Keep Your Eye on The Ball

Social tools – and the internet at large – give us unprecedented insight into the world around us in a way we’ve never had before.

They also give us unlimited ability to pay far too much attention to what other people are doing, and formulate opinions, conjecture, assumptions and judgments about it. And waste a crapload of time analyzing others’ shortcomings instead of plowing that energy into doing it different or better for ourselves, our companies, our customers or our clients.

Today, I had an interesting conversation on Twitter about job titles, and abused words like “consultant” (still functional, but overused), “strategist”, “evangelist”, “visionary”, and any number of other catchy words used to try and spice up the mundane. It of course led to the topic of “experts” and “gurus” and how much people loathe those words, most especially when they’re self appointed.

And I guess my final answer is this: who the hell cares?

Let people call themselves whatever they want. Let them abuse Twitter and create fan pages for themselves and market their get rich quick schemes. Unfollow their asses, quit giving them your valuable attention, and go back to work.

The only thing that will ever really highlight the GOOD potential in the social media world is if the people who “get it” spend their time doing solid, progressive work instead of peering over their shoulder at the people “doing it wrong”.

I know it’s frustrating. I know it’s tiresome when someone offends our sense of propriety or appropriateness or even just basic intelligence. And I do believe there is value in constructive analysis if a solid alternative is presented.

But as much as we have to move past the “oh, wow” part of social web stuff and into the “how this applies to real business”, we need to get past the “I hate this, that and the next thing about social media” and instead move toward “I did this, I didn’t do this, here’s why, and here’s how it impacted the world around me.” Think of what you could accomplish, plowing all of that energy into something of substance and sharing your learnings with everyone else.

So, now I’m going to take my own advice (yes, I understand the slight hipocrisy in this very post), stop writing about what I don’t like, and get the hell back to work building stuff – tangible stuff – to share with you.

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The Bridge Between “Evolve” or “Die”

Is it true that you have to evolve or die? Yes.

But no one said you had to do it alone.

There are resources and ideas and discussions, and value in baby steps. You don’t have to do it all tomorrow, or even today. Those that believe in what’s coming – nay, what’s here – want to help you understand what we find so compelling. We want to give you ROI and value and justification and the confidence that you, too, can succeed. We’re still learning too, but we want to bring you with us.

We want business to change because we know (a lot of) it’s broken. We know expectations have changed, and the business-to-customer landscape is being ever flattened. We love it. We embrace it, and we rejoice in it. We want to deliver all the proof. Because we love what we do, and we believe in the potential of each and every person – and company – to change the world if they really want to. We know that change is possible. Change that benefits everyone.

We are patient, and we understand that change is not instant. We know that resources and money and jobs are at stake. We understand that we are questioning the relevance of business practices and job descriptions and industries that have existed, unchallenged, for decades or longer. We are ready to do the hard work to justify that change. We know that evolution at this scale is scary. It shakes your confidence in what you do and who you are, as a professional and as a business, because if we’re telling you to change, we mean to tell you you’ve been doing it wrong.

So have all of us. Some of us are just ready to accept the need for difference, for evolution, and move on now.

Your choice is this. Accept that change is needed, and collaborate with the people around you who believe in that. Discuss. Debate. Collaborate. Act on something. Evolve. Find a path that works for you.

Or, pretend. Pretend that none of this is happening. Act as though the way you’ve always done it will be relevant for another two decades. Or three. Or until you retire. Tell yourself that none of this matters, that it’s a fad, that it’s hype, that it’s not really changing anything. Deny that what’s being talked about is old, old concepts clad in new, new technology. Keep doing what you’re doing and watch the distance between you and your customers – the “community” you all strive for – grow ever greater.

And make no mistake. Your attitude – your defensiveness against what may be unsettling but is real anyway – will give us permission to leave you behind. It frustrates us and leaves us no choice. Because our job is not to convince you. It is to empower you. But we can’t do that until you convince yourself that you’re ready, of your own volition.

Those of us that are learning, trying, educating want to surround ourselves with people who are working as hard as we are to affect change. We believe in this, not because it’s new or fancy or grants us a new title on our business card. It’s because we believe in a new way of doing business. Of communicating and collaborating and building businesses for and among people, not on top of them. Because whether or not we have precedent, we have millennia of human existence that tells us that putting people first is always for the good of the many. Even in business. Even if it’s cheesy. Even if we’ve forgotten.

