The Psychology of ‘Free’ on Google Plus

This is an article that explores the perception we have of ‘value’ and ultimately why giving is the smart move to make in business. It also may offer some explanations why there is been SO much giving on Google+ – it is a great opportunity to build a community, and free may well be essential to build trust. Introduction When I was young I remember being told that if something was ‘free’ it probably wasn’t worth much. The idea being that if something is free then why the heck not charge for it? There is going to be some truth to that, but very often it is when either their is an abundance (like air) or a person cannot see the value in something, or cannot do anything this ‘it’ themselves so they give it away without any intent. I recall a formative business moment with my father when he took me on a Sunday drive and he said “you need to see what other people haven’t.” I may be paraphrasing it but I recall the context very well. He had had someone dump a load of old, empty beer barrels on his land (he was a farmer) and told me the person dumping them simply didn’t know the value (something like £25 (about $35) a barrel at the time – yes, I actually recall it that well!). So, what is the point? Well, whether something has value is based on the perception you have about a thing, and it is not inherently within it. We see this in the gold market where a metal has become precious as there is a limited amount of it and considering it to be finite we can then attribute value based on what people are willing to pay (i.e. supply is limited and demand will therefore determine price). Obvious? Simple? Sure, but back to the example of the beer barrels, if someone a) doesn’t know or b) doesn’t have access to a network that would enable that sale to happen then the barrels won’t get sold on. At that time it was highly likely that the beer barrels were stolen, and then dumped as the person may well have know their value but was unable to ‘pass them on’ (the legal term for the illegal activity). Why? Because the only people who would buy 20 beer barrels were the people supplying the beer i.e. the brewers themselves, and they would not buy back stolen barrels from the thief or his mates. (I am certain some people will have faked the dumping and cut a deal with a landowner to ‘receive the reward’ etc, but we will leave that on.) What has this got to do with the value of free? Do you appreciate it when someone gives you a gift? Probably you would say ‘yes’. Well, that is ‘free’ isn’t it? i.e. it is free from a direct exchange of money. If you were given a new car, phone, or shirt you probably will have some unconscious association with a relative worth of that item. And yes, it would be lovely to have the gift of a new car with no strings attached! But there we have it, the strings. The invisible strings of the ‘free economy’ – if you are given a gift in any way it sets up an “temporary imbalance in the relationship”. These temporary imbalances even manifest as rewards when companies put in place systems e.g. to allow for a person/landowner to receive a sum of £25/$40 a barrel in the event someone dumps them on his land. Even though you got the barrels for free, they are worth something to the owner – free then becomes value. When you give something for free to members of a community you build relationships. Without ‘free’ they cannot taste the goods you have as they don’t yet trust you enough to try them out at a price, especially if there are alternatives available. Internet Marketers have known this for a long time and will give access to some content for ‘free’ and the you have the option to purchase the full monty. But I believe the online world is changing and people in Google+ are leading the way in encouraging the emergence of a new culture that is much more about community than ever before (Internet Marketing tends to be much more transactional than relational, in my view). Chatting with David Amerland about this, and in relation to the free content on the PYB site, he said “free raises the bar for everyone”. This is quite a profound statement – it means that is there is access to enough good quality food for everyone in one restaurant then why would you choose to eat somewhere where you have to pay? So, what happens, more and more people set up their own restaurants but also start to give the main courses for free. If however a person wants something ‘special’ that requires more time and attention, then of course they will then be happy to pay for that bespoke ‘meal’. This is a great way to get a virtual restaurant established – if you had try to charge then people would simply look for ‘free’ elsewhere as the trust, the flavour of that ‘free’ had not yet been tasted. But once many people have enjoyed meal after meal, touchpoint after touchpoint, they are part of that community. So, when does free turn into paid? Well, all along the way there is the potential for ‘paid’, especially when looking at consultancy, coaching, training etc. It would not be very wise however to pull the old switcheroo and try and ‘turn the tables’ on them… But there we have it, they are in your restaurant and at a table. And you as a business are serving them. You may we serving them for free, but when the time comes for a desert and coffee many people will look at the menu and because you are there, and they like you and they respect you and they love your restaurant