This morning we we formally launched the private beta version of Favorang and issued a press release.    If you are interested in giving Favorang a try, please request an invitation here or send us an email at invitations at favorang dot com.

In these difficult economic times, we believe there is an opportunity for a new networking concept.  Job seekers, entrepreneurs, and business development professionals can quickly exhaust their existing network and should welcome another avenue to get networking help.  Our goal at Favorang is to grease the skids of the favor economy by helping members quickly build a reputation for giving and then leverage that reputation to get the help they need.

Our objective with the private beta is to get more input on the concept and refine it further.  So once you have had a chance to look around please drop us a line and let us know what you think.

As we are preparing for our private beta launch, we have started reaching out to bloggers and sharing the Favorang concept.  Each time I discuss the idea, people seem to get it, but bring a different perspective.

For example, Marc Ross of Advocacy 2.0 put together a recent post on Favorang that had an interesting angle.  The text that caught my eye was his summary that “Favorang is need driven and not connection driven.” I had not thought about the concept in this way, but it makes good sense.  We live in a sub-optimal world because our needs are not aligned with our social connections.  Favorang realigns interaction based on need and ability to help, not preexisting relationships.

I also wanted to point out an interview I did with UtterJargon.  We covered some basics of Favorang and the work in getting the concept started.

I have been reading Guy Kawasaki’s recent book Reality Check and it has seeming endless supply of insightful nuggets.  After working for years in the “strategic consulting” industry and reading countless business books, it is great to see a business guide that cuts through all the crap and gives the unvarnished truth.  Great work Guy!

There are also a couple of sections that caught my eye in the context of networking and reciprocity.  A couple of times Guy refers to the “big karmic scoreboard in the sky” in his book and earlier blog posts such as The Art of Schmoozing.  After reading this, I have go to say that our vision for Favorang is not that far off.   An excerpt from Guy’s description is below.

Give favors. One of my great pleasures in life is helping other people; I believe there’s a big Karmic scoreboard in the sky. God is keeping track of the good that you do, and She is particularly pleased when you give favors without the expectation of return from the recipient. The scoreboard always pays back. You can also guess that I strongly believe in returning favors for people who have helped you.
Ask for the return of favors. Good schmoozers give favors. Good schmoozers also return favors. However, great schmoozers ask for the return of favors. You may find this puzzling: Isn’t it better to keep someone indebted to you? The answer is no, and this is because keeping someone indebted to you puts undue pressure on your relationship. Any decent person feels guilty and indebted. By asking for, and receiving, a return favor, you clear the decks, relieve the pressure, and set up for a whole new round of give and take. After a few rounds of give and take, you’re best friends, and you have mastered the art of schmoozing.

Our goal for Favorang is to be the Karmic Scoreboard on the Internet and facilitate the exchange of networking favors.

What do you think? Are we on to something?

As noted in a previous post, we are getting a number of questions about what problem we are trying to solve and how we are different to other networking services. I tried to answer the first question with a previous post and will address the differentiation topic here.

The basic difference is that most social networking services (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) are primarily focused on building and maintaining relationships.  For many, the relationships are the end goal. Any help or favors (social capital) a person extracts from this network is a secondary outcome.

Favorang is the inverse. Our focus is first on social capital and extracting resources from the network (enabling the exchange of favors).  The development of relationships is a byproduct, not an explicit objective.

In the area of professional networking (LinkedIn, Xing, etc.), users have a number of goals. There is a social benefit in keeping up with old colleagues and professional acquaintances, but most professional users have additional objectives.  They can include building and maintaining relationships for the future, using connections to provide endorsements or credibility to a professional profile, and getting an action from a connection (e.g. an introduction, information, etc.).

The traditional services provide great tools for growing and maintaining relationships, and building a credible profile.  In addition, they are helpful in getting help from your immediate network.  However, as you move further out in your extended network, it becomes more and more difficult to get someone to take action.  This is where we believe Favorang will excel.

As illustrated in the conceptual graphic below, traditional Social Networking Services (SNS) will be a better tool for a range of activities.  However, when one has to reach out beyond their immediate network or friends of friends, Favorang shoud start to provide an equal or better framework to get networking help.

What do you think?  Have do we have a differentiated model?

Who knew that a simple question, “What do you need?” could help you make critical connections in landing your next job. A new startup, Favorang™ poses just that question to users who are Job Seekers across the largest metropolitan areas in America. Why not be really explicit about what you want, and really explicit about favor exchanges?

“The manner in which we search for jobs and make career shifts has completely changed. Job boards such as Career Builder, Hot Jobs, and The Ladders have created rich content forums for employers and employees to come together. Social media sites such as Facebook have reunited individuals that may never have been in contact throughout their lifetimes- this is powerful. LinkedIn is a tool for professionals to gather all their contacts in one place and to tap them for recommendations and references. Favorang is the next evolution- taking elements of the social aspects from Facebook, and the professional networking capabilities of LinkedIn. The end result is a truly powerful social networking site that can transform your job search.”

