I Believe This Will Interest You Also . . .

W. Clement Stone sold papers as a kid. He became a billionaire by selling insurance door-to-door. He documented what he learned in his great book, The Success System That Never Fails. Picture this – you respond to a knock at your door. You open it to see a young man pointing to a list of names. You recognize quite a few of them – they’re your friends and neighbors. All this has happened within a split second as he begins to speak: “I believe this will interest you also.” He didn’t tell them his name or say, “Hello.” He didn’t ask them how they were doing or talk about the weather. No! He had tested … and tested … and tested. He knew this was his best opening line. It was part of his success system. The above excerpt from the Bigg Success, Life On Your Own Terms website (http://biggsuccess.com/) references the oft-quoted W. Clement Stone, and in particular his manner of establishing immediate creditability with an individual he was meeting for the first time. Without a doubt, the list of names Stone referenced was a compelling inducement that opened the door to further discussion and in Stone's case another sale on his road to business immortality. But what if his opportunity creating list of names was just that - a list of names? What if the people he referenced only possessed periphery knowledge of who he was or worse yet, allowed their names to be used even though their direct dealings with Stone was limited to a courteous exchange in town or a quid pro quo arrangement. Unfortunately, the above scenarios are indicative of a growing problem within the realms of social networking, where references or testimonials are bartered by an ever-expanding network of interloping relationships between name collectors versus relationship builders. On today’s show I welcome Inquisix’s Michael Kreppein to examine more closely the emergence of “reputation networks” and their effects on personal branding in the Web 2.0 world.