We want you to come with us, and we’ll give you our ideas and our passion and our knowledge to help you get there if you want it. We are the bridge. But the choice?

That is entirely yours.

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Talk Like We Do

I got a pitch via email today that was actually for something pretty cool, and something I might actually pass along to folks. It included a short informational press release, which was fine.

But I nearly choked on the quote that was in the release. I’ve changed identifying details so as not to embarrass anyone outright, but it was essentially this:

“Consumers are increasingly looking to enjoy their entertainment while mobile and our new Very Cool Video Thing offers the ultimate on-the-go fan experience,” said Big Wig, important title with Big Recognizable Company. “We are excited to bring viewers another compelling option with which to experience our high-quality content and satisfy their curiosity in way that fits their lifestyle.”

Who talks like that??

Yes, yes. I know we were all taught the “protocols” of “proper” corporate communication. But here’s the thing.

The people you want to spread your message – bloggers, community members, “influencers” (whatever that means), regular people – don’t speak this way. We don’t use those words when we’re talking, so we’re going to feel really stupid reiterating things that way if we’re passing along the word to our friends or audience.

We don’t think of themselves as “consumers” or “viewers”. This doesn’t feel like you’re talking to us. It feels like you just want us to do your marketing for you, in your words. Not ours.

I’m actually not sure where we ever got the idea that writing “formally” was so much better than writing conversationally. But I’d really like to undo it. Clear trumps fancy any day of the week.

I know I’m not going to convert the corporate world away from marketing speak anytime soon – heaven knows many of us keep trying – but here are a few tips for and from the rest of us that might help people spread your message and information faster.

The Informational Release

If you want me to pay attention to you, I need to know right out of the gate:

• What you’re telling me about (be brief)
• What you want from me, specifically (hint: “FYI” means “For You to Ignore”)
• Why should I care? **
• Who you are
• How I can contact you for additional information, or where I can find more

Stop there. You’re busy. So am I. Do yourself a favor and give me a few facts to make a yea/nay decision on regarding my interest. Let me ask for more information if I need it, and tell me clearly how and where to get it. More flowery language does not make me more interested in what you’re offering.

Quotes

If you want to provide “approved” quotes for something, fine. But provide ones that sound, well, as if a human actually said them.

Lousy: “Increasingly, our viewership needs Whizbangs in order to achieve their strategic imperatives for content sharing online. We are delighted to be able to provide forward-thinking professionals with the tools they need, in mobile and portable format, to reach a new paradigm and bring value to their community.”

Good: “We’re super excited about the launch of our new Whizbang iPhone app. Our customers told us that they love our programs, but that they wanted to be able to share them with people. So, we built a Whizbang app for the iPhone that stores video clips and makes them easy to send to friends via email, text, or Twitter.”

Seriously. Which one sounds like someone – you?- would actually say it aloud? And as a result, which one do you actually believe?

Tone

I’m saying this on the record. Formal, stilted business-speak is dead or dying. If it’s still alive in your industry, quit making excuses for “the way we’ve always done it” and learn how to communicate like a human (or lead by example). Why? Corporate speak has a thousand limitations. Just a few:

• Most people don’t speak in your jargon.
• People share thoughts that are easy to remember. Your five-dollar words aren’t in that category.
• Big vocabulary does not indicate that you are smart. In fact, we tend to think you’re hiding something behind those big words.
• Your shareholders don’t talk that way, either.
• Clarity and brevity means a much lower risk that you’ll be misquoted or misinterpreted.
• Humans skim. If I have to reread your sentence to understand it, I’m moving on.
• We want to connect with people we can relate to. If you don’t talk like we do, we’re not likely to invite you in for tea.

I can’t stress this enough. You can be professional and clear without being shackled to buzzword bingo. You don’t have to use slang or cuss or be silly. But write like you’d speak to someone out loud and in a conversation. I can nearly guarantee that you’ll get a better response to your stuff.

Don’t Take My Word For It

For the love of all things sacred, read Copyblogger.  Read Bad Pitch Blog. Listen to Jason Falls and Beth Harte and Todd Defren and Brian Solis and Shannon Paul and people who GET what it means to communicate today (and how it should have always been).

Buy and read David Meerman Scott or Geoff Livingston and Brian Solis or Tamar Weinberg or the Brogan/Smith Super Duo.

There are so many resources out there that will guide you about what makes up a good pitch, how communication is changing, and why you can’t keep saying the same old crap you’ve always said.

