Being a savvy and connected doer who loves to help out, attracts all sorts of requests. Here're three good rules of thumb on how to get my attention.

1. Engage
Tell a story. You have to engage me with your story, so that I can feel engaged. And for heaven's sake, don't start by saying "I don't think XXX is a huge task". After you've got me interested and engaged, ask if, and in what way, I could think of participate or contribute. Make me feel exhilarated, not burdened.

2. Add Value
There's always a value proposition. That's what the economy of free is all about, how to package your needs and wishes so that both sides benefit from it. Pure and simple Win-Win. Think about how your business and/or request can add value to those you're asking for help? What can you offer them in return? You go the extra mile and you'll find how people go the extra mile for you. Over and over again.

3. Thank You
I pretty much summarized this one in my post Thank Or Die, but I can't emphasize it enough. Even if you'd be lucky enough to find people who just keep giving out of pure joy, you should never take the help for granted. The world is full of neat Reply, Like and Tweet buttons! Show your love and appreciation.

Foremost, Don't let your eagerness to fulfil your own needs blind you and bite you back, when relying on other people's good will.

Remember, I don't have to care about You. Just like that, I can "Unfollow" and stop caring.

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I don't usually cover the very specifics of social media here but this particular presentation deserves your attention.

Why Social Media Projects Fail - A European Perspective by BSI. 24 slides speaking a clear message you really don't have to be an expert to interpret, a great find by Robin Wauters on TechCrunch.

While every slide is filled with worrying statistics, two things stood out and worried me specifically:

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This blog is mainly a home of promising Swedish startups. But, it's also a home of all stuff awesome, and as it happens, sometimes you run into things that just make you go "WOW". No matter the country of origin. And, even if I can be classified as a geek, I assure, a new shiny gadget in various colours and with a cute bear, is itself simply not enough to gain my interest.

Last time I caught myself saying "WOW" out loud was with Prezi. This time it's Slovenian Visionect, one of the Mini Seedcamp Zagreb winners, who I recently met in London at the great Moo Summer Party.

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Mini Seedcamp London held in late July was the last opportunity for European startups to get chosen to this year's Seedcamp Week taking place in two weeks in London.

I remember summarizing the day of 21 talented teams with five female founders, and once again great co-mentors, in 140 characters: "If 3 worst addictions are: heroin, carbohydrates and monthly salary* then 3 best are: talented, passionate, and generous people #seedcamp". (*Tommy Ahlers quoting Nassim N Taleb at TechCrunch Nordic Copenhagen. Thanks Andreas Kwiatkowski for noting the original quote source.)

Be Careful Who You Take Money From
I also think Max Niederhofer (founder of qwerly, prev. principal, now EIR at Atlas Venture), one the three VC's turned into entrepreneurs together with Avid Larizadeh (co-founder and COO of Boticca, prev. Accel Partners) and Greg Marsh (co-founder and CEO of onefinestay, prev. Index Ventures), in the excellent panel discussion led by Saul Klein, nailed the core message of the day, as the discussion: 

- Be careful who you take money from.
- Follow your passion and build something great.
- Being a venture capitalist is more about psychology and judging people and characters, than about calculating the expected ROI.'

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In case you've missed my earlier Bub.blicio.us story on fashion discovery, just head over to read about hot topics like ModCloth, a San Francisco based indie fashion site featuring vintage-inspired clothing, who recently raised $19.8 Million in funding, Swedish startup Bloglovin' with more than 1,5 Million unique monthly visitors taking over the fashion blogger world, and Fashiolista, a startup from Netherlands, increasing online fashion sales with its addictive "Love it" feature.

Fashion discovery beyond the Facebook like button

And why not get inspired and get yourself a new fashion style for the weekend!

Recommended Swedish reading: A fresh interview with Mattias Swenson, CMO of Bloglovin' about the American fashion blog world by Mikael Zackrisson at Nya Affärer.

