You Can’t Take It With You - Working Smarter
June 1, 2009
We’re going to get a little Zen today, considering the things in the news (GM Bankruptcy, and the Air France plane disappearance) and I’m going to dust off a post I’ve been working on for awhile but never got around to sending up.
What are you working for?
Seriously. You might be putting in lots of hours doing lots of “projects,” but are they accomplishing anything?
Some folks their goal is money. Others are helping people. Others are causes. Even others are just to make beautiful things. Whatever success means to you, you should go for it.
However, even though not everything is a “hard” ROI (Return on Investment), do you have at least an idea of how much effort you’re putting in to get something out? Are you actually being effective, or are you THINKING you’re effective?
This isn’t about being lazy, it’s about being able to do as much as possible without sacrificing your life (and in fact, enhancing it). After all, you can’t take it with you - at least in my humble opinion, the people are the most important things in this equation… and small adjustments can make huge gains.
In this era of the micro-entrepreneur, there’s many factors at play. The stress of directly seeing work to money coming in (or not coming in), the stress of the business functions (which you should seriously consider outsourcing if you’re not good at it), the stress of others around you feeling like “it’s not a real job.”
Keys To Success (Garnered From Others)
So here’s some things I’ve found from others - and it’s always a work in progress, including myself.
Work to Build a Positive Reputation
Is your reputation and lifestyle inline with your personal objectives? Are you portraying leadership, or are you portraying being lost? Are you over-committing on a regular basis, and then not delivering? Take it from someone who knows - less is more sometimes.
It’s better to do a few marketing objectives and do them well than spread yourself too thin. After all, the impression you leave when you half-ass things is that you’re…. half assed.
For instance, even though people may like you at the bar, I’ve never met a truly successful person who thinks highly of people or trust people who regularly close it down. Have fun, but everything in moderation.
Say No
If your inputs and your outputs don’t match, something needs to change. And saying “no” is really scary in this “economy,” I know. However, if there’s anything I’ve learned, “no” is the most powerful word in your arsenal. Use it wisely, but don’t be afraid to use it.
Network In The Right Places
Are you talking to people who actually can help you, or are you just trolling every networking event? Bruce, our Business Acceleration Engineer, goes through the networking “calendar” and we figure out what actually will be a benefit. After all, one of the 48 rules of power is to use absence to increase respect and power.
Get Yourself Together
You’re going to be a lot less effective if you’re chasing demons. Go to counseling, take a walk, find positive friends that reinforce you and stay away from those who are unhappy, drag you down, or are stuck in the same place. I recently went back to an old neighborhood, and it scared me how many people were in the exact same place they were six years ago.
And I’m not talking physical place; I’m talking about mental, career, and/or personal place. I know lots of people who stay in the same neighborhood but do lots of growing. Misery loves company, and don’t be it’s friend. It’s hard because it’s comfortable - you know these people - and it’s easier to complain - but if you’re not growing and challenging each other, you’re not going to move forward. If you find that you’re in the same place, not making more money, or working more hours for less, or generally unhappy, it’s amazing how a true “people review” can make huge gains.
Dust Yourself Off
Some of the things are tough to swallow, but to realize we’re all not perfect and we’ve all made these mistakes - including me. Life is a process, not an answer. You’re always going to have more “layers to the onion” because unless you’re static (and I sincerely hope you’re not completely static) and it’s AOK to not be “perfect” because you rock the way you are - just keep going towards your goals. You’ll get there, if you truly want to.
What are your tips? What have you found? Share them below. I’d love to hear from you.
(Author’s Note: This post was inspired by various friends, a grungeaoke conversation, along with an email conversation I had with someone I mentor).
Be A Person
May 27, 2009
I was doing some research and the best summary of what I was thinking this morning what to advise in social media is…
Be A Person.
Jon Stewart said it best - video has some words objectionable to some (PG-13). I’ll leave today’s post at that.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| Be a Person - Dealer or No Dealer | ||||
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“It’s The Relationship, Stupid.”
May 24, 2009
A common thing we run across is “messaging” with social media. Meetings, consternation, and time spent - valuable, and can be productive time, thinking about what you’re going to say, how you’re going to say/communicate it. But then the other half of the loop isn’t closed and folks wonder why they’re not successful.
You can have a very effective message - but you can still snap defeat from the jaws of victory in social media because the conversation is just as important, if not more so, than the message.
The street is two-way; leaving comments languish for a long time, not responding to them, or even not thinking about your message in a way that your readership does.
There’s a couple of thoughts or best practices (I don’t like “rules” word) that we’ve seen.
1) Make sure your content is good. Write with people you respect in mind. Would they appreciate it? Would they find it valuable? Is there a real takeaway? Is it not a pitch?
2) When there’s conversation, engage it. If you moderate comments, act quickly on approval. If you have someone ask questions or make good points, talk it out. That’s what is key to building that loyal following that will spread a message. There’s a saying that “It’s the Economy, stupid,” but in social media, “It’s the relationship, stupid.”
