你的社交网络了解你多少？是不是太多了？谷歌（Google）的无孔不入和Facebook的无所不知让很多人感到害怕，但是曾在迪斯尼（Disney）和惠普（Hewlett-Packard）担任过市场高管的迈克尔•曼登豪却认为，在用户的个性特征上，社交网络可谓一无所知。他说：“这些网站是用来聊天、分享、发现和交友的，它们从来不问关于你这个人本身的事，它们不知道你是个什么样的人。”

    针对这个问题，曼登豪专门于去年11月推出了一个名叫ArchetypeMe的社交网站。曼登豪相信，用户想要的是一个更智能、更“懂你”的社交网络，可以根据你的个性定制内容，而不是根据你的朋友或是根据你的职业。这个网站目前仍处在内测阶段，它的宗旨是“重新定义个人搜索和个人品牌打造”，让用户和最感兴趣的事物联系起来。曼登豪说：“大家总是听到企业拿‘个性化’说事，但我还没见过真正个性化的产品。”

    为了实现这个目标，ArchetypeMe既有点像Facebook，又有点像瑞典著名心理学家卡尔•荣格，还有点像电视购物频道QVC。换句话说，它不是我们常见的那种典型的社交网络。这个网站是曼登豪与化妆品企业家克里斯蒂娜•卡利诺一同创办的。当时，卡利诺找到曼登豪，提出了这样一个设想：是否可以建立一个社交平台，以一种更加个性化的方法推送内容、推广产品——即通过人类的心理原型或行为模式来做社交网站。

    卡利诺之前曾创立过两家护肤品公司，而且研究过多年心理学的“原型”理论。她的这个灵感是2009年一次给自己衣橱里的衣服归类时诞生的，那时她正经历着自己的“原型危机”。当时卡利诺刚刚失去了对第二家公司的创造性控制。她说：“我那时就像一个失去了国土的女王。”她说，在一大堆的西装、孕妇装、创意时装里，“我看到了我的‘原型’”。同时，她也看到了多年来她尝试过的许多并不那么适合她的角色，而且觉得，其他人也应该通过自我认识来帮助自己做决定——不管是在买鞋、家居装饰、事业还是在情感上。

    曼登豪也渐渐对社交网络内容筛选的不完美以及算法的种种限制感到失望，因此与卡利诺一拍即合。他说：“唯一真正试图了解你的网站就是婚恋交友网站。”

    卡利诺与曼登豪会面的时候，曼登豪正在一家名叫Revolate Holdings的公司担任合伙人、总裁兼首席运营官。这家公司是2011年创立的一家私募股权公司，旗下拥有纽约的Lipman广告公司。这家公司不仅对创业公司进行投资，还利用内部市场帮助这些公司做推广。曼登豪现任Archetypes公司的CEO，卡利诺则担任公司的常务董事长，Revolate公司的大卫•利普曼和安德鲁•斯佩尔曼也是Archetypes公司的共同创始人。Archetypes是ArchetypeMe的母公司，旗下还拥有一些出版、制造和品牌推广公司，现在这家公司已经募集了1,900万美元的资金。

    How much do your social networks know about you? Too much? While many fear Google's creep and Facebook's omniscience, Michael Mendenhall, a former marketing executive at Disney and Hewlett-Packard suspects social networks are clueless when it comes to users' personalities. "Those sites are about chatting, sharing, discovery and connections," he argues. "They never ask you about yourself. They don't know who you are."

    Mendenhall's answer is startup ArchetypeMe, which launched in November last year. Mendenhall is betting users want a smarter, more-knowing network that will customize content, not according to your friends or profession, but in light of your personality. The website, which is currently in beta testing, aims to "redefine personal search and personal branding" by connecting users with what's most relevant to them. "You always hear personalization, but I have yet to see it," says Mendenhall.

    To that end, ArchetypeMe is part-Facebook (FB), part-Carl Jung, part-QVC. In other words, the site is not exactly your typical social network. Mendenhall founded the site with cosmetics entrepreneur Cristina Carlino when she approached him with an idea to build a social platform to distribute content and market products in a more personalized way: by archetypes or patterns of behavior.

    For Carlino, who previously founded two skin care companies and has long studied archetypes, the Eureka moment came in 2009, in the midst of her own "archetypal crisis," as she sorted clothes on her closet floor. At the time, Carlino had just lost creative control of her second company. "I was a queen losing my queendom", she says. In the mounds of clothing -- business suits, maternity wear, creative garb -- "I saw my archetypes," she explains. She also saw the less suitable roles she had tried on over the years and decided others should be empowered in their decisions -- be they about shoes, home decor, careers, or relationships -- through self-knowledge.