and the people they have around them, they order. Yes, they buy something from you. Just like why people have cheese and wine at book launches, people are guilted a little into buying a bookfrom you. Yes, I said guilted – it is because the temporary imbalance of them taking all the free food needs to be resolved within them and the way to do this is to buy something. So how does this imbalance become balanced once more? There are two people who I listen to very carefully, the first being Guy Kawasaki. When I interviewed him in January 2013 he said openly that he gives people great content all year and then when e.g. he brings out a book people kind of feel obligated they should buy it i.e. cheese and wine leading to a book sale. For a long time I have been missing a word when I say a statement re: activities on Google+ – ‘Make it about them’. But it was Chris Brogan who gave me the elusive word I had been missing all along ‘Make it about the community’. Chris sees that it is fine to sell to people in the community. And if people love the food you dish up then they will happily pay for it. I think on Google+ the community ‘gives you Search’ and you don’t even have to consider selling to it directly. See here for more on that. Applying this to Google+ There has been a culture of free for a long time on Google+, and this has been essential to (as David Amerland says) raise the bar from the old way of being. Free enables a relationship to begin, a community to engage freely without concerns that they will get a bill. And they never will get a bill but they will ‘feel’ something and want to do something about it. So, there are two ways here: 1. You create a product and you charge people from within the community. This is very much as Ronnie Bincer has done with his Hangout Mastery community. If you create a product for your community and you charge for it, Assuming it is the kind of deal people want, the type of tasty course they would enjoy, then people will tend to buy it. But what happens if someone else then decides to offer the same kind of thing for free for which you are now charging? Well, here is the thing, it is not only about the product, it is about the relationship you have with the person who has created it. That relationship has tens or more likely hundreds of touchpoints – +1s, comments, shares, emails, hangouts, texts, real life meetings etc – and for you not to want to continue to eat at the restaurant would simply feel odd to you. Loyalty manifests in behaviour. And the other way… 2. Keep ‘giving’ and enable the community to love what you do SO MUCH that they will amplify your message, reaching outwards beyond the confines of the community. Word of mouth and its modern equivalents, enables message to spread i.e. other people do your marketing for you. So, people not only want to eat in your restaurant but will encourage others too. Free works. Free can enable trust, and from trust your reputation can turn you into a authority. There is a problem, however as one of the issues with everything being ‘free’ all the time is that new people coming into Google+ cannot believe their luck, and in fact, don’t believe it and think it is too good to be true. Instead they will end up paying for a less beneficial alternative as only a madmen or fools would give so much away for free. What then is my approach? Give, give so much that people start to wonder if your are mentally unwell! For those people who are ‘scouts’ (like me) our self appointed role is to access and interpret new information and then communicate it back to the tribe in a way that makes it easy to understand and assimilate. But maybe I don’t ‘tell everything’….(shock! horror!) Someone recently approached me saying that they believed I had been” holding back” on the lil guy, and the truth is this: After hundreds of videos, articles, courses, GifTips, and interviews I really have answered every question I’ve been asked about how I think and approach Google+. If you check out the Plus Your Business site, there is a whole area with content for free for business as well. (relaunching later this week). I do, however, have many other presentations, spreadsheets and information that I use when working with clients. My philosophy is this: I will give the information on everything that any individual needs to know for free. I will also do my best to reply to any comment or email without any consideration of charging for the information, or my view on this. I do believe, however, that after that exchange, if the person is either a business or someone who will make money from it e.g. consulting using the information, then it is only fair to charge. The same applies if this information is packaged into a product that will help more people ‘up their game’ too. But even then, ‘free’ may well be the way to go for your nearest and dearest, as doing the right thing by the community is the priority. Conclusion We can all see ‘things’ are changing on Google+ – it is growing up. There are new pockets of culture emerging, and the adventurers ways of the earlier pioneering days are not known to the people who are now arriving. There is a great opportunity, however, to take ‘free’ up a level of two and that is what will happen next. Everything has its time and with my own content I will be sharing ‘free’ in a new way very soon – I am hoping it will make life a lot easy for people learning and developing their skills on Google+ too.

