better ideas lead to higher share ratio, regardless of size
Seth Godin had a great post about how a focus on good ideas will always have more value than a focus on getting more fans or followers. Reconciling size versus engagement is something that I know a lot of brands and individuals struggle with online. We all want to be important. We all want to have a million followers. I struggle with this as well. Would I rather have 10 passionate people who digest everything and spread the word than a thousand people who are passive observers? From a long term strategy, yes, but it sure would feel good (at least for a moment) to have a follower / fan count of several thousand.
Without trying to reiterate what Seth says, I’d really like to call your attention to the graph that I grabbed from his post and also direct you there to read his theory (with a little data to back it up) on followers vs. ideas. It’s one of the better posts he’s drafted recently and I think everyone should take a look. Read Seth’s post by clicking here…
Some of the bigger guns in Social Media have taken a pit stop recently into the more traditional scene and published books on their areas of expertise. Chris Brogan and Julian Smith put out Trust Agents recently (my review of the book coming soon) and Gary Vaynerchuk just released Crush It (currently reading).
Both have gotten a bit of criticism for jumping into a traditional method of disseminating information (the hardcover book) when their ‘business’ is talking about online communities, business, and social media. Furthermore, both Chris and Gary give away an enormous amount of kick-ass information, action items, and insight through both their blogs, and in Chris’ case, much of the basic principles served as the foundation for Trust Agents.
So why did I buy (and why will I continue to buy) their books when I can get a lot of the same content for free, online? First it’s about saying Thank You. It’s the same reason I became a member of my local NPR station. They give away the content, but I find value in it, so I choose to support it. For another reason that made sense to me, I have to bring in Seth Godin. Below check the embed of a talk that he gave to book publishers about the different methods he uses to publish his books and how they were received.
The short of it is that guys like Seth, Gary, and Chris are a bit different since they’re not in the book business. They’re in the building relationship business, the speaking business and the building community business. They give talks, put out great info for free on their blogs, and create experiences. The books are souvenirs. Now, of course for people who aren’t familiar with their online work, the books are a gateway, a CD sampler, an appetizer. But for the rest of us….souvenirs.
It’s part of what Gary V. has called the “Thank You Economy.” and it’s something that I also think is here to stay. So, thanks Chris and Gary for the great content, the videos, the blogs, the interaction and the community.
One of the main reasons I wanted to hit up The 99% was to see Seth Godin speak in person.Seth is the author of many great books on marketing including Purple Cow and most recently – Tribes.He also has one of the most successful blogs on the web and I’d highly recommend that you subscribe to it or at least give it a visit.He’s a source of constant inspiration.
What Seth wanted to talk about was our Lizard Brain and how that makes us reluctant to ship.He argued that we are all creative – we all have big ideas. That’s not the problem.The problem is that we need to execute.We need to SHIP.
It happens to all of us right?We’re working on a project for weeks or months with a go live date or a deadline that we have to hit.And the closer we get to release (our Ship Date) – somehow magically more people want to have influence in the final product.More people (including ourselves) want to change the product.And the closer we get to the ship date, it seems like the more we want to make last minute revisions and tweaks.We call this ‘Thrashing.’
So why do we thrash, particularly at the last minute?Seth says its our Lizard Brains speaking up.See, in evolutionary terms we all have a lizard brain to a certain extent.It’s the cortexes that evolved around the lizard brain that makes us reason, create, etc.But the lizard brain – that’s the part that is reactionary.It doesn’t have the ability to reason because its preoccupied with threats (animals are pretty much always hungry, scared, horny, or reacting to something).
The threat is that as we get closer to the Ship Date, we start to get scared.Other people want to put in there .02 before the final product goes out.Afterall, we want to please as many people as we can…We want it to be a hit.But that rarely happens with we thrash at the last minute.It s what prevents us from shipping on time, under budget, and with the best quality we can muster.
The answer?Two things.First, Thrash Early.In the planning stages of the ideas, make some ground rules that everyone from the top down has to follow.Everyone.For instance, if you don’t show up to the thrashing meetings to voice your ideas – you don’t count.If you don’t have the confidence to speak up early on, to make your opinions heard – you don’t count.Because its by thrashing early that we’re able to set goals, set priorities, and bring the project to its full potential.
The 2nd lesson is to know when to ship.Often late in the process, more and more ideas and hands get put into the pot and the cause of that is cost overruns, and delays.Don’t.Keep to the plan.When do we ship?We ship when we run out of time, or run out of budget. Period.
In the end, the products and ideas that are rewarded are the ones that are tangible.They are the ones that are executed.They arethe ideas that have shipped.
I’ve been reading a lot about how you can use social media to help manage your brand and was on a great conference call with Chris Brogan and Awareness Networks. Actually, if you want to check out the slides from the presentation hit them up here.
A lot of the metrics I see and the stories I hear talk about how larger corporations are jumping into the social media sphere (perfect example for better or worse was Skittlegate, or JetBlue’s embracing of Twitter) to interact with their customers, solve problems and get feedback. But I haven’t heard a ton about how small businesses are utilizing SM besides having a MySpace page. I do see tons of entrepreneurs really engaging in the medium but so far I haven’t seen a ton of small businesses (at least in my geographic region) get involved (I KNOW there are some of you out there though).
But I would argue that small businesses have just as much to gain by interacting and monitoring SM conversations, as large corporations do. The thing that rocks about Twitter, Blogs, etc, is the accessibility, speed, and most importantly AUTHENTICITY that they help to foster between a brand and customers. That being said, small business owners have just as much to gain in SM because people are always craving accessability and authenticiy - which is something that most small businesses should be built on. Its a natural fit.
I have to ask, who is in charge of the online presence for most major corporations? Is it an agency? An existing front line employee, someone from marketing, or the CEO (and I know this will vary widely)? And is it always someone on the inside?
Todd Defen and Seth Godin had great posts on how Social Media is less like advertising and more like PR and the difference between PR and Publicity. So if you buy that argument (which I do, to a point - I think Customer Service is a huge part of it), does that mean that whoever handles a company’s PR should also handle their SM presence? This is a bone of contention. I posed this question and got a response from @Chris Brogan saying that he’s not a fan at all of Ghost Tweeting (Sending out Tweets for someone else) because it decreases transparency.
And I have to say that I’m on the fence with this one. Is there a market to monitor small businesses online, by helping to run their Twitter Accounts and interacting with customers for someone on an agency level? I would think so. And if that ‘online brand manager’ keeps the client abreast of the feedback coming in (both positive and negative), advising them on how to help and engage customers, are they doing a disservice to the community or serving it? Does that take away from the whole purpose of using SM tools as a method of interacting authentically with others?
Or do most SM ‘experts’ take more of an educational role, getting clients used to using these tools on their own, and hoping for the best. It certainly makes it authentic. But I wonder if a bad online presence is better than NO online presence.
I’m really torn on this and would love to have some feedback from you all.