    Carlino's idea resonated with Mendenhall who had grown frustrated with imperfect content filters and the limits of algorithms while working in Silicon Valley. "The only sites that really try to figure you out are dating sites," he says.

    Carlino met Mendenhall when he was being recruited by Revolate Holdings to become partner, President and COO. Revolate is a private equity firm founded in 2011 that owns Lipman, the New York advertising agency. The company invests in startups that it helps promote with its in-house marketing. Mendenhall now serves as Archetypes' CEO; Carlino is the company's executive chair. Revolate's David Lipman and Andrew Spellman are also Archetypes co-founders. Archetypes, which is the parent company of ArchetypeMe as well as publishing, productions, and branding companies, has raised $19 million in funding.

    ArchetypeMe的工作原理是怎样的呢？要想注册这个网站，首先要回答8道多项选择题，比如：“我的朋友在哪种情况下会首先想到我？A：需要时尚方面的建议；B：需要一个可以哭泣的肩膀；C：想了解全球大事。”又或：“我忍不住要：A：帮助人；B：祈祷；C：从与众不同的角度看问题。”在每个问题的10个选项中，用户最多可以选择3个答案。网站会由此了解用户的心理“原型”——可能是知心大姐，也可能是时尚狂人，抑或是睿智达人。每个性别都有10种可能的原型，每个原型都有属于自己的定制内容和社区页面，下个月还将加入电子商务的内容。

    通过这样简单的途径就能了解你的“真我”，听起来似乎太简单了。不过曼登豪称，在鉴定一个人的原型上，这个网站的准确率是85%。但ArchetypeMe公司花了好几个月的时间研究这些个性测试题背后的算法和科学依据。这些题目最开始是由卡利诺在一个性格评估专家的帮助下编写的，并且经过了直觉与原型学专家凯洛琳•梅丝以及一些行为心理学专家学者的审定。公司最后只敲定了8道题目和10个“原型”，以避免导致用户无所适从。对原型理论感兴趣的读者可以访问“Archepedia”网站。

    尽管这是一个由数学算法构建起来的网站，但它事实上并不死板。曼登豪称：“这不是一个一成不变的网站。”用户很容易就可以更改自己的“原型”。（心理学家荣格认为，人的“原型”在真实生活也是会改变的。）卡利诺坦承这些原型可能并不适用于每一个人。她还举了星座理论做例子，不过她补充道，“原型”是一种用来组织内容、简单而全球通用的语言。

    ArchetypeMe的另一个特征是它的内容。虽然Facebook、Twitter和YouTube等网站的内容都是由用户自己贡献的，打磨ArchetypeMe的基础架构却是基于一家媒体公司。这家公司的35名员工里有不少都是撰稿人、编辑和设计师出身，他们已经出版了20期叫做《每一天的我》（The Daily Me）的读物，也就是每个原型一份。Archetype的出版资源和视频资产也让网站增色不少。到目前为止，他们已经出版了一本由凯洛琳•梅丝撰写的著作。这本书共有244页，而且目前还在创作一部20集的网络电视剧，主角是CBS电视台《今晨》（This Morning）节目的主持人李•伍德拉夫。梅丝的书和这部网络剧都谈到了“原型”理论。

    ArchetypeMe的内容目前有70%是由网站自己制作的，曼登豪表示，这个比例以后可能会有所变化。这个网站的界面有点像另一个社交网站Pinterest，主要提供短小且易于分享的内容。它们大多是短帖，少有长篇文章，目标对象是各个不同的“原型”群体。比如对于“知心大姐”们，她们的页面上就有《奥巴马第一任期内的8个最佳拥抱》（The 8 Best Hugs of President Obama's First Term）、《给朋友的爱心食物》（Comfort Food for Friends）等网帖。有些帖子是专门谈“原型”的，比如《原型一览表》，还有些帖子给名人的“原型”进行了归类的，比如安妮•海瑟薇是时尚狂人、伽利略和哈里王子是反抗者等等。还有些帖子与“原型”毫无关系（比如有一个视频提供的是“超级碗”杯期间的聚会建议）。

