First, let me tell a story that I head from Osho and then make a few comments.
So, here goes the story:
This is a Sufi story. There were two disciples learning from a master. They were also close friends. Everyday they would meditate for hours inside and then go to the garden and doing walking meditation.
Both of them being smokers, they hatched a plan to ask the master for permission to smoke when they were in the garden. They thought it won’t be nice to smoke inside the house but smoking the garden should be OK. They decided to seek the Master’s permission next day.
Next day they checked with the Master separately.
In the evening when they started their walking meditation, one of the disciples took out his cigarette and started smoking. The other one was shocked and told the smoker that it’s not wise to go against the Master’s orders.
The smoker was surprised and said that when he checked with the Master, the master had given him permission to smoke.
Now, it was the first person’s turn to NOT only be surprised but also to be upset that the Master had said “No” to him and had said “Yes” to his friend.
The smoker asked – “So what did you ask the Master?”
The non-smoker said – “I asked whether I can smoke while doing walking meditation?”
The smoker smiled and said – “OK that explains it. I asked whether I can do walking meditation while smoking?”
I have talked about the power of questions before but this story nails it.
The way non-smoker put the question made it look like there was lack of dedication.
The way the smoker put the question made it look like he was walking the extra mile.
The “social” in social media is what sets social media apart from other kinds of media.
To succeed with social media, you begin with cultivating a social media mindset.
Here are 12 elements that you can focus on to build the right mindset for participating and succeeding with social media.
1. Caring
As the old saying goes, “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Just to be clear – it is implied that “caring” here refers to caring about others and NOT caring about yourself. You will always care about yourself so you won’t get brownie points for demonstrating that to the world.
When you genuinely care about helping others, it shows up in everything that you put out there.
Soon the world will reciprocate and magic happens.
Someone who is interested in you AND is interesting
It can be #2 or #3 but it is rarely #1.
When you are NOT curious about others, you SKIP listening to what others care about (as you are mostly focused on yourself.) When you don’t listen to what they care about, you simply can’t care about what they care about.
So it starts with curiosity. That’s the first step.
You need to bring something to the party. And it better be valuable. Participation in social media is great but participation with real contribution makes it even better.
There are people who shy away from social media citing there is “too much noise.” They are right and wrong. Yes, there is too much noise. But no, that is not the reason to shy away from social media. In fact, that may be the reason for you to jump right in – make valuable contributions and increase the signal-to-noise ratio out there.
Content is the bedrock of any social media participation – be it a blog post, a podcast, a video or a tweet – all you are doing is creating content. If you consistently produce compelling content that takes care of the concerns of your audience, you have a winner there.
Producing great content takes time and producing great content that that is entirely focused on your audience takes MORE time. You can treat that as “work” or you can treat that as an “investment.” That latter would give you more power.
Clarity goes both ways. It is implied that great content already means that it is clear.
I was looking at clarity from the viewpoint of your audience. Right now in the areas that matter to them, they are looking for “clarity.” Whatever they want to do, there are multiple options or choices and if your content helps them clarify things, they will love it.
Your content is valuable if it moves someone from “confusion” to “clarity.” Confusion eats away someone’s MOST valuable resource – TIME. If you are content helps clear that confusion, you have given them a gift.
In social media, you win with engagement. Engagement is a higher level of emotional connection. It starts with conversation. A conversation is where two or more people are listening and talking. Both listening and talking are important to fully participate in social media.
The more you are engaged in conversations that will increase the collective capacity of the participants, higher your own return in this investment.
Every conversation is important. As my favorite author Susan Scott says in her insightful book “Fierce Conversations” – “The conversation is the relationship, and – while no single conversation is guaranteed to change the trajectory of a career, a company, a relationship, or a life – any single conversation can.”
7. Creativity
The barrier to entry for social media is almost nothing – meaning anybody can get into social media anytime. So you need to do SOMETHING to set yourself apart from the crowd. That’s where you creativity comes in.
Stretch your imagination and get your creative juices flowing. Spend a few extra minutes to see if there is another angle to saying the exact thing that you were going to say.
What can you do to make what you are saying more interesting?
Make that “extra” investment to get those “extra” rewards.
Character here is your personality and your personal brand. Who you are comes across more strongly than what you say and who you are seriously influences how what you say is perceived by others.
The stronger your personal brand, more the weightage to what you say – this means not only you have to invest in social media, you have to invest on yourself to grow and be better.
You can’t scale great heights alone. You need the community to help you. If you look at it another way, the community needs you – as others in the community also can’t scale great heights alone.
Whatever you can do to help make the community stronger will benefit everyone in the community.
Things are interconnected when it comes to how you work within a community. Your level of influence goes up with the level of your caring and contribution. As the level of your contribution goes up, it becomes easier to make more valuable contributions. it is a virtuous cycle.
If you want to do a quick test about your level of engagement with the community, ask yourself this question:
If I disappear from the community today, how big of a VOID will I create in the community?
There is no right or wrong answer to this question but whatever that answer is, it should give you a pretty good indication of the value that you bring to the community.
