Communicators Anonymous

Engineering Naturalness-Take Two

Geoff's post, The Naturals, struck a nerve with me. No, not dealing with my personal viewpoint of Sarah Lacy's presentation, but one of the post comments:

"Companies and individuals look at the benchmark bloggers like Scoble and think it’s just a matter of tossing some stuff out there to see what sticks. But I love your point about building a network being more than half the battle. A strong community can help drive, support, and even improve content. But no amount of content can build a community if that’s all there is." -Amber Naslund

Last week, I spoke to the Southwest Leadership Boys and Girls Club of America and the majority of the audience was new to the social media space. One of the main concerns expressed (and is a typical question asked in forums I speak where there are many new to the space) is how do you have time to generate content across all of the social media tools employed? Geoff outlines four elements needed in content creation. No small task for many of us. Passion drives the content.

Communicators Anonymous began as part of my master thesis and grew to become a blog discussing industry improvements and integrated communications strategies. Much of the content is driven by community comments and networking. Your community can sniff out canned content versus genuine topics of discussion.

So, how do you build a community and get them interested in you long enough to generate content for you to ultimately deliver back to them? Gary Vaynerchuk reinforces the need to go beyond your charge and the need to do a lot of little things to make the big things happen. Gary states, "Anything is better than zero." Business success in the social media space is a challenge for the determined and brave of heart...doesn't hurt to have a thick skin and be willing to get dirty too.

Social Media Club August Meetings in DFW

Social Media Club - DFW finally has own Facebook group page! Please go to this page to participate in discussions and stay informed of upcoming meetings. Dallas and Fort Worth share this page, but have separate meetings and event notifications.

This month, both meetings will have the same speaker/subject. Please join us for a Cubeless demo. What is Cubeless? (More about Cubeless.)

Social Media Club: Fort Worth - Meeting is Tuesday, 26 August.

Social Media Club: Dallas - Meeting is Thursday, 28 August.

Please RSVP.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!

I have written my opinion about the PRWeek Blog Competition, but that aside, it is important for quality voices in our industry to be recognized. Kami Huyse is both a friend and mentor and her blog, Communication Overtones is in the PRWeek Blog Competition. I know many of my readers are also readers of Kami...so please help me in voting for Communication Overtones as the top PR blog!

Examples of great Communication Overtones content: Building Quality Relationships Online: Going Beyond Blogger Relations and Top 10 Content of the Year.

Also, be sure to vote for the SXSW panel, Measure This! Practical Ways to Quantify Social Media Results - Companies must justify the resources used to engage customers in social networks and social media. This panel of experts, including Kami Huyse, Charlene Li, Katie Paine and Avinash Kaushik, will share proven and novel approaches to answer the question, “How do I measure the business results of participating in online social networking?”

Zany: Smorgasbord

IMPORTANT: SXSW Panel Picker is LIVE today! Vote now: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ I will see all of you next March...I won't be waiting until the last minute to register and find hotel in 2009! Your vote counts!

On another note...

I have never met Christopher Penn in person, but I want to! His thoughts are always outside of the box. His recent post about how an iPod can protect your mind is humorous and the direction is true!

And for the zany picture of the week...a co-worker recently returned from Okinawa. Check out her toes...aren't they fabulous?!

What lessons are incorporated into social media 101?

I am surprised there were not more comments/response to Larissa Fair's insightful post, The Importance of Teaching, Learning and Listening, yesterday on The Buzz Bin. Larissa stresses the need to continue teaching, learning and engaging others in social media by counseling others about active listening, collaboration and networking. She asks,

"If you were going to teach a course on social media, what would the main subject be? Would it be a general skills and tools overview? Ethics? Professional vs. personal use? Collaboration and conversation?"

As an adjunct marcom professor at Northwood University, I have incorporated social media teaching into ALL of my course curriculum. I do not have a course dedicated to social media and I think this works out better in the long run. Social media is not the be-all, end-all approach. Teaching an integrated approach while students are actively using the tools in a sandbox space eases students into this new territory. (Keep in mind, the majority of my students are preparing for their second career and not fresh out of high school thinking they already own this space.) Two themes are threaded into each lesson: ethics and experience.

We take for granted people know what is right from wrong. For goodness sake, even I am challenged at times to understand because very seldom is anything black and white. An informal teaching environment where we can banter and sort through difficult issues is essential.

Identifying experience is not natural to most people. Such exploration is required in traditional and new media but often overlooked. Research and evaluation of "experience" is often a large chunk of my curriculum and delves into active listening, sociology and psychology. I thoroughly enjoyed Liz Strauss's recent post as she asks, "What if we listened to each other like we listen to the rain?" Liz does a fantastic job of bypassing the normal and often regurgitated social media 101 to understand and work in the social media landscape.

All of us are teachers in the social media space. Never forget this. Your actions reverberate through the landscape like a sound wave.

Empowering yourself to be powerless

Leave it to Valeria to make me do some deep thinking before any caffeine intake this morning. She asks, "What is the most empowering word?" Then goes on to describe the imagery of the word "empower." Personally, I despise that word. Immediately, I get a bitter taste in my mouth upon hearing the word...empower. To me, it is a buzz word senior executives use to help them sleep better at night. IF I were truly "empowered" I would not have to be told I was so.

"What other word would you use to signal that you are taking charge? Is it the most self-fulfilling word of the future?" -- Valeria Maltoni

For me the most powerful word is "powerless." Until I admit I am powerless and have no control, my life will be unmanageable. This thought process serves me well in both my personal and professional lives. Breakout! It feels so good to let go!

So, are you empowered or powerless? Something different altogether?

(Photo courtesy rustyjaw.)

PR Week Hosts Popularity Contest

First, I must congratulate those 32 blogs/bloggers for entry into the PR Week 10th Anniversary Blog Competition. I am not keen on the single-elimination tournament because it would be nice to see the blogs compete more on merit than popularity...but that would not be realistic, would it?