Kodjo Agounde

Well, the poll was run and the results were overwhelming – 100% of the votes went to Kodjo Agounde.

Mr Agounde is a young entrepreneur aged 27. He is married and father of one child. He is an electrician by training has a small general electrical stall situated at the town roundabout.

His main line of work is general electrical work and rewiring.

With the loan that he has asked for, Monsieur Agounde is going to buy 25 electrical cables and other supplies to meet his clients needs.

Mr Agounde has big ambitions for the development of his business thanks to the loan that he hopes to get.

You can support him by making him a loan through LendWithCare – a microfinance scheme run by Care International.

KindaAngels is a voluntary project to bring together like minded people and support the LendWithCare cause.  KindaAngels help by lending money through LendWithCare and also using social media and traditional contact to encourage others to get involved.  Together, we have sponsored a number of individuals through LendWithCare including providing over half the money for one entrepreneur.  You can find out more by clicking on this link or by coming over to Twitter and asking questions of the KindaAngels team.  There is more KindaAngels news coming soon – you can subscribe to this blog to be kept informed!

So, you want to get involved and become a KindaAngel?

Here are the instructions:

1 – the link that you need is http://www.lendwithcare.org/entrepreneurs/index/230

2 – please pick the amount that you want to lend (the minimum is £15 – which is what most of us are lending)

3 – once you’ve signed up and lent the money, please amend your lendwithcare site profile to include the words “I am one of the #KindaAngels and you can find out more at http://www.socialholic.co.uk/?cat=90!” in the ‘About me’ section

4 – please then report back here using the comments and also spread the word on Twitter or LinkedIn or wherever you hang out!

All #KindaAngels will be added to the Twitter list at http://twitter.com/jamesmb/kindaangels and please follow the KindaAngels at http://twitter.com/kindaangels

In addition, the beautiful and wonderful people at Starbucks Exeter have agreed to give you a Starbucks mug as a thank you! More details can be found at http://www.socialholic.co.uk/?p=373

Well done and keep it going!!

Well, it seems that we can’t pick people quickly enough!  As soon as we pick people for #KindaAngels, the funding comes in and they’re back off the list!

So, it’s ‘pick the entrepreneur’ time again! Please take a moment to look at the potential entrepreneurs that we will promote next with #KindaAngels.

Ooh, and there’s now a KindaAngels Twitter account at http://twitter.com/kindaangels – do come and join us there!

Right, here’s the poll – I’ll be closing it on Monday 31st at about 6.30pm – so share, tell and vote!

Thank you!

Well, what can I say? #KindaAngels has taken off quicker than I could have ever imagined.  I will shortly be posting a new poll which will choose the entrepreneurs that we will support AFTER Ayefo!

I have taken the liberty of picking our next entrepreneur myself – slightly undemocratic, I know – but there’s a simple reason for it!  When I first thought of seeing whether #KindaAngels could work, I did not expect the response that we got.  I did not think the entrepreneurs would get funded so quickly and so much would be lent so speedily.  I did not expect the support that we have had from LendWithCare, bloggers or Starbucks! It’s just been incredible.

Now, we could wait for a few days while everyone chooses the next person in the poll.  But I know that there are people who are willing, ready and able to fund someone now.  And I think it makes sense to seize the moment! So…

You are cordially invited to help by loaning £15 to Ayefo Ahouedehou, an entrepreneur based in Atakpamé, Togo.  She is married and mother of 3 children. Her husband is a retired policeman. She runs a restaurant. She has been running her business for 8 years where she serves hot meals to travelers and civil servants. Ayefo hopes with this loan to increase her clientele and therefore grow her business so as to meet the educational needs of her 3 children.

You can find lots of information about LendWithCare by clicking here.

Here are the instructions:

1 – the link that you need is http://www.lendwithcare.org/entrepreneurs/index/258

2 – please pick the amount that you want to lend (the minimum is £15 – which is what I’ll be lending)

3 – once you’ve signed up and lent the money, please amend your lendwithcare site profile to include the words “I am one of the #KindaAngels!” in the ‘About me’ section 

4 – please then report back here using the comments and also spread the word on Twitter or LinkedIn or wherever you hang out!

