#dragonfly effect

Over the summer, i read a book called The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith. In this book, it divided effective social media marketing (SMM) into four “wings”; focus, grab attention, engage, and take action. 

Here are the four principles, EFTO, presented by Aaker & Smith (2010), to enabling others to take action (pg. 139). 

Through the entirety of the book, this last step helps in setting forth with the message. One important part of the message is how you began to ask for support or co-creators. The book provides several examples of asks for help and it’s not always about money.

The first thought i had as i began the book was "Why the Dragonfly and why not the butterfly?" but after just delving into the book, it's clear that the dragonfly is the best fit According to the authors of Dragonfly effect, Aaker & Smith (2010) the "dragonfly travels with speed and directionality only when all four of its wings are moving in harmony", which is the movement that will keep the system airborne (Pg. 9). This chapter goes into detail the historical background of the purpose of this movement or action plan through the Dragonfly Effect model. It began with a story of an individual, named Sameer Bhatia, who had been diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), which is a cancer that begins in the bone marrow and creates a "rapid growth of abnormal white blood cells that interfere with the production of normal blood cells and his' friends journey in creating hope for Sameer as he battled this life threatening sickness (Pg. 2). 

His circle of friends, including his best friend, Robert Chatwani, all came to a consenses that they would all team up in an effort to battle this sickness with Sameer. Being part of the business field they took this on as they would any other business challenge, in order to help find him a donor match. The odds were not in favor of Sameer and due to his ethnic background this also put him at a disadvantage of finding a "mainstream" donor. Aaker & Smith state "the odds of Sameer finding a perfect match were only one in twenty thousands. (A caucasian person has a one-in-fiteen chance.)" (Pg. 3). In India there were no bone marrow registries created or available to seek donors through. This is where Robert and Sameer's friends created a plan together to take on one single goal and that was to increase the number of South Asian donors to twenty thousand in order to find a match for Sameer. 

To start the process they created one single goal and they began working on their mission and story to spread to others, in order to get their word out. Team Sameer utilized the internet to convey the message and to encourage other to participate in donating bone marrow. They helped to organize many bone marrow drives and encouraged others to do the same. At this time they also made connections with others that sought out help for the same exact sickness, creating collaborative efforts on the same mission (Pg. 6).  To start off the main component of the Dragonfly model can be referred to as the acronym Focus + GET. 

Focus: Identify single concrete and measurable goal 

+

G: Grab Attention: Make someone look. Cut through the noise of social media

E: Engage: Engaging is about empowering the audience to care enough to want to do something themselves. 

T: Take Action: Enable and Empower others to take Action 

Each wing has a purpose and is responsible for contributing to the bigger systematic operation of the Dragonfly model. The use of acronyms has been extremely helpful personally for conveying the tools to others in many professional and personal relationships. This usefulness of this book is only beginning to all become more clear as I read on. 

Authors of The Dragonfly Effect talk about their book and how it can create change through social media. 

I read about the Dragonfly effect a year ago in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. It captivated me for some reason and I internalized it. I took it back to KY and told everyone I knew about it. On my trip to KY over the holidays, I met with someone in the Mayor’s office who had heard about it from someone I had told and bought the book. We discussed it a bit but he did not really understand how/why to really apply it.

I say I internalized it because I unconsciously replicated the principles in a form in our plan/model for Startup Idol.

So what is the Dragonfly Effect?

Very basic principles: Find and/or create fanatics, then train, empower and engage them to find, create and empower other fanatics. Ok that is an over simplification.

“The Dragonfly Effect is a guide for how individuals, organizations, and companies can use social media to propel social change.” – dragonflyeffect.com

The following is pulled off their web site and my input on how we applied it to Startup Idol is in [ ]’s. I hope that some of you can use this as a guide to how you may also use them:

 “Why the dragonfly? The dragonfly is the only insect able to propel itself in any direction when its four wings are working in concert. It symbolizes the importance of integrated effect and is akin to the ripple effect—a term used in economics, sociology, and psychology to indicate how small acts can create big change. To us, the Dragonfly Effect shows how synchronized ideas can be used to create rapid transformations through social media.

The method relies on four essential skills, or wings: 1) focus: identify a single concrete and measurable goal; 2) grab attention: cut through the noise of social media with something authentic and memorable; 3) engage: create a personal connection, accessing higher emotions, compassion, empathy, and happiness; and 4) take action: enable and empower others to take action. Throughout this process, we use the tools of design thinking, a creative approach to experimenting with and building up ideas.1 Design thinking meshes with the Dragonfly method because it quickly takes people through a series of steps, starting with empathy and moving to hypothesis creation and then to rapid prototyping and testing.”

Wing 1: Focus. How you identify a single, concrete, measurable goal.

Humanistic. Focus on who you want to help rather than jumping to solutions. Empathize with your audience to develop Points of View (POV): [Startups] need to [gain traction] because [that is how they survive and succeed; it is also the one piece of their puzzle they have been left to their own devices to figure out and obtain].

Actionable. Use tactical micro goals to achieve long-term macro goals. [Does it resonate with Startups and the Startup eco-system? y/n. All of the people I have interviewed or talked to about Startup Idol was an overwhelming yes. You can see some of the discussions in my video blogs here on Agoratek.Tumblr.com.]

