Global Scots Business Network Doesn't

Until recently the GlobalScot membership site has carried all the attraction of cold rice pudding, with Grandma telling us to eat up – it’ll be good for us.

To be fair there are some welcoming people there – Scottish Enterprise staff charged with making it work I guess. But generally it’s seemed a very poor relation to Ecademy (so that must be very poor). Just profiles of people with grand sounding resumes and a forum used more like a notice board.

In terms of engagement it doesn’t cut it.

Quite why it should be so poor isn’t obvious. Afterall there’s no shortage of examples demonstrating how to do the job properly – Facebook, Linked In, any Ning or Groupsite, or even Twitter, Friendfeed, Stumbleupon, Plaxo, etc. Somebody obviously isn’t watching what’s going on in the rest of the world. The software is truly awful, but that’s only part of the story. The rest comes from the sense of elitism and proscription.

Now there’s a glimmer of hope

A thread in the Forum “How to Make the GlobalScot Network More Effective”, has actually got a conversation going – a bonfire I intend livening with a liberal quantity of petrol, in the hope the members of GlobalScot accept the challenge of leading Scottish business out of their public sector subsidy torpor.

The two main questions appear to be:
* How can the network create value for Scottish business
* How can the network get people engaged (including the 900 members)

and I’d like to help with

My own perspective

Business people – even the reticent Scots will get involved, driving synergies and creating opportunities provided the network gives them stuff they can’t get elsewhere. Here’s my list:

1. Access – to those individuals in government and business who can make a difference to the status quo, getting around the bureaucrats whose survival depends on it.
2. Influence – opportunity to contribute to the big conversation knowing it will get heard.
3. Mutual Support – chance to get help, and help others, without being preached at or spammed at.
4. Infrastructure – easy and fun to use, and connected to all the other places they do stuff.

Most of all any hint of the site being a vehicle for communicating government strategy must be avoided at all costs.

All of the successful social networks work because they were started by rebels, not the establishment. The ways in which they grew were dictated by those same rebels and people joined like crazy because they could also be rebels – getting around the establishment.

So my recipe for success is a) junk the software b) get the leaders listening instead of talking and c) invite every business, making them feel welcome.