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Super Angels

The combination of low barriers to entry and lower capital requirements needed to launch web2.0 services and products is also changing the way (mainly consumer) Internet startups are being financed. The crowing trend of companies making earlier and smaller exits with less funding has led to rise of new type of investors, super angels, i.e. angel investors raising external funds, thereby taking the role of a traditional venture capitalist. Some liked to turn this into a war between angel investors and venture capitalists, such as Michael Arrington, and some just say it like it is, such as Fred Destin. 

I'm glad Fred didn't keep his promise to himself to stay out of the super angels versus VC debate. He makes a clear case by pointing out, how instead of putting name tags on things, one should focus on what really matters, i.e. the social contract between the entrepreneur and the investor, of any kind, when tying the knots of a "financial marriage" (More on the social proof and social contract by Fred Destin).

Although Fred now has left the European soil for Boston, before boarding the plane he gave a shout out for European angels by listing the European angel investor scene, and there sure is nothing to cry about! 

Nordic Perspective
I promised Fred to fill in his list from the Nordic perspective, so here's how the scene in the Nordics looks in general, and in Sweden in particular. (I've excluded Norway angel investor scene, simply because I would have to Google it myself. We would all love to know who the change makers in Norway are. Please, enlighten us!)

Sweden
No, we don't have any super angels, yet. And as correctly pointed out on the update, plenty of US angels are connected and fast, European angels are (generally) hard to find and slow. So be the case even in the Nordics. The current tax regulations on angel investments are unfortunately still not in favour of an entrepreneur wishing to share her or his success by investing in another startup company.

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Picture: Hugh MacLeod a.k.a Gapingvoid: Welcome to Nobody Cares. Population: 6 Billion

(This post is a contribution to a printed(!) book being published by Mattias Boström at Piratförlaget about social media and everything Internet by participants of the Sweden Social Web Camp Conference #SSWC 2010. My pictures from #SSWC 2009)

When the world population is closing on 7 Billion, out of which almost 2 Billion are currently using the Internet, out of which one in four is using Facebook, it becomes evident how the opportunities we as humans are given along with the socialization of the web, are also united with growing challenges.

At the same time as nobody cares, everybody cares. To make someone of the almost 2 Billion people to care enough to personally respond to whatever message you are sending out, should pretty much still to be considered as a miracle. As much as the social web helps us to connect with each other, it also exposes the people and corporations who are in it for themselves. As easy it is to participate, start a cause, a service, ask for help, feedback or advice, as easy it has become to expect not just a reaction, but an immediate reaction, by the responding party. 

As we are slowly beginning to learn how we all need to start to engage or die with our audience and customers, as start to share or die on the Internet, we mustn't forget to remember to say Thank You. And as with any response, the gesture of a thank you is best when it's immediate, human and sincere.

With growing new businesses in the fields of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, not to mention all the unconferences and meetups, where everyone's trying to figure out how to reward the multimotivational human nature, recognition in terms of a personal thank you will always remain a central part (Good thoughts on motivating a crowd by Niel Robertson, CEO of Trada, a crowsourced PPC marketplace). 

David Noël of SoundCloud writes about scaling customer service in a startup, listing universally crucial advice on how to create long term customer relationships. The upside of "Always appreciate any form of feedback" being "happy and frequently stunned customers." I couldn't agree more: There's nothing like getting happy and grateful response on that late night personal reply to a troubled customer. In the times of the growing number of the population Nobody Cares, an absolutely great way to convert customers to your loyal ambassadors, or even better, your paying customers.

Want someone to really care? #ThankOrDie

(Special thanks to Mattias Boström for all the cheering and tireless direct messages to get this thing published in last minute!)

Highly recommended reading:

On creativity: Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

- Ignore everybody for three hours and read this to be able to ask yourself important questions like "What's your cash/sex ratio?". Why? Because you can't afford to ignore your creativity! Thanks @gapingvoid

On how to truly engage your customers with help of social media: Engage by Brian Solis

Buy SSWC-boken 2010!

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