10. Courage
There are two distinct ways to participate in social media – one on the stands and one on the playground. Things get more interesting when you are on the playground than when you are on the stands.
The way to get on the playground is to take a stand on something meaningful. That requires confidence and courage. Taking a stand is a package deal. You automatically belong to a tribe that has a stand similar to yours on one end. On the other end, you alienate people who don’t take a stand similar to yours. You need the courage to deal with it.
11. Change
If the world is changing fast, the sub-system of social media is changing super-fast. What was super-cool yesterday is commodity today and history tomorrow.
Tools, practices and engagement models all change. The philosophy and principles may remain but the way they they manifest changes quickly.
If you want to succeed with social media, you don’t adapt to change, you embrace it, live with it and if you are good, you will probably influence change with your ideas and contributions.
12. Commitment
Beverly Sills said it right – “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” Because there are few barriers to entry for social media, it seems like you can easily succeed with social media. Unfortunately, what you see is only the tip of the iceberg. Social Media does not make anything easy. It may make things faster but not easy.
Think of social media as an “amplifier” of what you do. If you have a significant contribution to make, social media can amplify that contribution. However, you need to set yourself for making that significant contribution. That requires a serious commitment.
You are also MORE exposed once you are a player in social media – meaning you need a higher level of commitment to keep living up to the implicit promises that you are making with your new personal brand.
All of us get MANY new ideas everyday. Majority of these ideas will never see the light of the day.They die in our minds. But, some ideas we choose to pursue. How do we determine which ones to kill and which ones to pursue? It’s a million dollar question, really.
Here is one model to think about what makes you pursue some ideas and what makes you abandon most of them. At each stage, there are a few attributes that become VERY important – so I have chosen to include a short note with each of the attributes in various stages.
So, here is that simple model:
1.Think: This is where you are bouncing off many ideas and determining which ones to pick
The focus attributes in this stage are:
Curiosity: Curiosity moves you from the sidelines right into the arena. It’s an entry ticket to the playing field. Without curiosity, you are a mere spectator.
Connection: You may be curious about many things but not all of them you will connect with so much that you want to spend your time, energy, money and other resources to pursue them. For example, you might think of a new kind of crib or a baby stroller but you just may not connect with the idea enough to do anything about that brilliant idea.
Conviction: You make a deeper connection when you feel it in your gut. That’s when conviction comes in. You just know that this is something that you want to make it happen.
2. Tinker: This is where you have zeroed in on one or two ideas to pursue. You are now mobilizing the resources to pursue those ideas.
The focus attributes in this stage are:
Challenge: You know it takes time, energy, money and other resources to make this work. You know it’s not going to be easy. You know that the odds are stacked up against you. You know that you may not get all the support to make this work. Yes, you know lots of things might go wrong and still, you are willing to face the challenge and pursue that idea.
Courage: You are bold enough to take the first step – this is where the rubber meets the road.
Capacity: You are able to convince enough people to build the capacity now and in the future to make this idea a reality.
3. Take Off: This is where you are off to the races with the chosen ideas.
The focus attributes in this stage are:
Creativity: Things won’t happen the way you planned out. That happens only in the movies. In real life, it’s all above “improv” – real-time re-adjustments and adaptations. You have the creativity (within yourself or within the team that you have put together) to keep the momentum going.
Change: You are not only for change but you look forward to it. You welcome it. Change is the name of the game for any idea to go from a concept to reality and you have to be able to embrace it with grace.
Commitment: You are committed to the see this through and it shows up everyday in your words and actions.
I wish you the very best with those ideas that you plan to pursue and make them a reality!
Steve Piazzale interviewed me on TV regarding my new book “Upbeat.” Here is the entire interview in four parts. We covered (parts of) two of the five chapters of Upbeat in these thirty minutes. Here it is:
Part 1 (9:39 min)
Note: The interview starts after the intro about the show. The intro lasts for close to 90 seconds.
Yes, you too can be flawless and make the judges say things like…
“Utterly, utterly electrifying..”
“Jawdrappingly outstanding performance. Just breathtaking. I could not take my eyes off you and I did not want you to end.”
“You have shown that – with focus, commitment, confidence and hard work, you can achieve something. It is one of the best things I have seen in my life.”
However, you do have to “pay” the price – four years of friendship, practice EVERY day, focus, commitment and hard work.
I created my first cartoon on BitStrips. This might be a cliche but “If I can create a cartoon on Bitstrips..you can definitely create one too.” It is dead simple.
My new column was published today at TomPeters.com. It’s about the Invisible Competitive Advantage.
Businesses are constantly in search of competitive advantages. The question that they constantly ask themselves is “How can we be ‘the choice’ for our prospects as they evaluate products or services that we offer?” Books have been written about how to get and sustain competitive advantages in the short term and long term.
If you want to “earn” traffic, you have to be prepared to “creating compelling content” online and creating a powerful identity offline and online.
If you want to “get” traffic, you can use cheap tricks and tactics.