There is something key about articulating what you want; it empowers individuals to dream, to tap into that creative part, and really search for “what do you need?” Users are encouraged to really think about this before putting in their tag line, and once it is submitted, it is viewable by all group members. This is like a high speed cocktail party where you are networking for job leads. While not every favor may be returned, one can’t help but wonder……”what if I articulated this and put it out to the world……I wonder if I’d get the help I need?” With no fees for registration, there is little lost in putting out to the world exactly what you need. Do us a favor and join Favorang today!

www.favorang.com
(Make sure you look at groups for specific JobSeeking Groups in your metro area. Highlighted geographies in this private beta are Boston, NYC, DC, Seattle, and LA.

As we have started to share the concept behind Favorang we are getting a number of questions about what problem we are trying to solve and how are we different to other networking services. They are fair questions.  In this post I will try to answer the first question and leave the differentiation topic to another post.

Fundamentally, our goal is to provide an effective service for building and leveraging social capital.

What is Social Capital?
Before we delve into our approach let’s set the context for what we mean by social capital.  Broadly speaking we all have three types of capital; physical, human, and social.  Physical capital typically centers on financial resources, but can also include other tangible assets.  Human capital includes skills and knowledge. And social capital includes all the value we can bring to an endeavor via our network.

The common expression of “it’s not what you know, but who you know” does not fully capture all the key elements.  We would rephrase to “it’s not what you know, or who you know, ‘but what who you know will do for you.’”  Nan Lin, in his text on Social Capital, notes that sociologists have varying definitions, but they generally encompass “investments in social relations with expected returns in the market place.”  The clearest definition I have seen in Lin’s text breaks social capital into three necessary components as follows:

1.    the number of persons within one’s social network who ‘are prepared or obliged to help you when called upon to do so,’
2.    the strength of the relationship indicating readiness to help, and
3.    the resources of those persons

In the simplest terms, social capital is who do you know (or can get to), what do they have, and will they give it to you.

The Challenge
The challenge, as we see it, is that where there is the most value in the network , it is most difficult to extract.

Value
For the majority of us, i.e. those not in the uppermost socioeconomic circles, the greatest value of our network resides with acquaintances and our extended network.  The reasons are threefold.

First, the vast majority of people in our network are on the fringes.   The basic mathematics of network indicates that we will have geometrically more people in our network as we move out to second, third and fourth degrees of separation. Also, we typically have many more acquaintances than close friends.

Second, our immediate friends are typically homogeneous.  People generally build stronger relationships with people of similar backgrounds, socio-economic status, education, occupation, geography, etc. and they communicate more frequently.  Consequently, when one is looking to extract new information from the network e.g. information on job openings, individuals in the extended network have relatively more new information.

Finally, our extended network is more likely to include individuals with higher relative socio-economic status and influence.  As noted above, our close friends tend to be similar and the assets of people on the fringe have more variability.

Mark Granovetter covers much of the above in his seminal article titled The Strength of Weak Ties.

Access
The inverse, however, applies to our ability to extract resources from members of the network.  It is those in our immediate network that are most apt to lend a hand, while those at the fringe are typically less willing.  Nan Lim refers to this as “The Strength of Strong Ties”.   The strength of a relationship reflects the “degree of intensity, frequency of intimacy (trustworthiness), reciprocity, and acknowledged obligations. The stronger the relationship, the more likely the sharing and exchange of resources.”

The Opportunity
The leading social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) provide great tools to build and maintain social and professional relationships. The technology allows one to not only maintain more strong ties, but also reestablish, maintain and strengthen “weak ties”.  Furthermore, one has the ability to see into your extended network (i.e. friends of friends).

The challenge, however, still remains.  Putting top networkers aside, the majority of professionals will not have the necessary relationships in place to quickly deal with a networking challenge (e.g. unexpected job search).  We will still want access and help from people outside our immediate network.

Favorang is designed to help with this challenge.  First, Favorang is an open networking platform.  Members are able and encouraged to interact with people outside of thier existing network.   Second, the focus is on taking action.  Members build social capital and a reputation by exchanging favors, not by collecting “connections”.   Finally, Favorang is based on codified norms of network reciprocity (e.g. A helps B, B helps C, and C helps A).  Expectations of reciprocity are often cited as a key driver in the exchange of resources within networks.

Our hope is that this combination of elements will provide members with a powerful new tool.  What do you think?  Do you agree there is an unmet problem?  Do we have the elements to solve it?

