Help Mahalo On LinkedIn? Better Than Helping Landmark On Blog Maverick!
In his Mahalo CEO role, Jason Calacanis is fond of posing questions, business development questions, to LinkedIn members! Mark Cuban also looks for free biz dev advice for his ventures from the “public,” at his personal blog.
Despite having ample resources of their own to procure high-priced, exclusive venture advice in private, savvy and self-motivated Calacanis and Cuban take advantage of the free PR that their Internet celebrity status enables them to garner.
When Cuban announced at his blog “The Movie Business Challenge” in July, billed as an “open job call.” I headlined “Mark Cuban Does the Apprentice, Low Cost Version.” NBC’s “The Apprentice” is billed as “the reality show series in which candidates compete to get hired by famously tough executives Martha Stewart and Donald Trump.” Mark Cuban, at his “blog maverick,” is trying the low-cost, direct route to find new “talent.”
Cuban fans–1160 of them–fell over themselves to pour out their business development hearts, for free, for the profitable advantage of billionaire Cuban:
We already do movie marketing 101. We do buzz marketing. We put up videos all over the net. We set up websites, myspace accounts for the movies and its characters, we work with movie forums, we buy ads, etc, etc, etc. If its been done before, we are doing it.
So if you want a job, and have a great idea on how to market movies in a completely different way. If your idea works for any and all kinds of movies. If it changes the dynamics and the economics of promoting movies, email it or post it. If its new and unique, i want to hear about it. If its a different way of doing the same thing you have seen before, it probably wont get you a job, but feel free to try.
So go for it. Come up with a great idea that i want to use and I will come up with a job for you to make that idea happen. for real.
How real, really though? Cuban subsequently advised that despite 1000 plus words of biz dev wisdom, he learned nothing that he didn’t already know from his legions of free advice peddling fans!
Cuban’s follow-up post to his open call for free biz dev advice, “Wow-The Challenge was accepted…but” puts forth “close, but no Landmark Theatre cigar” style feedback to his 1160 strong free biz dev team:
Shocked and impressed at the response to my Movie Challenge would certainly be understatements…plus hundreds of emails from people who were unable to post to the blog (sorry!)
I’m still going through them but wanted to offer some feedback to those who did, and those who may still want to respond. First, there has not been a “why the heck didn’t i think of that” response. I havent found one that makes me say “Hell Yes, thats the answer”. There were many good ideas, but most of those were beneficial on the margin. Meaning if implemented, they might generate a few more ticket sales, but they would not change the economics of the industry.
BUT, what if Cuban simply took the free public advice, for free! Cuban himself suggests same:
So in a nutshell. No eureka moment … yet. But i love the responses. Certainly quite a few ideas that reinforce the things we are doing at our companies. Certainly some food for thought for things to do in the future. Im not done going through everything yet, so maybe I missed your brilliance, but I promise, if its there, I will read it and when I find it, the job is yours !
Keep the ideas and discussion flowing !
RIGHT, Mark!
Calcanis fans are better off than the “Maverick’s” legions in giving free advice for Mahalo’s success, because they are offering up their professional opinions in a more private, more professional networking space in order to showcase their talents to the business world at large, not merely to Jason, simply for Mahalo’s account.
Calacanis got a “mere” 26 answers to his latest LinkedIn query, “How would you get Mahalo Daily to 250k daily viewers.” Just as the number of LinkedIn “connections” a member may, or may not, have is a superficial view of “power” LinkedIn usage, so is a quantification of interactions.
Trite, but true, quality really does trump quality.
How does Calacanis himself view the worth of free ideas he asks for and gets at Linkedin? A previous Calacanis answer at Linkedin to a member’s question “I can think up an idea on many different subjects. How can I make money or live from my talent?”:
CALACANIS: Ideas are easy to be honest… execution is everything. Every single day I have people pitching me on all kinds of good/great/amazing ideas and frankly it means nothing if there is no one there to execute on them. You should probably do one of three things:
1. blog about other people’s companies and what they should do with them
2. be a consultant… and tell people what to do with their companies
3. become a science fiction writer
IF LinkedIn members’ Mahalo ideas were science fiction worthy, Calacanis wouldn’t come back for more! In the words of Jason: “Mahalo for any feedback!”
MORE: Reid Hoffman On How LinkedIn Beats Facebook for Business, INTERVIEW and Sexist LinkedIn: Hillary Clinton and Gender Politics
PLUS: Paglo CEO ‘Nuts’ Over FREE ‘Google For IT’: INTERVIEW and CED Tech 2007: 30 Cool Startups, But NO Facebook Apps