How To Leverage OPN — Other’s People Network For Your Business
By: Sachin Dahiya
Tags: Target Market, Socialnewtorking, Network, Startup Marketing, Growth Hacking

“The way of the world is meeting people through other people.” — Robert Kerrigen

Have you ever wondered why these social media platforms show you suggestions in order to connect with more people and broaden your reach? I am sure you must have experienced this on one or the other platform. Because these platforms know that the only way they can reach to more people is through other’s network and keep the loop going. Now, this blog is on how you can leverage these social platforms or rather network created by other people to your advantage in the field of entrepreneurship.

This concept is an effective way to grab the eyeballs of your selected audience towards your product/service which is the very first step in any kind of business in order to start getting the traction. Now, the secret of successful companies like Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber is right there in the open for all to see. They created unique networks but they rose to fame on the back of other people’s networks.

How did these companies explode into prominence? Facebook launched using Harvard’s network of students, Airbnb used Craigslist, and Uber relied on the network of smartphones in users’ pockets.

Startups following an “other people’s networks” strategy can experience rapid growth (rather than waiting for years to build momentum), but it requires a fundamental shift in mindset.

Growth hacking is simply smart marketing in a post-gatekeeper world. The Internet has demolished old barriers to entry, and anyone with a Wi-Fi connection has access to massive networks with billions of users. Anyone can become a publisher on WordPress, start selling their products directly on Amazon, or build a massive audience on YouTube.

A growth hacker’s job is to capitalize on these cheap methods of customer acquisition, retention, and referral and then automate systems that will continually fuel themselves to provide future returns. Basically, they’re looking for ways to use other people’s networks to accelerate growth.

Consumers today are very well connected, and each one is a mini media channel. If a consumer likes a product, he’ll tell his friends. That recommendation is amplified across the web and leaves a permanent record. When nurtured, a company’s customer base can become its most effective marketing medium.

How to Get Started Using OPN

Once you understand the growth-hacker mindset, using OPN is nothing mysterious. If you’re on LinkedIn, you’re already using the power of OPN.

Other people’s networks are all around us: email, Amazon, Google, Craigslist, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc. You can build an email list that allows you to reach hundreds of thousands of people with the click of a button at minimal cost. List your products on Amazon, and you’re in a marketplace where one of every three e-commerce transactions occurs. People are building multimillion-dollar businesses on YouTube through ads alone. This is OPN thinking.

The most lucrative tactics are changing constantly, but here are a few basic strategies I use:

Keep your budget zero (or really close to zero). Initially whenever you are starting don’t go with big budget. Try to find your right target audience on different social media platforms and today we have platform for every gender/age/culture. So the entry barrier is defied to start with. You can save a lot of money from investing in ads and other channels to reach to your audience. Add, add and add more value. Tapping into a network is intuitive to most people, but typically it comes from a mentality of “harvesting.” People today are all about leveraging their social network, but that won’t get you very far unless you want to pay for advertising. Instead, focus on adding value for those audiences. Forget about guessing the latest algorithm tweak, and learn what products and information people are searching for. Satisfy that demand. Sometimes it’s great content; sometimes it’s a particular product at a particular price.

Using OPN is an exciting and lucrative strategy for entrepreneurs, but it’s still business at its core. OPN can help you connect with more customers, but it’s up to you to make it large and meet their needs.