    曼登豪与网站总编辑丽莎•嘉伯希望把《每一天的我》的内容做成更大的、具有认知度的产品，并且扩展到其它媒体平台。比如“时尚狂人”群组的《每一天的我》有一个每周专栏，取名“赤裸裸”（Bare Naked），由一位很有前途、但不愿透露真实姓名的外国时尚模特担任主笔。网站方面相信，这个专栏上的文章可以改编成一个很好的网络电视剧。用户也可以通过“我”和“你”两个按键发布、分享或把内容转载到其它网站。不过当用户发布或分享内容时，他们得先给内容划分一个“原型”，曼登豪表示这样可以形成一个数据点，最终帮助编辑对内容进行定制处理。

    这家网站对自己的市场潜力充满了信心，同时也相信它会更高效地把消费者和市场联系在一起。比如曼登豪表示，精神主义者可能喜欢蜡烛、薰香或是其它宗教仪式用品，时尚狂人更喜欢让他们自行设计时尚产品的营销活动。曼登豪有信心发起一场在线广告业革命。他认为，更加微妙的营销能改善现状——而现状就是“网站让我们同质化了。”那么曼登豪的原型是什么？毋庸多言，他属于梦想家型。（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    How does ArchetypeMe work? Signing up for the site begins with a multiple choice, eight-question quiz. The test asks users to complete statements like I'm first on my friends' list for: Fashion advice; a shoulder to cry on; world news, and I can't stop: Helping; praying; seeing things differently. Users can select up to three of 10 possible responses per question. The site then reveals the user's archetype, which can range from Caregiver to Fashionista (a Gentleman if you're male) or Intellectual. There are 10 possible archetypes per gender, each of which comes with its own customized content and community page. Commerce will be added next month.

    That may sound too simple a means to get to the "real you," but Mendenhall claims the process is 85% accurate in identifying a person's primary type. ArchetypeMe spent months honing the math and science behind the quiz, which was developed by Carlino with the help of a personality assessment expert and vetted by medical intuitive and archectype scholar Caroline Myss as well as behavioral psychologists and quants. The company settled on just eight questions and 10 archetypal families to avoid overwhelming users. Those interested in archetypes can explore the site's "Archepedia."

    Despite being rooted in math, ArchetypeMe is not as rigid as it may sound -- "this is not a site about stereotypes," says Mendenhall -- and the site makes it quite easy for users to change archetype. (By Jung's teaching, archetypes change in real life too.) Carlino acknowledges that archetypes might not be for everyone. She likens them to astrology but adds that they're a simple and universal language to organize content.

    Content is another of ArchetypeMe's distinguishing characteristics. While Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (GOOG) began as platforms for user-generated content, ArchetypeMe launched with the infrastructure of a media company. Among the start-up's 35 employees are writers, editors, and designers who publish 20 editions of the "The Daily Me" -- one for each archetype. Archetype's publishing and video production properties augment the site's offerings; so far they've published a 244-page book by Caroline Myss and are midway through production of a 20-webisode series featuring CBS This Morning's Lee Woodruff, both on the subject of archetypes.

    ArchetypeMe currently produces about 70% of its own content, a figure Mendenhall says could shift over time. The site has the looks of Pinterest and features content that is short, shareable -- posts rather than articles -- and targets the various archetypal groups. The Caregiver page, for example, features "The 8 Best Hugs of President Obama's First Term" and a post on "Comfort Food for Friends." Posts across the site range from archetype-specific -- "Alphabet of Archetypes" and celebrity archetyping posts: Anne Hathaway is a Fashionista; Galileo and Prince Harry are Rebels -- to those that are not at all (a goofy video offering Super Bowl party tips).

    Mendenhall and the site's editor-in-chief, Lisa Gabor, hope to spin-off content from the various Daily Me's into larger, recognizable franchises and onto other media platforms. For example, the Fashionista's Daily Me has a weekly column, 'Bare Naked' penned by an anonymous up-and-coming foreign fashion model that they believe could translate well to a scripted Web series. Users can also post and share content from the site or the wider Web through 'Me' (as in, "this is so me") and 'You' buttons; when they do, the user must first archetype the content, a step that Mendenhall says will be a data point that ultimately helps editors customize content.

    The company is not shy about the marketing potential of the site, or the happy more efficient union it could bring consumers and the marketplace. For example, Mendenhall says Spirituals are into candles, fragrances, and other products that evoke ritual; Fashionistas meanwhile are more responsive to marketing that allows them to style products themselves. Mendenhall has ambitions to revolutionize online advertising. He sees more nuanced marketing as an improvement over the status quo -- "sites homogenize you," he says. His lead archetype? Visionary, naturally.