The Essential Role (C)reating Value Plays In Building Your Platform
Plus, the three components of the Value (C)reation equation.
(C)reating Value...the fundamental, do-not-pass-go, do-not-collect-two-hundred-dollars REQUIREMENT for building a platform. Although it now occurs to me, I haven't yet defined what I mean by "platform." Let's do that first.
What is a "platform" anyway?
It's easy to assume that a platform is simply a number. The sum total of friends you have on Facebook and Twitter, and how many people subscribe to your email newsletter.3 But while the sheer number of followers you have does say something about the potential of your platform, it's not the whole enchilada. To me, a platform could more accurately be described as the number of people who meet all three of the following criteria:
- They know who you are and what you're about,
- like and trust you and the product / service / entertainment you're providing, and
- they can be persuaded by you, in a timely manner, to trade their valuable time, money, and/or attention in exchange for the current incarnation of your core value offering (a book, a seminar, a branded line of fountain pens, whatever).
This is an important distinction beyond merely the number of your Facebook friends or the size of your email list. If you're an author who has a book coming out in six weeks, having 30,000 Twitter followers is only significant if they're following you because they want to pre-order your masterpiece from Amazon the second you tweet the URL.
Put another way, having a platform is about far more than just reach. It's about (R)elationship...
But I'm getting ahead of myself, because this week we're focusing on the (C)reation of Value. And heck, without value to offer, having a platform is about as useful as a Canadian short track speed skating judge is to Apollo Ohno.4
Why (C)reating Value matters
(C)reating Value is an important activity in and of itself, and it should also be a key component in every part of the platform building process.
Why?
Because the amount of Value you (C)reate puts bounds on the size of the number and quality of people who will become (A)ware of you, form (R)elationships and partnerships with you, and who will participate in win/win (E)xchanges with you. The less Value you (C)reate, the less need there is for you to have a platform, as the two diagrams below make clear.
How to (C)reate the most Value
In order to be effective at (C)reating Value and to (C)reate the most value possible, you have to identify and leverage three things:
- your Super-Power
- your Delivery Medium
- your People
How to identify and leverage these components of the Value (C)reation equation will be a post for another day...
Comments
I love how you’re using platform building as part of your platform to build your platform. That’s awesome. I’m tempted to print out your post and circle all of the key platform elements that you’ve managed to encompass so succinctly.
Thanks for the feedback, Jennifer. Just gettin’ started. This week was a slow start, granted, but if I wait until everything is “perfect,” I don’t tend to even try. Looking forward to more comments from you.