All #KindaAngels will be added to the Twitter list at http://twitter.com/jamesmb/kindaangels

In addition, the beautiful and wonderful people at Starbucks Exeter have agreed to give you a Starbucks mug as a thank you!  More details can be found at http://www.socialholic.co.uk/?p=373

Well done and keep it going!! 

This bloglet and my Twitter thingy and Facebook malarky and LinkedIn hoojii, they’re all fine and dandy but they would be nothing without you, my little funsters!

Today marks a special day for you and a whole bunch of other people.  Six months ago, I set out to see whether we could get enough money together for a Shelterbox.  Your response led to Team2Quid being set up and your support meant that we easily reached the target.  Those who got involved then set about trying to get a second one within 12 months – and that project is still ongoing.  You can see how you are doing at http://bit.ly/team2quid

Then, the fabulous Devon Air Ambulance was hit by a theft from one of its shops. In response, you replaced the value of the flute (£130) within 24 hours and #KarmicFlute was born (http://bit.ly/karmicflute). And, being you, you then replaced it again with another £130 the day after – the final total being £265 plus a load of GiftAid. And good Karma was spread all around!

Then, I saw a thing called LendWithCare.org – a micro finance site that helped people in some of the poorest countries in the world set up businesses and support themselves by means of microloans. So, we set up the #KindaAngels (http://bit.ly/kindaa). The #KindaAngels too part in a poll and then each #KindaAngel backed Lia Puspita with a £15 loan so that she could buy a new sewing machine that would help her and her four employees grow their business. The #KindaAngels have pledged £165 so far… and then it dawned on me what you’d done…

In the six months since February 2010, you have raised, donated and lent well over £1000. You’ve got nothing out of it but others are benefitting from your huge generosity.

So I just wanted to say a massive

Thank you!!

I have the best, kindest bunch of readers, followers, contacts and people-I’ve-never-met reading this blog and you are all fab! It’s a privilege to have you here. Thank you!

Dear KindaAngels and new supporters

Hello! Well, this isn’t going according to plan!

You may remember that over at http://www.socialholic.co.uk/?p=332, I set up a poll and introduced you to LendWithCare and KindaAngels.

The poll led to our support being declared for Lia over at http://www.socialholic.co.uk/?p=352 along with a description of how you can help.

Well, you raised £165 and then, all of a sudden, her loan was completed!!  So, in the space of 48 hours, Lia is sorted! Hurray and well done to all of you!

But, here’s the problem – there are still some KindaAngels who have yet to invest but have pledged! So, I propose that we now concentrate on the person who can second – Akoua!  Akoua runs a food shop in Togo and needs your help to expand her business.

Here are the instructions:

1 – the link that you need is http://www.lendwithcare.org/entrepreneurs/index/265

2 – please pick the amount that you want to lend (the minimum is £15 – which is what I’ll be lending)

3 – once you’ve signed up and lent the money, please amend your lendwithcare site profile to include the words “I am one of the #KindaAngels!” in the ‘About me’ section 

4 – please then report back here using the comments and also spread the word on Twitter or LinkedIn or wherever you hang out!

All #KindaAngels will be added to the Twitter list at http://twitter.com/jamesmb/kindaangels

Well done and keep it going!!

Over on another blog post, the rather fab @ellisgraphics, made an interesting couple of comments.

Do you really think that cheap flattery, mixed with even cheaper psychology (reverse or not) will get me to click your links? Sometimes I think that the whole social media world are going to disappear up an infinity loop connected to their rear orifices! – ever so slightly tongue-in-cheek, so-to-speak =)

..and a follow up of…

I feel I must follow up my last post [least it be taken in the wrong way] by saying “tell me more!” Having read your post on LinkedIn [ http://linkd.in/btFZfr ], I am intrigued as to how we can use collective influence to the good…

Now, it was a fair comment because, in my original blog post (and that over on LinkedIn) I did try to get people to click on my voting link for Fast Company’s The Influence Project.  I think I made it pretty clear what was going on and, on the LinkedIn one, I also gave the vanilla URL of The Influence Project that you could click without voting for me.

