Your site is in Beta and you need users to test the site, so how do you get the audience into your “tent”? You need the True Believer. Out of a hundred users, you will find one that believes that your site is the greatest invention since Single Wrapped Cheese Slices. That believer will not only blog about your site, they will keep in constant contact with you about bugs and ideas on how to make the site even better.

From the first rush of Users you will keep track of how many times they are logging in, and how long they are there. Then other concerns will take most of your time and you will either delegate the User study to an assistant or try to manage it on your own in between flights and meetings. Soon you will respond less and less to your users and emails will go unanswered or answered as “brb”. Then your assistant will be also be busier and leave the stats printed out on the bottom of the stack of other printouts. Your True Believer realizes that you are not interested in their input and they….leave.

Three Card Monte

Three Card Monte is a common scam that involves three people; the Mark, a second player and the dealer. The second player will align with the Mark to “take” the dealer, unbeknownst to the Mark, the second player is the “inside man” in cahoots with the dealer. It ends with the Mark being taken for a ride each time. It’s misplaced trust that hurts the us each time we venture out into unknown waters.

Unlike the Three Card Monte, your True Believer is the real McCoy trusted by their networks and will not be treating their friends as “marks” by sending them bad information. So what’s the moral of this story? When you find that one person who gives you their time without compensation, without a quid pro quo, you keep them close and give them the appreciation they deserve. They are your audience builder. True Believers are the reason you are in business and will stay in business.

Social Median

An example of superb User interaction is Jason Goldberg of Social Median. From the site: “socialmedian is a social news network that connects people with personalized news and information. socialmedian enables you to easily keep up-to-date on the news that matters to you and to people who share your interests”. I joined the site when it was in Alpha. Jason personally contacted all the Alpha users and asked us our opinions on how to make the site better. And he continues to do this into the Beta. Jason also made his mark on Twitter as @socialmedian. This is an example of harnessing the power of your True Believers, by keeping them in the loop by asking “what do you want?” and “how can we make the site better?”

Finally

Hitting the “live” switch on your site does not guarantee you Users. What does is personal interaction with them. They are the ones who will drive traffic to your site, not your “most amazing never seen before” idea. So be wise and reply to those Users, they are your megaphones.

“Three-card Monte, also known as the Three-card marney, Three-card trick, Three-card shuffle, Triplets, Follow the lady, Find the lady, or Follow the Bee is a confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a sum of money that they can find the money card, for example the queen of spades, among three face-down playing cards.

In its full form, the three-card Monte is an example of a classic short con in which the outside man pretends to conspire with the mark to cheat the inside man, while in fact conspiring with the inside man to cheat the mark.” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Card_Monte

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