Socialholic

So, the winner is Lia Puspita!

I found it quite difficult to choose but, in the end, I went for Lia myself and the reason was that the loan to her will also support her four workers as well as her family *and* the workers’ families.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about here, you may well find it useful to take a look at this page on my blog!

For those who have already signed up to the #KindaAngels project, here is what you need to know:

1 – the link that you need is http://www.lendwithcare.org/entrepreneurs/index/285

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!

KindaAngels, let’s go to work!

—

UPDATE!

The following are confirmed #KindaAngels

@ellisgraphics

@rosamundi

@TheBumble8

@llamakevin

@dangerousmkting

@jamesmb

@beckysw

@hannahemurdock

@coscomputing

@pascalw

You can follow all the #KindaAngels at http://twitter.com/jamesmb/kindaangels

**PLEASE NOTE** The poll in this post is now closed. The results can be found at http://www.socialholic.co.uk/?p=352 and we would welcome more #KindaAngels to join us in funding this project. We still need more Angels. Please consider being one of them. Thank you!**

There is a very healthy charitable strain running through the people I converse with online – and it’s that generosity of spirit that I think makes you all special. And for that I give you a big old *mwaaaaaaaaaaah*!

OK, so I know what you’re thinking – ‘What does he want now?’

Well, shame on you! I’m not asking for you to donate anything!

So there.

I hope you feel ashamed to be thinking like that.

Personally, I can’t believe it.

Especially after I was so nice to you up there ^^^.

…

Well, seeing as you’re still reading, I was just wondering whether you could lend me a few quid. Well, not me. And you’ll not get any interest on it. And you might make a small loss on it. And you might not get it back.

But you might.

You may be familiar with a concept called Micro Finance – small loans to people in developing countries to help them set up and run businesses. It’s a great way of giving people back their independence and self respect while breaking the cycle of dependency that can so easily build up in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Care International have set up a site called LendWithCare and you can find it at http://www.lendwithcare.org

The idea is that you lend a minimum of £15 and that gets passed as a loan to your chosen business. They use the money and then pay it back. If all goes according to plan, the person’s business thrives and you get your £15 back which you can then take and go and spend somewhere else. It’s like being an Angel Investor without the bit where you make a massive profit and spend the rest of your life on yachts.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

I’m thinking that too. But it is a model that has worked elsewhere – although I have yet to see it with this Micro Finance fund-raising element too.

So, as you’d expect, I have a proposal to put to you, dear reader.

Proposal

We join together and commit to helping one person. We pick one project, we each (individually) sign up and put our money in and we see how it goes. We use our contacts and social media cleverness to fund their project and hopefully make someone’s life a little bit better. And at the end of it, we might even get our money back.

We’d be kinda like Angel investors – or as I like to think of it #KindaAngels.

If you are interested, please sign up below and vote in the following (majority rules!):

PLEASE NOTE, THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED!

Just to be absolutely clear (!), this is not investment advice and should not be taken as such. If you decide to get involved, you are doing it voluntarily and without any pressure from me and, if your loan isn’t paid back, it really isn’t my fault!!

Princesshay Sky, originally uploaded by jamesmb.

As I was playing around with my new lens this morning, I looked up and there were some great whispy shapes in the sky (clouds – I know before someone tells me!) and they contrasted really nicely with the clean lines of the modern glass and steel architecture of Princesshay.

Nothing happens here – ever, originally uploaded by jamesmb.

It just made me smile.

Mr Bumble up close and personal, originally uploaded by jamesmb.

This is another Mr Bumble – although this time, he has had his photograph taken with a prime lens. It’s one of the first pictures I’ve taken with my prime (Nikon AF-S 35mm f1.8) and I have to say, I’m quite pleased with it! And Mr Bumble seemed happy too!

Onwards and upwards!

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?