“Earning” traffic helps you in the long run and may not show big results in the short term.
“Getting” traffic shows big results in the short-term (may be) and hurts you in the long-term.
You make the call, of course.
Here are some of those cheap tricks anyway:
1. Be Controversial
Just say something like “Slum Dog Millionaire Sucks” even if you like it. If the popular opinion is that “Slum Dog Millionaire” is a great movie, you will get immediate attention – even if it is just out of curiosity.
Of course, if your stand is controversial but stupid, people will laugh and go away.
2. Do the Opposite
If everyone is saying something, say the opposite. If people are going west, go east. If people are saying Yes, say No.
Again, out of curiosity, you will get the attention. If your stand is baseless, they will laugh at you and go away.
3. Comment on popular blogs without adding value to the discussion
Most commenting systems will allow you to place a link to your own blog or website. You can keep commenting on popular blogs and get attention.
Of course, if your comments provide no value addition, you will get attention of people who have a lot of time at hand (but don’t care about value probably)
4. Argue stating exceptions
If a blogger says something and claims it to be a rule, argue against it stating exceptions to the rule. If the blogger points that out, argue against it. Keep engaging the blogger until the blogger gets fed up and concedes defeat. Now you can boast to the world that you “cornered” someone and won
5. Ask for a link exchange
Who knows – there may be other desperate souls who might link back to you <surprise, surprise>
6. Mindlessly link to other blog posts
Trackbacks from these blogs might result in clicks. If the visitors come to know that it was a mindless link, they may not come back again but hey, you can always find new blogs and new visitors
7. Jam your blog post with latest buzzwords and popular keywords
First, you might get some search engine love
Second, there are many plug-ins that provide “Related Posts” feature that links to other blog posts. Your post may start to appear over there.
Plus if you are linking to popular posts, you might get picked up by TechMeme or some other similar engine.
8. Broadcast your blog post to all your networks.
Sometimes it is easy to get a lot of “friends.” For instance if you want 10,000 followers on Twitter, try following 12,000 people – chances are that 10,000 of them will follow you back. You can now say that you are popular on Twitter and think that these 10,000 people are really “following” you and reading your tweets.
Actually, even if a small portion of them are reading your tweets, they will click through and read your post.
9. Endlessly spend money on any and every SEO trick
Who knows – some of these tricks may work and you might get more traffic. Why not?
10. Buy Traffic
Yes, there are ways to buy traffic but I put this in the end as it may not be cheap
If you recollect your childhood memories, you loved change. In fact you were looking forward to it.
When you could not turn, you worked hard on turning around.
When you could not move, you worked hard to crawl.
When you could not walk, you didn’t give up until you were able to walk.
Then you wanted to run.
Then you wanted to ride a bike.
After that you wanted to go to school, college, work, get married (may be not in the same order) etc.
You were looking forward to these changes eagerly.
Then, one day (or may be gradually) you started hating change. You didn’t like it anymore. You just wished things stayed the same way.
There are many explanations for why this happens and here are a few of them:
1. The After Effects: Not all the change that you anticipated turned out to be great – meaning every change did not result in a happy ending. So there was some doubt about change.
2. Delayed Feedback: The changes during the growth phase (crawl-to-walk, walk-to-run etc.) provided immediate feedback on the progress. The changes in the later stages were not as simple as before. Many times the feedback about how you were doing with change came to you after weeks or months or sometimes it took years.
3. No guarantees: The effort that was involved with change could not be negotiated but the results were not guaranteed.
Example: You wanted to become a manager. You started learning the skills required to become a manager. You could not negotiate on that effort but putting in that effort would not guarantee you that you will become a manager.
4. External dependency: In the earlier scenario of crawl-to-walk, walk-to-run there was no external dependency. If you put in the effort, chances are you would get the result. However, most other changes later in life had external dependencies. Using the same example as above, if you wanted to become a manager, what starts becoming important is the relative effort. You can put in the effort but if your peers are putting in twice the effort, your effort falls short of what is required for you to become a manager.
5. Ability to Get By: You also notice that you can “get by” for a long time without paying the price for making the change. You notice that people around you are “getting by” and some of them are doing reasonably well (in the short-term) by not paying the price. So why should you?
Milestones or the pursuit of them can mess you up big time, especially if you are going after the wrong ones.
Social networks can blur the line, really. Take any social network and one of the easy metrics to measure is “quantitative” rather than “qualitative.”
On LinkedIn, it it is the total number of contacts
(It is easy to miss how many of these contacts really matter and it is also easy to miss for how many of these contacts you really matter)
On Facebook, it is the number of Friends
(Again easy to miss, how many are “really” your friends and it is also easy to miss, how many consider “you” as their real friend)
On Twitter, it is the number of followers
( It is easy to miss how many are following you just because you are following them. It is easy to miss how many quality Tweets do you actually write)
For me, the only measurement that matters is:
“Your capacity to contribute to make this world a better place.”
You can set appropriate milestones to measure this metric. Tools like social networks help but if these tools don’t contribute to help you with this metric, it really does not matter.
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