Yoick - Hightechwire

Cyworld, the social networking site that so successfully tapped into the South Korean gifting culture that it has totally dominated the space in that country has set up in the United States.

I knew they’ve had their bus dev scouts in the US for over a year now, but setting up an office in San Francisco is a sign they are confident enough that they can crack the US market.

The big question has and will continue to be, for me, whether the South Korean formula can translate into other cultures. It will also be interesting to see how they morph as a result of US influences.

I’m always excited when I hear of Aussie startups making their path and presence felt in the Valley. While it has become a relatively well established path, I still don’t believe it is one trodden enough. So, you can imagine how good it is to hear of a regional Australian company that has raised its angel funding in the Valley and set up a presence here.

Omnidrive, set up by Nik Cubrilovic, seems to be doing things right. This online storage company was founded in Wollongong (about an hour south of Sydney and affectionately known by locals as the Gong) and now has Menlo Park offices and development taking place in India. You can read more about the company here and also visit their blog .

Here’s the rub…against a backdrop of thousands of new brands appearing daily, you decide to take your destiny into your own hands and create a new online brand. Your friends call you crazy, after all, how can you be heard above all the noise in the marketplace, how can you think anyone will become an evangelist for your brand.

Rest easy, there are 5 rules to creating contagion. Follow these rules and you will be well on your way to getting a strong following and building brand success.

RULE 1: Embrace Messy
The real world isn’t a clean, ordered place. So why should your brand be? Embrace the messy bits, do things when you have yet to perfect them, release alpha. Get out there, push the edges.

RULE 2: Release Control
Don’t think of your brand as a fragile newborn that you need to hold onto tightly and nurture closely without giving it any room to grow unchecked. Instead look at your brand as a sprightly teenager that needs a level of freedom to go into the wide world, explore new avenues and grow in ways you never imagined. Give up some control in your brand to your users, let them evangelise for you and you will be pleasantly surprised at the results.

RULE 3: Back fires
OK, you’ve got your site up and have regular users. Some of them are innovating on your site, but you’d also like to do some really big things on the site. Wisdom says rather pour small amounts of gasoline on the fires your users have already started, than pumping gallons onto large logs that no-one has tested. The analogy is that a fire with a small amount of gasoline on it will be boosted, whereas a log with gallons of gasoline will simply be a …wet log.

RULE 4: Scare yourself
Look for issues that would take you way out of your comfort zone and tackle them. If you go right to the edge and really scare yourself, it’s easy to then deal with the smaller issues closer in to your comfort zone. Continually challenge yourself.

RULE 5: Solve small
Give your users small problems to solve. This gets them used to working with you on building your brand. Once you have established a pattern of problem solving you can ratchet up the size of the problems you open up to your users.

Build these rules into your daily mantra and go build your brand!