Talk like us, and we’re much more likely to pay attention. So, sound off, troops, what would you add?

**Note: this isn’t elitist crap. It’s not that your stuff isn’t important. I know it is, to you. But remember, I don’t live in your world, and I have lots of other things I pay attention to, also. So I need to understand why this is relevant to me. Otherwise, it just feels like you’re using me as a bullhorn.

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Productivity and Time Wasters in Social Media

We all want to be more productive and know that where we’re spending our time is worthwhile. I’m asked this question a lot and I see it of others, so I wanted to discuss, in specifics, some of my most productive activities in social media, and some of the biggest time wasters I encounter (and avoid wherever I can).

First, it’s probably helpful for me to articulate my goals for social media participation. Mine might be different than yours, so you need to bear that in mind when reading this. I’m looking at these tasks and activities through this specific lens.

Here’s what I do all this for:

1. It’s my job. I’m the Director of Community for Radian6. Connecting with people is what I do.
2. I am building and strengthening my professional network of people, for both current opportunities and the notion that my network is the key to my future opportunities.
3. I am forging my personal friendships and acquaintances outside geographic limitations.
4. I’m hoping to establish a certain level of trust, expertise, and knowledge in my fields of social media and community for business. I do that both by contributing my experience, and absorbing, discussing, and sharing others’.
5. I’d like my network to be powerful enough to benefit those within it, connecting them through me to each other.

Where my time is well spent:

• My Twitter presence. This touches nearly every goal above. I use Twitter for both personal and professional purposes, and blend my presence there to accommodate both. Twitter is as valuable to me as the phone or email. I do a lot of communicating on Twitter, but it’s dedicated to approachable conversation.
• Attending in-person events. Some of these are focused on business development for my company, or representing our presence as a sponsor. Sometimes, I’m there as a speaker to share knowledge. And still other times, it’s for personal pleasure to meet and visit with people that live far away from me. Most times, it’s a blend of all these things.
• Responding to email. Note how specific I am about this (and see below for the dark side to email). I make great connections by doing my best to respond to everyone who sends me an email, especially those reaching out for the first time. Being responsive and accessible is something at which I try very hard, and it affects my reputation and reliability across all channels.
• Commenting on blogs. I always wish I could do more of this. Commenting on posts gives me a chance to share my thoughts, lets others know where I stand and invites them into dialogue, introduces me to new faces and blogs (via their comments), and brings new visitors back to my blog or company website.
• Keeping up with LinkedIn. I know LinkedIn isn’t very sexy to many people (unless you’re my friend Lewis Howes, and if you want to use it even better than I do, listen to him, not me). But it’s a matrixed contact system that connects me to, among, and through thousands of people. I lurk on a lot of groups, see what’s being talked about. I even sometimes use the Q&A to see what people are asking about in my arena to inspire blog topics or discussions.
• Content creation and sharing. This is through my writing (both personally and professionally), a few selective communities I belong to (like the Community Roundtable) creating and distributing content for Radian6, speaking, and doing things like webinars. I’m a HUGE proponent of giving away anything that’s not nailed down and won’t get you sued or fired. The more I can share, the more discussion I have, the more I learn, and the more helpful I can be to others. It comes back around, every time.
• Reading books. I still learn a lot from books. The old fashioned kind. With pages and everything.

Biggest time wasters:

• Sifting through email. I recently deleted over 30,000 archived messages and started fresh. I delete ruthlessly and keep only what I absolutely must. And now, I’m using Gmail to tag and archive things. My inbox has 10 messages in it. Listen to Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero.
• Phone calls. I know I’m going to get slapped for this one, but I hate the phone for conducting business. (I hate it much less for personal contact). I know some people will only work that way, and I accommodate when that’s the case. But phone calls are often inefficient and ramble off topic, especially the dreaded conference call. I much prefer collaborative information sharing like Google Docs instead, or burst communication like IM or email. If you must have a phone call, have an agenda, get through the points (with next steps clearly stated), and be done.
• Subscribing to a zillion blogs (and thinking you’ll keep up). I overhauled my Google Reader. I have a couple of dozen blogs in there now, and they’re my triage system for what’s happening in the world of business (and a few that I just enjoy so much personally that I’d never want to miss them). The rest I touch through other channels like Twitter or Facebook. My trusted network shares the good stuff, and I do the same. I see more that way and don’t lose hours skimming and sifting.
• Trying to be everywhere online. I know where my leverage is. For me, it’s blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (in that order). You may have forums in the mix. Maybe you love Facebook most of all. It’s all about what works for you, but I really do think focus is critical or you’re not really getting deep or valuable anywhere. You’re just surface skimming.
• Beating dead horses. I love a good, intelligent (even heated) debate or discussion as much as anyone, and I never fail to learn from someone or two when I have one. But I draw the line at ramptant negativity without movement toward an alternative, bullying, or feeding trolls. I won’t indulge the drama or get embroiled in conversations that don’t lead anywhere. I’d rather go put my time into creating or improving something.
• Mainstream news. If I’m watching TV or listening to NPR its for entertainment only. I don’t get my news this way. I get news faster and more diversified online.

