There’s a reason why for-profit organizations do this—it actually works.
It costs them huge advertising budgets and gets less effective as time goes by.
For-profit organization actually do this because they don’t have a cause to rally around. Making more money for shareholders isn’t giving anyone a feeling of community.
Steve Jobs got rid of focus groups telling him what the people want and build products to fit his own standards. As a result Apple has managed to develop a strong brand.
And if you won’t agree with a worldview, you aren’t going to join the community just because it’s active.
But you might switch to self identifying yourself as EA because there are people on Skillshare doing nice things for you without asking for something in return.
That self identification will then improve the chances that you are doing other things to advance EA. It helps with retention.
I’m saying it helps with retention but barely at all with recruitment—and that it may even get in the way of recruitment of casual EAs. I don’t think Skillshare favours will make people want to self-identify as EA. Only a minority of people even require the sorts of favours being offered.
Yup—although in the case of EA, that’s still likely to be a very slow process. This isn’t the sort of thing that can go viral. It takes months or years of cultivating before someone transfers from complete outsider to core member.
To clarify, I also don’t think EA has much potential as a social movement even if marketed properly. Specific EA beliefs are much more spreadable memes down the line IMO.
It costs them huge advertising budgets and gets less effective as time goes by.
For-profit organization actually do this because they don’t have a cause to rally around. Making more money for shareholders isn’t giving anyone a feeling of community.
Steve Jobs got rid of focus groups telling him what the people want and build products to fit his own standards. As a result Apple has managed to develop a strong brand.
But you might switch to self identifying yourself as EA because there are people on Skillshare doing nice things for you without asking for something in return.
That self identification will then improve the chances that you are doing other things to advance EA. It helps with retention.
I’m saying it helps with retention but barely at all with recruitment—and that it may even get in the way of recruitment of casual EAs. I don’t think Skillshare favours will make people want to self-identify as EA. Only a minority of people even require the sorts of favours being offered.
To clarify, Skillshare was not created with new member recruitment in mind.
The best way to recruit is to have people who are passionate enough about a subject that they tell their friends.
Yup—although in the case of EA, that’s still likely to be a very slow process. This isn’t the sort of thing that can go viral. It takes months or years of cultivating before someone transfers from complete outsider to core member.
I don’t think that’s a problem. We don’t need to think in terms of corporate quarter results but are free to think more long-term.
Focusing on quick fixes isn’t what successful movement building is about.
To clarify, I also don’t think EA has much potential as a social movement even if marketed properly. Specific EA beliefs are much more spreadable memes down the line IMO.