Hiding your Google+ circles from others

An easy guide to hide your circles on Google+ and improve your privacy – restrict others from looking into your Google+ circles with this small tweak.

Hiding your lists on social networks is one of the basic things you should do for privacy concerns. Google+ doesn’t provide you with lists – unlike Facebook’s friend list, you have circles there, but those can also be set to hidden to improve your Google+ profile privacy.

How can others see my Google+ circles?

Google+, by default, sets your circles visibility to public on your profile page, and therefore, everyone who visits your profile may see the people added you and added by you. If you’re not wanting others to look at your circles, this short guide will show you how to tweak your Google+ circles visibility and make them private.

Starting off, navigate to the about section in your Google+ profile and look for the People box. Just click the Edit link at the bottom of this box.

It will bring up an settings dialog where you can set the visibility of your circles. Uncheck the checkbox options below In your circles and Have you in circles respectively, if you want nobody to see your circles. Or you may show your all or specific circles to the only people who are in your circles by using the Who can see this? option.

Save the changes by clicking the Save button and that’s it! You’ve successfully hid your circles from others. Hope you enjoyed this tut, you may join us at Google+.

Surfing the waves of Google Plus

Whether you are an ocean lover, a surfer or even just enjoy splashing about on Google+ then this is a post for you.

Introduction

We’ve all seen picture and videos of surfers, getting ‘curled’ by a wave and many of us have thought ‘wow’ that looks cool!

When you learn to surf, however, you begin on the shore, with the board on the sand. You learn, well pretend really, how to paddle and you learn to ‘pop’ up onto your feet and surf your first imaginary wave.

And guess what? You are AWESOME, you are a natural. Then you go into the water. And you realise that the paddling on the shore was a lot easier, with much less friction; there were no other people getting in your way, and those darn waves didn’t push you back to the shore when you were attempting to move forward. If you are lucky and conditions are ‘right’ you may catch a wave on your belly, and even stand up for a few seconds as the white water pushes you back towards land. Very often though, it is a real battle for many people. Whichever way, this is your first day of surfing.

Then there is a choice:

The question then is “do you give up?” or go and get your feet wet again. Many will stay land lovers, but for a few they intuit ‘there is something in it’ for them. This where the hard work starts; this is when you begin to push yourself, taking tumbles, stumbling when stand up, paddling harder, getting ‘mashed’. This is pre-surfing. After a while though, something changes – no longer do you simply take the waves already broken, but instead you learn to ‘drop in’ to the wave and surf the glassy surface of the wave’s face. And at that moment, but not before, you are a surfer. And you get it for the first time – this is surfing. Not at all like the splashing about you used to do, not catching a wave on your belly, but the feeling that the wave’s face and your board are inexplicably one experience in that moment. It is inevitably impermanent, and you feel alive and present.

Getting used to the experience

After a while, you get better at ducking under the waves and padding ‘out the back’.

When you are preparing to catch a wave you are looking along the line, trying to spot where the wave is forming, and paddling just a little left and a little right to get yourself best positioned. You could paddle to the other end of the beach, but you usually spot the section of the break earlier and only move if your judgement was off or the peak simply is no longer forming there. To an outsider, they may look at a surfer and think it is all about ‘balance’ but it is not just about balance as surfing requires considerable engagement with the waves, not just countering movement with a counter movement. Instead of meeting the force of the wave, one feels the wave as a force integral to the experience not as something one has to ‘oppose’ or ‘beat’. And over time, as you can see, a surfer will learn about the waves as much as they will about their body and the way their influence the board through their weighting and positioning.

Understanding the environment

Surfing is not just about you though. A large part of surfing is looking from the shoreline and making your best guess where the waves will form.

As you see the existing sets of waves come through – they tend to forming in patterns of 5 or 6 at a time (I looked into it and no on really knows why this happens, but just as the ocean breathes in and out on 6 hour cycles called the tides, it is as if the patterns of sets are some other rhythm to which the sea abides (did you just hear a pirate? I was thinking that kind of a voice). These ‘sets’ of waves inform you of the ocean’s patterns, and in turn once you’ve learned a little more you kind of know what to expect and where to expect it. Sometimes the waves will form in the central part of a beach, and sometimes the break will emerge left or hand. And once in a while, you get lucky; you are in the right place at the right time to have wave’s lip curl above you and with the wall of water to your side, you get ‘tubed’. An incredible feeling as the sound around you makes it feel you are in a cave.

It isn’t always easy…

When things ‘go wrong’ you have the opportunity to read the future, the way the wave is emerging as it breaks, and adjust your body and transfer that adjustment to the soles of your feet at the point where they make contact with the board. You, the board and the wave do the dance together. Sometimes, you may even take a tumble when you do ‘get it wrong’; other times you can make it over the lip of the wave and prevent taking a tumble to the depths where you know you will be ‘waiting for the light’ until you re-emerge on the surface, breathless and often unprepared for the next wave coming your way. After a few decent tumbles, some may say you learn to surf better.

Sharing the experience

If the surf is good you are rarely alone on the breaks. You have new friends, or good friends, with whom to paddle about, but ultimately the paddling and the surfing are your own personal experience and even if you catch the same wave, you are still surfing it in your own way. At any point you can step out and rest up on the shore.

Surfing the waves of Google+

Some days it just ‘works’ on Google+ too. You make send out posts that just seem to fly, you make make great connections, you have fun, and all in all life is great. Other days you lose your footing and you take a tumble. Whichever way, you gain experience; as you try different challenges, pushing your capabilities to the limit, there will be ‘changes’ to how you feel as some degree of re-organization (with a ‘z’ for my US friends) is what needs to occur when higher orders of complexity are experienced. The internal self-structure will also be restructuring during the process. When you can stop feeling ‘all at sea’ and start surfing the waves, life becomes a lot more enjoyable in this ongoing learning experience called the Plus. I use this surfing analogy all the time, even when getting ready to run a campaign on Google+ you are watching the surface of the water to sense the environment. You are getting your board waxed and at the ready, you are seeing whether anything will get in the way and prevent you having a chance to surf the waves; and then, during the whole process you take the opportunity, using every hashtag and trend, every meme, every news story, and many connections and relationships to enable the information to flow. The waves arise with the activity and the more your ‘carve your bottom turns’, the more you play with the face of the wave. Finally, at the end of the day you bring yourself back to the shore and reflect on how the campaign went, with the warm glow of knowing you did your best.

