're limiting
yourselves to businesses that both have the vision to see the potential AND
have the available resources to implement it into their workflow.

If you aim for the marketing potential in identifying connectors/mavens, you
should add a layer of services that help businesses to communicate effectively
with those individuals, and track how the message spreads through the network.

If you aim for the customer service aspect, you should add a layer that helps
connect your information with their CRM systems.

Or you could find strategic partners in those fields, and enable them to
integrate your services in their existing product portfolio.

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deepkut
Could you elaborate on:

"Otherwise you're limiting yourselves to businesses that both have the vision
to see the potential AND have the available resources to implement it into
their workflow."

I don't quite follow what you mean.

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playeren
Sorry, it's late here :)

It's the difference between selling 16 oz. tubs of Paracetamol, and packaged
Tylenol pills.

Both gives you access to pain-relief, but Tylenol is a product, whereas
Paracetamol is a chemical.

The savvy buyer will recognize the benefits of buying a tub of Paracetamol;
very low price & high flexibility. But Tylenol will always outsell it due to
convenience and packaging.

I'm just saying it's better for you to sell Tylenol.

*edit: Ok, I just realized I didn't really answer your question. My point with that specific sentence, was that you're raising the bar for customers, unless you provide something that instantly enables them to benefit from your algorithm.

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deepkut
So does that mean we should focus on convenience and usability? :)

Thanks for the response by the way!

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playeren
Haha, yeah - and make it good, too! ;)

It just wasn't clear from your description if you're "just" providing the
information, or actually enabling the businesses to make use of the
information.

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deepkut
Well, can't they make use of the information once they know who the connectors
are? We can offer deals or special customer service to these users, but we can
encourage others to!

One thing we could do is provide "invite code" that a company can put on their
website to encourage their users to invite these people.

~~~
playeren
Of course they can - and they should! But if you contact 100 companies, 99
will think it's an amazing idea, but only 10 will actually know what to do
with the connectors. Those 10 are the only viable leads out of 99 positive
responses, because the rest doesn't have a clear road map in mind when it
comes to closing the deal.

I'm not saying businesses are stupid, but they haven't spent as much time
thinking about the value and opportunities a connector represents - as you
obviously have. And that becomes a barrier in front of closing the deal. After
the initial positive response, they need to think through all the good and bad
ways they can use the connectors, and then plan it, assign resources - and
only then are they ready to use your product.

I strongly urge you to sit down and in detail define "What is the absolute
smartest thing a business can do with our information", and then see how you
can provide THAT as a service to businesses. Maybe in a partnership with a
company that specializes in delivering products and services based on the
social graph.

If I seem adamant about making my point, it is because I have a failed start-
up on my resume due to a failure of recognizing this fact in due time. It was
a B2B product, that provided the exact same results as the main players in the
marketplace, but smarter, faster and way more cost-efficient. My service could
deliver in 3 days, what the main competitors did in 3 weeks, and at half the
cost. But I couldn't seem to penetrate the market - and I was absolutely sure
it was a marketing issue - and kept pouring money into new and arguably better
ways of marketing the service, with only limited betterment as a result. In
the end it turned out to be a product issue, and I had spent all my money on
re-inventing marketing at that point (self-funded). My hubris was "It's self-
evident that my way of doing things is better than what you're doing now. You
should do it my way!". And it was an easy hubris to fall into - all the smart
people in the business I talked to, agreed that my product was "amazing" and
"the new and better way to do things", but those responses come from a
different context than closing a deal. I expected businesses to make a very
small change in their way of doing things, in return for a much faster, better
and cost-efficient product. I should have understood that it is my task to
make a product that fits into their way of business.

Sorry about the rant :) I paid a shitload of money to learn this one lesson,
so it hits a few buttons when it comes up.

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deepkut
Wow, thanks for the advice. I would love to chat with you if you have the
chance.

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anamax
> At our startup, we've developed an algorithm that analyzes your Facebook
> friends and the connections between them to determine your fraternity and
> sorority.

Great!

Then again, I don't belong to a fraternity or a sorority.

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deepkut
Well, I don't think you gave this a fair read.

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anamax
It's their lede, so if it's wrong....

Identifying folks with interesting link patterns is nice, but the question is
whether those link patterns are valuable. Yes, connectors may have those link
patterns, but that doesn't tell us that folks with those link patterns are
connectors, let alone what and who can do something with that information.

For example, the most obvious candidate for "connector" in my facebook list is
a woman who is obsessed with autism. What value is that? Or rather, who can
take advantage of that?

This is related to the "what kind of connectors?" question. I'd imagine that
connectors found on linkedin are different from connectors found on facebook
in terms of what biz want to find them.

BTW - this is particularly important wrt mavens. I won't consult a car maven
on some other subject.

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AznHisoka
Isn't this what Klout is all about?

