Jane Austen

I’ve got a new post up on the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Blog titled “What Did Jane Austen Know About Social Media?” and I’ve been thinking ever since it went up about the role of manners, and first impressions, both online and off, and how they affect our perceptions of people and brands.

One of the most common admonitions I make to newcomers to the social media space is to Listen First; don’t go barging in to a new account on Twitter or Facebook or even a blog without first spending some serious time listening to the people who are already there, observing their peculiar customs, and internalizing some of their mannerisms.

Did you ever study abroad?

The obvious metaphor is that of visiting a foreign country, especially one in which you are planning to stay for many months, building friendships and establishing ties that will last.

But I believe we do the very same thing — or should — when we start a new job, or enroll at a new school. Hang back a little bit, see who’s who, what’s what, learn something about groups and group behavior in our new setting, where the lines of power truly lie, and who lies inside or outside of those magic circles.

Of course, what you DO with this intelligence is also a mark of character. Do you immediately seek to ally yourself with the popular, the pretty, and the powerful? Or do you seek to build ties among the marginalized, seek out true allies in many, smaller groups of friends with little political sway, and begin to learn how your talents, your skills, can help them?

In short, do you behave as if you’re in it for you, or you’re in it for them?

If you’re a business, or (especially) an individual entering the online world and trying to establish your presence, your brand, your reputation, and you pursue the first option, seeking out only the powerful and popular, then you run the risk of establishing your name as one who is only in this for themselves.

A fortune hunter, as it were.

But if, instead, you pursue the second option, and seek out the marginalized, the confused, the softer voices among the din, with whom you might share a passion and a goal, and try to help them, to bring them along with you as you rise, well, then you might just establish a reputation as one who is in it for others.

If you’re a business, wouldn’t you prefer to be seen as being in it for your customers and for the larger community?

This is part of what I was getting at in my HubSpot post. Focus on other people, be courteous, be helpful, be kind.

Tuck those elbows in, for a change, and stick out your hands instead, and see what happens.

I love a good infographic as much as — OK probably more than — the next guy. Today the folks at HubSpot (my place of employment and the source of much personal and professional joy for me) came out with this beauty:

Pretty sweet, right?

Whenever I see a timeline like this, I can’t resist mentally building a personal timeline alongside it, and seeing how they intersect.

For instance, I started blogging in 2003, just before Google bought Blogger. My first blog was on Blogspot (as it was called then) and after about six months I moved over to Wordpress because I liked the user interface and admin tools much better than what I was seeing in Blogspot.

It’s funny, I started blogging before most people heard of the word “blog,” but I never did own an iPod. Sure, I have an iPhone now, but I never cottoned on to that particular technological bandwagon until it was bundled with a whole bunch of other technology that I found useful.

Does that make me less of an “early adopter,” or just, like most people, a somewhat picky consumer?

How does your personal history line up with the timeline above?

• When did you first start reading blogs?
• What were your first thoughts when you heard about Facebook?
• How do you feel about Facebook now?
• What about Twitter? Do you “get it,” or are you still on the fence about it?
• How do you think that might change in a few years? In a few months?
• What do you think a future timeline will say about the success of the iPad?
• Will it change how YOU live?
• Did you think an iPod would change your life, or at least your habits, at first?
• Did it?

I’m not making any value judgments here, you know. Just thinking out loud, about how perspectives can change, and how the alarmingly new and seemingly alien can slowly — or quickly — become as familiar as a salt shaker.

Which wasn’t invented all that long ago, either, in the scheme of things. And probably caused something of a stir, at that.

Image by CarbonNYC

I was getting a client started on Twitter the other day, and we talked for a while about how important it is to get the “feel” of a place before jumping in there and yammering away.

Of course, this goes for any situation where conversation is the medium, doesn’t it?

Listen first

On a recent episode of the excellent marketing podcast Marketing Over Coffee (iTunes link), Chris Brogan made the point that he hears a lot of people worrying about what to say on Twitter, and not enough people worrying about how to listen.

We tend to rely on the trusty old metaphor about how you wouldn’t walk in to a room and just start talking in a loud voice, to nobody in particular, about yourself, your company, or your products. Most of us are more skilled than that, and we know that a good conversation starts off with some version of “how are you?”

At an unfamiliar social event, the best move is often to say little and observe much, and the same goes for new social platforms that are unfamiliar. But you need to be disciplined about it, and learn to incorporate your new listening activities into your workflow on a consistent basis.

If you’re already checking your email first thing in the morning, why not add to this ritual a little module of listening to your stream on Twitter, to find out what they’re interested in, what they’d like to talk about, and what they might find of value?

Try this:

1. Install Tweetdeck on your desktop.
2. Before opening up your email, open up Tweetdeck.
3. Read down your stream until you find something that you think your customers, friends, or fans would find of interest.
4. Retweet it, adding in a word or two of commentary, and/or
5. Reply to the person who tweeted it, asking them a clarifying question, or responding in some helpful way.
6. Repeat 5-7 times.

If you follow a stream of people who are active and regularly post good content, this should only take about 10-15 minutes each morning. It’s a great way to get your brain moving first thing, and to take the temperature of the world outside your office before burrowing down into your own workday.

