by JimRaffel on February 15, 2011
Recently, a partner and I were trying to decide which screen casting product to purchase for a community we are building. We both knew of ScreenFlow and Camtasia, but needed to decide which to review and ultimately purchase. I remembered a conversation thread in Third Tribe Marketing (affiliate link) about this subject. So, Google or Third Tribe was the question in my mind.
Third Tribe Marketing is worth the cost.
I logged in to Third Tribe Marketing, entered “screen casting” in the search box and bam! – a list of threads to research. In less than 10 minutes, I had the answers I needed. Best of all, I didn’t feel the need to research the credibility of the folks making the comments and recommendations. I already had a high degree of trust of the views and opinions expressed in the community.
What about using Google to do the research? Well, I tried that. There are plenty of results to search through, but many are just sites trying to sell or cash in on the affiliate relationship with the two companies. The irony of that statement based upon the topic of this post is not lost on me. The reality is that I achieved the same result but it took an hour to really trust the results. The value of 50 minutes of my time far exceeds the cost of my monthly Third Tribe subscription.
Beyond research communities are idea factories
Communities like Third Tribe Marketing and Kitchen Table Companies (not an affiliate link – I just love these guys) are great places to do research because the forums are loaded with great ideas, thoughts and commentary from bunches of smart folks. That, however, is just part of the equation. Some of my best ideas (like the one to build communities around our color verification solution) have come from community forums.
Need a new tag line for you business? I did and, with the help of my fellow Third Tribe members, developed “Verified Color. Everytime, Everywhere.” In a way, I guess I crowd-sourced that tag line because at least a dozen different folks commented on the thread over the couple weeks I took to get it right. That tag line is worth more than my total Third Tribe investment over the last year.
After a year as a member, I am even more inclined to recommend you take a look at communities like Third Tribe Marketing. I truly doubt you will be disappointed if you put the time and effort into participating in the forums.
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by JimRaffel on August 2, 2010
I’ve got this friend named Twitter, she’s pretty much awesome. Even awesome friends push you away sometimes. It’s OK, she’s in my inner circle of friends and in no time we’ll be best buds, hanging out together again.
While Twitter and I “take a break” I’ve got this other friend LinkedIn. Oh my gosh he is the be all and end all for connecting me with the folks I do (and want to do) business with. This whole time Twitter and I have been figuring out we needed a break, LinkedIn has been whispering in my ear about all the great stuff he and I can do together. Turns out he’s one smart dude and now that he’s in my inner circle, we’ll be spending more time together.
Then, there’s my bi-polar friend Facebook I can’t decide if I love her hate her on any given day. She connects me with friends I have not seen or heard from in a long time. She even shows me pictures of them and their children. So, she helps me keep track of friends from the past – pretty cool really. Well, it would be but some of them play Mafia Wars and never was a more annoying “game” ever invented. Yes, yes I know how to block and filter the parts of Facebook’s personality I don’t care for and I do. The real problem is she frequently changes the terms of our relationship and it all feels very one sided. I’m not so sure she’s in my inner circle of friends.
Finally, there is my therapist and business advisor. His name is Third Tribe Marketing. I pay him to be my friend and I’m OK with that. I sure don’t visit my Doctor seeking advice on my health for free so why should sound business advice and ideation be any different? When Twitter pushed me away I went and spent some time conversing with Third Tribe. He runs a lot of group therapy sessions so I was actually conversing with other people just like me that had come to see Third Tribe(affiliate link) for similar reasons. Sometimes I’m helping them and sometimes they are helping me. Sounds pretty win-win doesn’t it? Third Tribe Marketing is at the center of my inner circle of friends.
I’ve gone back to Twitter but if you follow me there you will see my activity is far below what it was for a while. I’m finding the two way benefit to be more apparent in Third Tribe and on LinkedIn. For me Twitter is fun to hang out with if I am looking for the next networking meetup or want to see what kind of information(links) my friends are sharing. Trending topics become clear pretty quickly with Twitter as well.
Any feelings about my “friends” you’d like to share in the comments?
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