April 6, 2009- The Favorang™ team recently hit the streets for CareerBuilder’s job fair in Washington DC on March 27, 2009. There was a phenomenal response to this career fair, and no doubt that in this economy…..now more than ever, networking opportunities are invaluable. In addition to shopping job boards, tapping professional and social networks, and cleaning up that resume, new entrants into the JobSeeking arena are welcomend and encouraged. Favorang™ fulfills a much needed niche in this market. That simple question of “what do you need?” is powerful. In the past, face to face networking opportunties were so important- they still are. But imagine this scenario- you enter a room with 2000 people, and you have 2 hours to network and develop new connections. How many people do you think you’ll be able to meet, and actually connect with? What is that number…..50, 100, 200, 500? On average, most people will find themselves connecting on a meaningful level with less than 50 people, and in most cases, less than 25.

Favorang™ provides an important service; it empowers you to connect with all 2000 people at that networking event. While they may not be employers, they are professionals in your market. They have networks and connection points that could be really valuable to you in your search. Say for example you have a strong passion to work at The World Bank. You don’t know anybody there, but you’d like to begin exploring what it means to work at The World Bank in their financial services offices. Why not put a post out “I need a contact at The World Bank within financial services?”, and what if there are 20 people in that room of 2000 that have actually worked at The World Bank before and can share their experiences, or have a contact within their networks who would be willing to talk. How valuable is this to you? Favorang™ quickly puts your dialogue of needs into a flow of communication that is vast, valuable, and creative. Just by articulating what you need, you’ll establish new professional network contacts, and who knows, you may just get exactly what you want.

Favorang™ is currently in alpha test, and is a grassroots initiative moving across the country (Boston, NYC, DC, Seattle, and LA). Registration is free, and this new social media is a great means to enhance your Job Search and improve your marketability.

Do us a favor and join today!

www.favorang.com
(Make sure you check out the groups section to target your request to a geographic area, or make a general post to the world)

During these difficult economic times we could all use some distractions and pointers on building our professional networks .  One of my recommendations would be to pick up an old copy to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.  In addition to being a great read, the novel provide some great professional networking tips.

Is you may remember, one of the first scenes is the wedding of Don Corleone’s daughter.   During the event Don Corleone is called away to meet with different petitioners seeking his help.  It is here we start to learn about the power of his network and the simple principles involved.

Puzo touches on the key elements in the following passage.

“Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom everybody came for help, and they never were disappointed.  He made no empty promises, nor the craven excuse that his hands were tied by more powerful forces in the world other than himself. It was not necessary that he be your friend, it was not even important that you had the means with which to repay him. Only one thing was required. That you, you yourself, proclaimed friendship. And then, no matter how poor or powerless the supplicant, Don Corleone would take that man’s troubles to heart. And he would let nothing stand in the way to a solution of that man’s woe.  His reward? Friendship, the respectful title of “Don,” and sometimes the more affectionate salutation of “Godfather.” And perhaps to show respect only, never for profit, some humble gift - a gallon of homemade wine or a basket of peppered taralles specially baked to grace his Christmas table.   It was understood, it was mere good manners, to proclaim that you were in his debt and that he had the right to call upon you at any time to redeem your debt by some small service.”

In this one paragraph, though a long one, Puzo hits a number of key networking principles.

1. Have a bias for action - In networking, as with most professional activities, it is about actions and results.  People don’t come to the Don because he is a fun to be around.  They come because he takes action and delivers results.
2. Provide recognition - After receiving some form of networking help (e.g. an informational interview), it remains important to provide recognition.  It does not need to be a lavish gift, but even a simple email goes a long way in cementing a relationship.  The absence of recognition can have surprisingly negative consequences.
3. Network broadly - We should all be open to building relationships with people of all walks of life.  Those below us in the socio-economic hierarchy may not be able to provide obvious, immediate value to network, but over time many will.
4. Reciprocate - The final, and probably most important element in the Don’s formula is implied or, in some cases, explicit expectations of reciprocity.  The old Sicilian saying of  “I don’t do favors, I accumulate debts” has a negative connotation, but summarizes the concept well.  Networking gurus, such as Harvey McKay position the use of reciprocity more positively and suggest the key is “not ‘How can I get the other person to do something for me?’ It’s ‘How can I do something for the other person?’”

While following the Don’s principles may seem manipulative or machiavellian, they don’t need to be.  Even the ruthless Godfather can come across as a supportive benefactor.  When first learning about her future father-in-law, Kay said to Michael Corleone “Everything you’ve told me about him shows him doing something for other people. He must be good hearted.”

Michael Corleone, concedes the point, but also recognizes the effectiveness of his father’s networking.

“I guess that’s the way it sounds, but let me tell you this. You know those Arctic explorers who leave caches of food scattered on the route to the North Pole? Just in case they may need them someday? That’s my father’s favors. Someday he’ll be at each one of those peoples houses and they had better come across.”

Enjoy the book. There is much to learn from The Don, but let’s skip the broken knee caps.