So before you lynch me, I do realize that not everything has to be about getting something done. I “waste” time doing all kinds of things for pleasure or fun or relaxation. But when it comes to social media and my business future, I really do have a purpose, and these are the things that help get me there. You’re going to have a different take, and I think that’s great. Maybe mine is helpful to you, or not. Let me know?

And please share what you find super productive and where you feel like you’re burning time. Perhaps we’ll all learn a thing or three from you.

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What To Love about Trust Agents

I don’t often do book reviews. I read TONS of books, usually several simultaneously, and I suppose I’m just not usually focused on them as part of my blogging (and I probably think other people do reviews better than I do). But I wanted to share my initial thoughts after voraciously consuming Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s newly minted Trust Agents. Why?

• Chris and Julien are good friends of mine. That means I’m biased toward their success, I’m excited about the book, and I wanted to draw attention to their acheivement. (No they didn’t pay me or bribe me or give me a pony to write this. They were kind enough to send me an advance copy of the book.)
• They’ve earned my trust. Ironic? I think not. Did I mention I’m biased?
• The book is GOOD. Really good. And worth your attention, if it’s not on your radar already.

One of the principal things I love about this book – or the topic, really – is that the conversation around trust and what builds, defines, and removes it never gets old to me. Especially in a business context, and in an online universe where our attention and sense of what’s useful is more splintered than ever before.

Chris and Julien aren’t going to tell you how to win trust. That’s up to you. (Sorry). What they do do, however, is very artfully point out some of the behaviors and actions – especially amongst the anonymity online – that engender trust in others.

They do so simply. Clearly. Articulately. They say it’s about trust, but I’m saying it’s even more about just new human dynamics and behaviors in a digitized world.  And Chris and Julien beautifully bridge some ideas and concepts that we often brush past, but rarely articulate. Things like:

• There is great power in how the web enables you to spread, propegate, and share information without immediate presence
• Reliability is a consistent thread among people that rock what they do
• There’s a delicate balance between “leveraging” and “using like yesterday’s washrag” (my indelicate words, not theirs, but a concept that I’d love to introduce to some people personally)
• Doing good things is as much about faith about the return than the expectation of same
• Sucking up isn’t the smart game, but raising up those around you is
• The absence of non-verbal cues on the web makes communicating (and interpreting) there far different
• Build community by protecting them, not using them
• Sharing your influence exponentially builds yours
• The choice about whether or not to immerse yourself in this new era is yours alone.
  

Simple ideas, yes. But damn hard to do well. Here’s what I wish you’d do.

If you’re the person that would call yourself a Trust Agent, buy the book anyway as credentials of your membership in that tribe. Read it. Be affirmed. Learn a few new things along the way.

Then buy two, five, or a hundred more copies and give them to the people that AREN’T. Use your knowledge of the importance of these concepts to share them with the person who most needs to read this book (and might be the least likely to buy it, since they don’t think they need it). Tell them what you found valuable. Make sure they read the parts you need them to read.

I have several extra copies on their way to my house as we speak. What I’m going to do with them yet I’m not sure. I’ll definitely give them away. But I’m thinking of ways to put them in the hands of people that want to be Trust Agents but might need some guidance to get there. The new web is a tricksy place, and I think Chris and Julien have written an awfully good guide to the principles behind it.

It’s a human book about human principles. I know it’s a business book technically, and I think businesses seeking to understand the social web will do well to read it. But the real power is going to be in how the people behind those businesses absorb and put those lessons to use.

I learned a few things and scribbled down a dozen ideas. If you haven’t ordered yours already, what are you waiting for?

Kudos to my friends Chris and Julien on saying many things that needed to be said, and doing so with clarity and elegance. Congrats, you guys.