Act Globally, Transform Locally
When the phrase “Think Globally, Act Locally” gained momentum in the early 1970s, ours was a very different world. A full decade before fax machines became ubiquitous and about a quarter-century until the world wide web became a thing, the admonition made a lot of sense.
But today, as I write this at my kitchen table – ordered to stay-at-home, but with unfettered access to a global network of doers via LinkedIn – I think the phrase turned on its head. Today, your power to act globally is stunning. Today, an idea shared digitally with your friends has the potential to transform the lives of people in your network, their networks, and their networks’ networks, all across the globe. And with astonishing speed.
Think about the site you are reading this on. According to Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn intends to “create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce” by “connecting the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful”. We love that! But that’s “only” global.
In essence, Twyne’s mission is to make LinkedIn’s vision hyper-local, deeply personal, and real life. That is, instead of building another online presence and adding to the 1200 or so digital connections you already have, our goal is to add just a dozen or so real-life friends to you – in your local community. People you can easily meet for coffee. People whose place you probably walk by all the time. People who may become your lifelong friends.
That’s what I mean by “transform locally”. All the stay-at-home order did was put it into even sharper focus. And so, with the pandemic as background, we made a couple of exciting tweaks to Twyne. First, we turned off the co-riding requirement. Second, we made it available EVERYWHERE (Twyne was limited to Los Angeles). Then, we made it FREE to use for anyone. But the real twist is this: No matter where you are, Twyne now introduces you to the 50 Twyne members closest to you. In real life. Instantaneously.
LOCAL. FREE. EVERYWHERE.
Imagine joining an instant local network in real life, from the comfort of your home, just by logging on. No new online network to build from scratch. No “friend requests" to send. Instead, it’s like walking into your neighborhood coffee shop …only everyone properly introduces themselves to you with their public LinkedIn profile headline. With the introduction ready-made and the ice broken, all that’s left to say is Hello!
Think of Twyne as a hyper-local and human connection focussed LinkedIn. To borrow some of Jeff Weiner's language, Twyne’s vision is to create social opportunities for every member of your local community by intertwining your neighborhood’s working professionals to make them more productive and successful.
An invitation to act globally ...and transform your life and community locally.
So with that, I invite you – and all your LinkedIn connections – to get the free version of Twyne, Hello! edition. You won’t be able to co-ride for the time being, but, you’ll give yourself and everyone in your (global) network the opportunity to make new and lasting LOCAL connections right where they are. In turn, when they invite their connections, they will give the same opportunity right back to you – because, of course, their (global) networks are connected to your LOCAL neighbors.
The best part? The neighbors you meet from home now will still be there when it's safe to venture back out.