“Twitter is the stupidest thing anyone could ever imagine inventing. If I said to you, ‘I’ve got an application that I want you to install that is addictive, time-consuming, cross-platform accessible, and otherwise as sprawling as kudzu,’ would you say yes?”
“You can either speak at people or you can speak with people.”
In helping my org launch an over-arching social media initiative, I’ve been immersed in research over the past several weeks. The idea for me in my role was to help us to be at the leading edge—not the bleeding edge—of social media in our inherently traditional and conservative industry. One of the names that I noticed kept popping up was that of Chris Brogan, so I tracked down his book “Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online.” I found it to be an informal, well-laid-out, easy-to-follow and –digest resource, chock full of useful tools, tips and tidbits.
Overall, the tome itself appears to be a loose collection of his pertinent blog posts, all in one handy place you can carry around, but that’s OK, too. And while the lists of tools to use, topics to touch on and tips for Twitter, blogging, LinkedIn, Flickr, Facebook, freelancing and other channels were good, it was in an unexpected aspect that I found the most value. Its true strength as a resource actually came from the copious references to social media sites, tools and applications that I was unaware of or unfamiliar with. Bookmarking them and then going back to check them out for myself proved to be an invaluable exercise, because it quickly became apparent that it’s possible to get lost and spend all your time trying to use the scores of sites that are supposed to be helping you save that time.
The importance of reading and digesting enormous amounts of content each and every day is another essential bit of wisdom espoused by Brogan. Not only does this help you to drum up ideas for your own social outreach, but it keeps you apprised of what competitors are doing, what has done before and what your audience is seeking. It’s all part of Brogan’s concept of “growing bigger ears”—meaning to listen more and better to what is being said not only about you or your industry, but in the world in general.
“Skim, synthesize and post.”
The overriding message of Brogan’s work, to me, is that social media is about initiative and tools. Understanding the mechanisms that will allow you to engage in the conversation that is going on around, on top of and about your company, then using them (almost all free) to forge ahead with follow-through and consistency is what social networking is truly all about. Bringing value, participating and positioning yourself as an influencer, resource and thought leader can eventually be parlayed into business opportunities. After all, folks do business with who they like, so even if they don’t have a firm need for your services, they may manufacture that need in response to the desire to partner with you specifically, based solely on what they perceive as your helpfulness as a volume information provider.
“The old way of marketing was to put up a ‘free white paper’ and hope that people would give you their e-mail address so that you could market them into submission. The new way is to create useful information or tools and share them for free with your community, without attempting lead capture, then hope that this goodwill translates into links (which help you with search) and also potential prospects.”
Brogan also spend a bit of time examining the failed 1950s-era concept of asses in seats that pervades corporations to this day, as opposed and compared to telecommuting and smart working. The proliferation of remote capability makes it illogical—and really, downright stupid—to force employees to come into the traditional concept of what an office should be for 9.0 hours per day. However, I think he’s essentially pissing in the wind on this one, until the way executive teams measure success undergoes a sea change in most business spaces.
But the reality is that return on investment is not-so-subtly transitioning to return on influence and return on engagement. Whether you choose to pursue these principles through Twitter or blogging or LinkedIn or Facebook or Flickr or wherever is up to you, but the one true truth is that it can no longer be ignored as a trend.
“Analysis paralysis is a terrible thing. Just try something. Even if you launch a really small part of your project’s intentions, now is the right time to try. What’s holding you back?”
I particularly connected with Brogan’s metaphor of viewing social media in much the same light as your local pub. Buy someone else a drink (share information), mind the joint (manage community relationships) and keep in mind what it means to extend that relationship outside the pub (where it really counts).
I’ll certainly drink to that.
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