The LinkedIn article read as follows:

The Influence Project and… well… combined influence!

Yesterday, I blogged about the Influence Project. For those of you who don’t know, the idea is that FastCompany is trying to measure people’s influence online.

Now, at this point, I could trick you in to supporting me but I’ll be honest instead! I’ll add two links below

1 – http://www.fastcompany.com is the magazine that’s running the Project; and
2 – http://bit.ly/blzQpw – is the link that adds to my influence. I hope to win points from you for honesty!

Feel free to click one! I can only add one link at the bottom of this article and I need to tell you that although it looks otherwise, it is my personal link (the one that supports me) and not the vanilla one! (I would have added both if I could!)

The thing that makes this interesting is that it does have the potential to measure influence. If you click my link, I’ve (to some extent) influenced you to do that. If, however, you click the other one, you hate me and must live with that burning on your conscience!

I think we do not make enough of things like this as a group. We have the potential to cross support each other to show to the outside world the strength of social media in the area and the things we do well. We already have great things in and around Devon like #Tags and LikeMinds and, if we helped each other with things like the Influence Project, then we’d be able to show our combined clout better.

I spend quite a bit of my time sharing links and voting for people but, in a way, it is quite disperate and uncoordinated. I have had great support for two years in the Tweetie awards but it is the lack of coordination and shared resource that I think we could address here.

As a first step, click one of the links (mine, mine!) and join the Influence Project. And add your user name here so we can support you too!

My suggestion is that we invite those of you who are up for things that require votes or clicks to tell people here. I don’t know why it is but I have spoken with some of you before (no names) and there is some kind of … I don’t know quite what to call it but there is something holding people back from posting.

We’re a social network and we a shared resource, a support team for each other. So let’s make the most of that!

Now, there was a reason for posting that over on LinkedIn and, in particular, in the Social Media Devon and #TAGs group.  It was posted in there because, whilst I have seen, originated and participated in a number of cause and charity ‘collective influence’ groups, I have yet to see a really good business one (especially in the UK) – and I want to do something about it.

I would genuinely love to see Social Media Devon and #TAGs use its combined muscle to turn into a business ‘collective influence’ group – to the benefit of all its members and, more broadly, to show the power and widespread influence of businesses in the South West.  The first example, the one that I have used on LinkedIn, is The Influence Project.  The reason is, quite selfishly, that I’m in it and someone needs to start the idea somewhere.

I do not think that the concept is a massively difficult one.  I am doing something (The Influence Project) and need the help of others.  The South Devon Media/#TAGS group has a common interest with me, we (its members) pretty much all know each other and so, I am asking them to use their influence to help me.  Why should they?  Well, that’s a good question!

But, if social media is built on anything, it is based on sharing and helping – combining power and influence.  The very simple concept of Stronger Together.

A lot of the work that I do in social media is with charities and it is about culture. The more advice I give to businesses about this, the more I realise that it’s exactly the same issue! Different cultures (national and regional) use social media in different ways.  For example, I have seen a number of examples of such cooperation mechanisms in the US – many more than I see in the UK.  I believe a lot of that has to do with a reticence to be seen to ask for help in the UK.  Maybe it is a lack of confidence that we have in ourselves, maybe it is the idea that asking for help is a sign of weakness.

I do not believe either of those should stop us.  Having friends who work together is something special and something that should be encouraged and celebrated.  In the charity field, I am immensely proud of all those who have answer the call to arms of Team2Quid.  But why can’t we replicate that in the business field?  When my friends and acquaintances get nominated for things online, I am very happy for them and I will do my bit to help – provided I find out about them.

And there’s the rub – often I don’t find out about them until it’s too late. So, the purpose of the LinkedIn article was a call to arms and a ‘look, I’m not embarrassed to ask and nor should you be’.  Indeed, I’ll even go so far as to say that you should click http://bit.ly/vote4jmb and vote for me!  And sign up yourself and tell us so that we can vote for you too.

In an ideal world, we will soon have more discussion here and on the LinkedIn group with people asking for help and support for what they are doing. If we can get over the cultural reticence, it will be to our benefit and, if we can, I’ll answer the call. Will you?