3) People don’t generally fall in love with brands, they fall in love with people. Almost every successful engagement we’ve had has been built around positive personal stories. As a for instance, Oprah doesn’t look for brands, she looks for life-changing stories of people. In short, an emotional “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM). You can build a brand that people love, but the personal story is a much more effective route. And after all - the brands that people love are made up and have proponents that tell…. their personal story. So either way, it’s about the people.
This is a hard one for folks to wrap their head around, especially if their experience is in the one-way world of press releases and advertising… if not outright frightening. But that change is here.
A wise advertising mentor of mine from a top flight national agency taught me that the only constant is change and to cautiously embrace it as it comes to stay ahead. That advice has served me well the past ten years.
Photo Credit Brian Ambrozy, @primesuspect and Icrontian.Multichannel Social Media Overload And The Hard Truth
May 5, 2009
First, read this on how social media really works.
Back? Okay. Taken a Tums if you’re a shill? Good. Hope you feel better now.
I preface my post with that link because I think there’s a cadre of people who need to calm the &^*$ down and stop the noise. It’s not the number of Twitter status updates that’s going to get your company or product noticed. It’s if your product/service rocks and is compelling, and then being willing to be part (not try to own) the conversation.
The Hard Truth
There’s quite a few people now - in fact, the majority in number but not in weight of so-called experts - who are going down this path of being constant interference. Whether it’s constantly 8 or 10 Tweets in a row, or the only Facebook status updates someone does are “come to my seminar and you’ll be *insert betterment here*” it’s just too much.
I fully believe those folks that turn up the pitch level are sacrificing making something great… something that they’re passionate about - for a get-rich scheme, or a multi-level marketing pyramid. People are generally afraid to be themselves, and feel like this is some sort of pitch arena. Like Facebook was made for people to stuff their sales down your throat, and it wasn’t. It was meant to connect people, and hold people together.
Let’s remember that the next time (whomever you are) hits the tweet or status button four times in a row for your *insert betterment here* package. And remember this is a community, and what normally happens to the guy who goes door to door in your community? Uh huh. Unless you’ve converted to four religions in the past five years and bought two sets of Encyclopedia Britannicas, you’ve probably ignored them.
Even Though You Didn’t Tell Me, I Know You Faked It
The other side of this issue is the passion equation. Is it your true passion - or is it just your job? You can tell the people who are on social media to be on it - they figure they HAVE to be. There’s a great post by Stacy Lukas (Her snark/sass is on Twitter too) that touches on this.
For the “jobbers,” who do the Holy Trinity and say their social media Hail Marys, you can see the lack of passion, the weaving of the press release, into their posts. They live in the shadow of the real deal, attempting to fill niches already filled.
It’s not a part of their life, it’s a check box ticked.
So the next time you put together something for social media - think about if you’re being authentic, if you’re doing it right.
I leave you with a thought from Merlin Mann:
Zappos is on Twitter, but they also put millions of dollars on awesome service before then. Having a twitter account does not make you Zappos. Having the resources to serve your audience makes you Zappos. Registering and responding to an email does not make you Zappos.
p.s. - Yep, just looked at the posts, this is officially the start of my fourth year on this blog. More on that next time. But thank you all.
Detroit’s Ultimate Social Media Bar
April 20, 2009
There’s a bar that’s “got” the core concepts of social media from the beginning, better than most companies and establishments - but there hasn’t even been a Tweetup there.
The place embraces all the tenants of social media; but doesn’t as a part of a contrived strategy but just because it is simply the best thing to do.
How does it do this?
- It encourages conversation. The bar is round, not square, so that you can have a conversation much easier. I’ve met so many new friends - and had great memories with old ones - in part due to the conducive nature of the layout to conversation. No awkward leans; and it’s way easier for a group of three or four to have a chat at the bar without getting a table; and that’s really important when meeting new people.
- It helps others out. The story NPR had told, about helping out another local pizza business by buying ALL of it’s inventory it’s first night and then promoting it at THEIR bar, is fundamentally what social media is all about. Promote each other with reckless abandon, and the results will come back to you.
- The Park Bar found a niche and stuck to it. The Park is a little out of the way, just a block off of Foxtown and a block off of Grand Circus Park, tucked away across from what was once a beautiful building. But, it, next to Cliff Bells, has carved out a great niche of being great for bringing new people around for AND as a beloved spot for us locals. It doesn’t try to be Hard Rock; it doesn’t try to be Hockeytown; it is what it is.
- It is loyal to it’s community. You can’t turn on the TV for a non-Detroit sports team, plain and simple. You can ask, but it’s not going to happen. It’s community is Detroit, and that’s how it is.
I think the lesson for us all is that none of these social media tenets or ideas are new; they’re very old but wrapped up today in slick ajax and a bubbly font. In short, the Park Bar has found success using the ideals of social media, and it doesn’t even have a Twitter account.
(Photo Sourced from the Park Bar’s MySpace Page)
