One of the most important skills of a startup founder is considered to be networking (Emi actually wrote on article on how important it is for a CEO).
When we talk about networking, people usually think about meeting business partners, investors and so on. And yes, it is one of the best ways to get to your targets, but I also take into consideration the smaller things.
Two days ago we’ve been expecting a huge traffic surge from Brazil on Solitaire Arena. While happy for it, one of my colleagues said: “Guys, you know we do not have the translations finished for Portuguese, right?”.
And all of a sudden, all hell broke loose, since we needed the translation in 4 hours, tops. Because not having it would mean worse retention, worse monetization, worse everything. So what did we do? Well, we went to our networks. I went to mine, of course. First option: Facebook (click on the image to see the bigger version). Initially as a simple status, then with a $7 promotion to all my 3000 contacts on Facebook (you can see the results and the reactions in the screenshot below):
The result: in 4 hours we had the translation completed and everything was good again. While it may not seem like much, most of the people replying gave us at least 2 days deadline (and that was pretty fast). Which is how it should be done. But we didn’t have two days.
The network you have is a lot bigger than the one you actually think it is. So nurture it, even it is a virtual one (on Facebook, twitter, blog). It might help you a lot someday, even when you not expect it.