Testable. Identify metrics that will inform your actions and help evaluate success. Run low-cost trials to test your assumptions. Set performance metrics to measure progress, and plan how to solicit feedback from your audience before you launch.  Establish deadlines, and celebrate small wins along the way. [We setup a landing page with the Slide Share deck embedded and added the BigDoor.com minibar on Nov 24th. Through the minibar we Tweeted it out to my 21 followers, which hit my 411 Facebook friends and 237 LinkedIn contacts. Since Nov 24th, my LinkedIn grew organically to over 800 and we received over 3000 views on SlideShare.net ]

Clarity. Keep your goals clearly focused to increase your odds of success and generate momentum. Start with the simplest behavior you can change at a low cost. [To obtain some level of traction for all involved]

Happiness. Ensure that your goal is personally meaningful such that the thought of achieving the goal would bring happiness to you and your audience – in some way.[We are a startup and this is built for other startups to gain massive traction. If all of our contestants, whether they make the Starting 64 or not, get traction, we get it at scale = Think Win/Win (Habit 4 for you 7 Habits fans.)]

Wing 2: Grab Attention. How to catch someone’s eye.

It’s like standing in the middle of a busy street, activating your target’s fight-or-flight survival-based neurons. (Think of it as: “Made you look!”)

Personal. Find personal hooks, ranging from physiological to self-actualization needs that can be understood within seconds.[American Idol for Startups designed to get you Traction! If you hate it or love it, you understand American Idol and if you have a product launched, you need traction. I have people from Japan, Italy, China, etc., that are just in Silicon Valley for a few days understand it immediately.] 

Unexpected. People like consuming and then sharing awe-inspiring information. Draw them in by piquing their curiosity. Look to reframe the familiar. [Same as above]

Visceral. Design your campaign so that it triggers senses– sight, sound, hearing and taste. Music is powerful and can often tap underlying emotions. [We used the familiar models of American Idol and NCAA brackets to create a gut feeling of participation excitement.]

Visualize. Show, don’t tell.  Photos and videos speak millions of words. Synthesize your thoughts with quick visuals and show them to your POV for feedback. [Hence the Slide Share Deck going to 3000+ views in a month.]

    Wing 3: Engage Others. How to create a personal connection.

How to create a personal connection, accessing higher emotions, compassion, empathy, happiness. It’s about empowering the audience to care enough to want to do something themselves…and actually do it. (Think of it as forging a connection, deep and real.)

Tell a story. Find compelling, sticky stories to convey critical information.  Remember: less is more.  Stories have arcs. [We accomplished this with the slide deck, plus I am adding to it here.]

Empathize. Build a 2-way relationship with your audience. What really matters to them in your campaign? [We host it, get them in front of accredited investors and link those investors to the Startups Angel List profile and we get them Traction to help them succeed. That is what matters to a Startup – Users, Exposure, Feedback on what is wrong with their baby so they can fix it.]

Authenticity. True passion is contagious. The more authentic you seem, the easier it is to connect with you and your cause.  Build common ground by sharing values and beliefs. [Startups helping Startups – beautiful!]

Match the media. How we say something can be as important as what we say. Align your communication with the right context. [ Hmmm… Startups speak Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, Slide Share, Pitching, and events like SXSW, DEMO, Disrupt, etc…. 'We got this!']

Wing 4: Take Action. Empower others to take action.

Enable and empower others to take action. It’s about creating, deploying, and continuously tweaking tools and programs designed to take audience members from customers to team members, in other words, furthering the cause beyond themselves. (Think of it as enlisting and enabling an army of evangelists.)

Easy. Make it simple as simple as possible for others to act. Prioritize your calls to action. Your campaign is more likely to succeed if people understand what you need and can take immediate action.

Fun. Consider game play, competition, humor, and rewards. Can you make people feel like a kid again?

Tailored. People glom on to programs that they perceive they are uniquely tailored to them – where they are uniquely advantaged to do well and have disproportionate impact.  Here, people feel special and a part of something bigger than themselves.

Open. No one should have to ask you permission to ask.  Provide a frame – your POV and a story – and empower others with accessible tools.

[Army of Evangelists: I like that analogy. We have a little twist because I like to say an Army of Fanatics. Ok, I will admit saying Evangelists is nicer, however, our twist is not a different synonym, it is more profound. We are enlisting an Army that is not fanatical about us, they are fanatical about their Startups. Agora’s Startup Idol is just an exciting new way for them to get to the next level with their Startup after launch. They do not have to shell out money they do not have to get great feedback nor extra traction. They just have to get on and pitch their product. What they should be doing around their local investment community anyway. We just take it online to a wider audience and give them more of a reward then 90% of the pitch competitions around the Silicon Valley do. (A quick note to all of those people putting on the thousands of pitch competitions, which I have done many - give the winners SOMETHING. I dislike the winners just getting the chance to pitch their company in front of X. Hey everyone got that chance. If you are going to call it a “competition,” at least give them a plaque. Jump Start Days does that and I think that is one reason they stand out in my mind and got mentioned here.) 

The second part of the twist is that the Startups need to find and/or create a different level of fanatics, those being the audience. That is a detailed topic I will cover in a different blog post – I have gone over my 140 characters in this one!) ]

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I would like to wrap this up into action items through another business philosophy I like: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. If you have not read it, you should. Habit 1: Be Proactive: [ Get involved! Share this on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Go to AgoraStartupIdol.com and join up and get on the leader board. ] Habit 2: Begin with end in mind. [Our goal is to get at least one Startup over 100,000 users that stick by the end of the event. Sign up with as many cool startups as you feel are worthy and if they are, share them with your friends.] Habit 3: Put First Things First: [Schedule in an hour a week or more to support and help the companies on Startup Idol from 3/26  – 4/23.]

Habit 4: Think Win-Win [ The more you help others on the system the more they will help you and build your network. They may have a relative working at the perfect strategic partner for you and can make that intro.] Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood [ Learn the needs of others so you can help them and position your proposals in their frame of reference so they can feel it with you. Also understand and practice on the system so you can interact more effectively with the community and judges. ] Habit 6: Synergize … Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person [or Startup] could have done alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership. Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw [ Get some sleep and unwind time!]