The Psychology of ‘Adapting to Change’ on Google Plus

When the platform changes, many of us go through a process of thinking “nooooo, why do they keep changing stuff!” etc.

We tend to like status quo, whilst knowing change is inevitable.

But what happens when this changes ‘happens to us’? How do we shift our internal models of what was was, to was it now? Well, I have had the good fortune of watching what happens for me so thought I would share it.

Introduction

My experience of Google+ could be summarised as a constant learning curve. Some changes leading to a totally new versions how I ‘see’ Google+ in my head, whilst others tend to be subtle adjustments of the processs at play e.g. how a +1 can lead to people seeing posts in their streams (where it was more passive earlier).

During the early part of the summer many of us know how Google+ was transformed – now with ‘cards’ that ‘flip’ and pages that are far more dynamic. Let’s face it, it is very pretty and functional too.

But do you remember how it looked beforehand? I am getting the answer is ‘no’, and even if you can recall it will be hard work to patch it back together. And what about the process of change…do you think about it as a cyclical process?

Freeze, unfreeze and refreeze

I was recently discussing this with the very forward thinking social fellow Paul Simbeck-Hampson as a way of preparing people for a change occurring within an organisation. There are several models of change out there but one way to think about is loosely applying Lewin’s 3-stage model. 

It is frozen and you know ‘where things are’
It unfreezes and many things that were in place are not lost, but there is learning occuring
It refreezes whereby integration has occurred and the change process/cycle is completed

Below I have taken this model and applied it to my own experience of internal changes to thoughts as they are ‘forgotten’ and ‘rebuilt.

Stage 1 – Frozen.

Applying this to how we create the internal model of the platform.
In essence, through experience and learning, we have thoughts we have ‘in our head’ – largely visual, with some auditory overlay i.e. the neurology is laid down.

These thoughts, when we recall them, create an internal map that represents the platform.
Depending upon the person, there is a mapping between the thoughts and the actual platform, with varying degrees of accuracy in the recall.
These thoughts can then be altered (meaning in this context ‘come and go’), one by one, or chained, whereby a person moves from ‘screen to screen’, or step-by-step as they mentally ‘click a button’, mouseover, drop in a file to a post etc.
This gives us the ability to ‘know the place’ and be able to navigate it in our minds.

Stage 2 – Unfreeze (during the change)

We will often find ourselves in a state of confusion when things ‘change’.
But how does this happen?
Well, it is likely the thoughts relating to ‘knowing the platform’ become ‘weaker’, often with a physical association of ‘discomfort’ or uncertainty.The images are no longer as clear, as bright, lacking depth etc.One is no longer able to accurately ‘map’ where the buttons will lead when you click them, a mouseover no longer does the same thing, you get ‘lost’

Stage 3 – Re-freeze

Once, through practice, the new task has been learned (as effectively every click, mouseover, drop of a file etc is a task) you return to a state of ‘knowing’ once more. But not until you have grasped this new territory and mapped it accordingly. When this happens…

The thoughts return more consistent density in terms of clarity of the content
You can, for example, perceive detils better than in the previous stage – you think of a screen on Google Plus, e.g. the box for making ‘posts’ and the icons are clear to you
The ‘content’ (e.g. where the icons are on the Page) is now the ‘new way’ and the stability of the object i.e. the thought is now formed
You are able to move through sequences of tasks far easier and you ‘know where you are’ i.e. the actions are coming from a more clear internal model – the patterns are now laid down.

Conclusion

Knowing this to be one way to describe the natural cycle of change, it makes it easier to relax during the unfreeze process, where many people feel all at sea. It is during this stage of the process that community support really helps, as well as access to reassuring and straightforward materials that enable any changes to be understood in the easiest possible manner. With numerous educators in the Plus – alongside Google themselves – they reduce too much discomfort and provide clear explanations of ‘what is going on’ and what it means.
Changes will not stop happening, and if anything it is going to speed up considerably. We all know this, but often we want ‘frozen’ to stay forever as it is comfortable. Instead it may well be easiest to flow down stream when system changes come, getting to a point where the flow itself is enjoyable as it enables new learning and increased integration, understanding and connection to who and what matters to us most. It is one heck of a ride!

- See more at: http://www.martinshervington.com/the-psychology-of-adapting-to-change-on-google-plus/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+martin-shervington+%28MartinShervington.com%29#sthash.0BLTK1zu.dpuf