It’s 10AM on the East Coast and put out a message across my network to get help on a project. I grinning from ear to ear because I’m just sure that everyone I know will get behind me on this one — why wouldn’t they, this idea is the most brilliant thing to be produced by the human spirit since Tesla invented Vampires (watch Sanctuary).

I put out my message and I receive two responses.

What happened?

As it turns out, most of my network is on the West Coast and I just finished asking them for a favor at 7AM when most are either too groggy or two asleep to care. If I gave up now because I got discouraged, I’d be giving up the opportunity build true groundswell.

Today’s challenge is to build your willingness to try again, and to get a better feeling for who is in your network.

For this challenge, you’ll need a link that you think is interesting. The more interesting it is, the more effective this will be.

Break your day into three parts, let’s call them Morning, Afternoon and Night; now, send your link out across your network during each of these periods.

If it’s a bookmarking site, please don’t spam your link three times but if it’s Facebook or Twitter or Friendfeed, deliver your message again with the absolute certainty that the overlap between those who saw it in the morning and those who saw it at night is almost zero.

After you finish, take some time to learn something about the composition of your network. Determine who replies and when they do, figure out whether it’s better to release during the day, or whether most of your community comes out at night.

The web is extremely time sensitive and understanding this is the only way to plan an effective release.

Key Points

Time

Goals

• Find a link you think is interesting.
• Segment your networks, placing some in Morning, Afternoon and Night. Be sure to add networks you can “repeat” your message to to all three lists.
• Send the link out across your network.
• Jot down some notes on what the most effective release time is for your community.

(Images)

If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.