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To Be or Not to Be...Me

Often, we try and pretend to be someone we are not or told someone to be, that we are not. As a child did you ever pretend you were someone else? I vividly remember playing made up basketball and football games in my driveway. Growing up, I was a 49ers fan and loved their star receiver in the 80’s Dwight Clark. During these “games” I was Dwight Clark on many occasions and caught 100-yard game-winners on several occasions. Much to my disappoint I did not grow to 6’5” and possess great speed and hands to become Dwight. I had to understand that I was just me rather than Dwight.

We all bring certain tricks to our trade. No two people do the same job the same way. What works for one person might not work for the guy sitting in the cubicle next to him. It seems that too often managers try and treat everyone the exact same, regardless of personality or skills. I think it’s the best managers that personalize what they do and how they treat people.

Now back to my riveting Dwight Clark analogy—Because I thought I could be Dwight Clark, I was often upset or discouraged because I was not tall or could not jump very high, or whatever. Instead, I should have embraced what I did well—I had speed (we’re talking wheels people!) and I had good instincts. I am not Dwight Clark; I am me, and what I bring to the table works. It’s a matter of accepting who you are and embracing the skills that work for you.

Become a 'Space Ranger'

In the original Toy Story, Woody -a popular cowboy doll- called playroom newcomer Buzz Lightyear a "toy” to which Buzz replied, “Excuse me, I think the word you’re searching for is "Space Ranger."

Was Buzz a toy? Sure. However, Buzz didn’t associate himself with the wide and general category. Instead, he showcased his unique attributes and features and refused to accept that he was just another toy among many. Doing this caused Buzz to stand apart from the pack and become the most popular toy around. Eventually he recognized he was indeed a ‘toy’ but had established himself as far more.

Generally, the goal of public relations and marketing is to make a brand, product or service stand out from the crowd, ultimately in order to increase popularity and sales. We can learn from Buzz not to position our brands, products or services as just more of the same. Instead, we should identify and proudly display our uniqueness and key differentiators. If we can find or create positive competitive differences to set ourselves apart from others that might seem similar, it will help us become the favorite or most valued and could take us “to infinity and beyond!”

What Finishing a Basement can Teach You about Social Media

Back in November my wife and I bought and moved into a home with an unfinished basement. We recently decided to start finishing it and it got me thinking about the similarities between finishing our basement and social media. Specifically “social media strategy” vs. “social media tools.”

As a guy, I can tell you right now that my first impulse was to go out and buy a bunch of new tools. Just the thought of going to the local hardware store and filling a cart with new power tools was enough to make we want to get started right away. Thankfully, my father-in-law (who has years of experience doing this kind of stuff) was able to reign in my enthusiasm and get me on track.

The Plan

There’s a saying that goes something like this “if you fail to plan you plan to fail.” It’s cliché, but it’s the truth.

For us, our first step in finishing the basement was to come up with a plan. We sketched out several ideas on a legal pad and then went downstairs to start measuring things out. Once we figured out which idea would work best, we started measuring out walls, snapping chalk lines and figuring out what tools and supplies we would need.

The Strategy

Because of our limited budget, we decided we would have to finish the basement in phases. We laid out which sections would need to come before others, what supplies would be needed to complete each section and what tools we would be using along the way.

The Tools

Once we had our plan and our strategy in place we were finally ready to pick up our tools and materials and get to work.

Conclusion

So what does all this have to do with social media? Well, it seems to me, that all too often people and organizations see some new tool (Facebook, Twitter, or whatever comes next) and immediately think they need to be using it. So, they start throwing around resources without any type of a plan or strategy, much like I would have done with our basement. They see everyone using them, but they don’t take the time to create a plan and strategy around how to use them.

Simply creating a profile and throwing out content about your company, might work every once in a while, but chances are you’ll be spending time a resources on something that will never return any value. It’s not enough to simply pick up a tool and start trying to make it work. Sure, I could go buy a cool new hammer to start working on my basement, but if the first step is cutting wood, that hammer won’t do me a lot of good. Before you go out and start spending time and money looking for tools, take a minute to ask yourself why you need them, what you hope to accomplish with them and how will you use them. If you don’t already have a plan and strategy in place, start there and worry about the tools when you’re finally ready to get to work.

My Breakup with Facebook

A few years ago, when I was a broadcast journalism student in college, I remember hearing about this new site called Facebook that allowed university students to connect and network. A few months later my university was added to the list and I signed up.

After signing up I started adding all my friends and acquaintances at school thinking it might be a good way to stay connected with people for class projects etc. After only a couple weeks I found that I didn’t actually use it much. I would jump on every once in awhile to see what people were doing, but I found that for the most part, any “connecting” I needed to do I did by email or phone. I was already connected to the people I really needed to be in touch with.

Over the next couple of years, I added more “friends” – people from high school, 2nd and 3rd cousins and so on. (The funny thing was that I hadn’t spoken to most of these people in years and to be honest I still haven’t physically spoken to many of them). Facebook continued to grow and add new features and before I knew it, everyone was using it.

Too say that “everyone” is on Facebook is obviously not true, but I was reading an article in the Financial Times not long ago that stated that Facebook had actually overtaken Google’s popularity among US internet users.

Now, after a couple of years and a fluctuating number of friends, (depending on whether I was in a purging mood or an adding mood) the site itself is only a slight reflection of what it was a couple of years ago, but I find that my attitude towards it has changed very little. Sure it can be fun to see what people are doing and get up-to-the-minute detail on what they had for breakfast, but that stuff doesn’t really matter. Don’t get me wrong, there are several people and organizations that have found a great use for Facebook and they have been able to do it without just adding to the noise, but they are in a small minority. If you really think someone wants to know what you’re listening to right now… you’re wrong.

So, after playing with the idea for some time, I decided to put my account on pause. I figured the amount of time I spent on Facebook actually doing something worthwhile paled in comparison to the amount of time I spent wading through noise… my own and others.

It’s been almost a month now, and what started out as an experiment to see if I could really cut the cord, has turned into a nice break. Whether I reactivate my account in the future or not remains to be seen, but in the mean time, thanks for the good times Facebook, it’s me not you.