If you don’t follow a stream of people who are active and provide good links, questions, and observations, think about expanding your circle of friends on Twitter. You’re as interesting as the company you keep.

And Presto

With this simple addition of a short, manageable, and enriching daily ritual into your workday, you’ve figured out how to get started on Twitter. Listen, respond, and retweet. Pay attention to your Self-Serving Ratio — for every time you promote yourself, your business, or your products, promote, praise, or republish someone else’s genius.

It doesn’t have to be in the morning. Me — I’m an insomniac, so I do most of my retweeting and great-content-discovering at 2 and 3 in the morning. Do what works for you.

What works for you?

I love this creative use of Facebook by an Ikea store in Sweden.

Because:

• It’s easy for people to use and understand
• It uses features on Facebook that people already use and trust
• It offers something of real value to users (free furniture!)
• The game activity (win free Ikea stuff!) is directly tied to one of the goals of the organization (get people stoked about Ikea stuff!)
• It allows people to easily share the game with others, and gives them a compelling reason to do so
• It allows fans and potential customers for a real business to self-identify, and gives the business a way to contact them with future promotions
• It’s fun

As an old professor of mine used to say, very simple, very easy.

[via Mashable]

Image by Jenikilo

I’ve seen videos like this before (see below – this related one comes to mind), but it’s good to see an updated version with the latest stats — considering how rapidly things are changing, videos like these need to be updated constantly.

It’s easy to get a little jaded about social media these days, even if you’ve pretty much signed on with it. New platforms seem to emerge every day, each one claiming to be the Next Big Thing. Should you jump on that bandwagon? Or should you hold out until the business case is more clear?

The key is to remember ALWAYS that it is NOT about the platform (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs), it’s about the fundamental shift in how we communicate that these platforms represent.

Any new platform that advances that shift in a meaningful way — for enough users — is going to have an impact. So when you start to feel skeptical (or overly enthusiastic), try to look beyond the shiny new box, and see if you can peer inside to see how the conversation is being transformed… and accelerated.

Hat tip to Todd Van Hoosear (@vanhoosear) for the link to the above video by Socialnomics09, which Todd played in his talk at the Association of College Unions International region 1 conference in Connecticut this weekend (Todd’s full slidedeck can be seen here on Slideshare).

Image by slimmer_jimmer

So I’m coordinating this very fun project with my friend Melissa Averinos called Handmade for the Holidays. Yesterday we were featured in a story about how local nonprofits and charities are using social media to promote their causes.

“Using” Social Media

It’s funny, because not only are we not a nonprofit (we are partnering with one to distribute the handmade items we are collecting), we never really set out to do this project only using social media tools and platforms. It just sort of happened that way — it makes the most sense for us, because that’s where we meet and interact with our overlapping communities of friends and fans. (Melissa has fans. She’s a fabric designer and an author. It’s pretty fun knowing someone who has fans.)

Using social media to promote this project made sense for us because we already have a gang there — a “platform” as they call it — and so we were able to just proceed as normal, talking to our friends, fans, and acquaintances like we always do, every day. The problem that many people and organizations run into is when they have an event, product launch, or what-have-you, that they want to promote, and they want to “leverage” social media to get the word out — but they haven’t done the work yet to make that possible.

You can’t “leverage” social media, folks. You get involved, you help a whole bunch of people out for a long time, you generally ask for nothing at all in return, you build trust, grow relationships, and expend a fair bit of energy without ever measuring a dot of so-called ROI.

And then, when you have something that is really, truly worth asking your community online to do for you, you do it. Sparingly. With any luck at all, the thing you’re asking them to do is something they’re going to LOVE anyway, and offers them real value, so that they aren’t doing it as any sort of a “favor” at all.

How It Works

So, to sum up, here’s how you “leverage” social media:

1. Sign up
2. Listen
3. Learn
4. Ask questions
5. Start figuring out what people really value (Hint: NOT the opportunity to buy from you. Not yet.)
6. Give
7. Give
8. Give
9. Give
10. Give
11. Give
12. Give
13. Give
14. Ask/ Offer/Sell/Talk about self
15. Give
16. Return to step 6
17. Repeat

And “Give” usually means something like:

1. Repeat something useful or interesting that somebody else said (with attribution)
2. Promote somebody else’s work
3. Praise somebody else’s blog
4. Point to somebody else’s quiet good deed
5. Highlight somebody else’s great, unheralded event

The point is, don’t wait until you’ve got something to sell, or something to say. If you have customers (or members, or donors), you’ve got some listening to do. If you don’t, you’ve got some helping to do.

The best part is, it’s a tremendous amount of fun. And yes, it really does pay off in the end. Indeed, it’s the only thing that does.

Melissa Averinos and I have cooked up something really fun and, we hope, truly helpful to those in need this holiday season:

I’ll have more on this in the coming days and weeks, but for now here’s the official word:

This holiday season, Melissa Averinos and Beth Dunn invite you to create hand-knit items for donation to local women and children in need. Handmade for the Holidays, in partnership with Harwichport-based nonprofit We Can, will collect hand-knit hats, scarves, mittens, blankets, and quilts for delivery to Cape Cod residents who are going through difficult economic and emotional times. Handmade for the Holidays is also accepting donations of yarn, needles, and other knitting and crafting supplies to be used by local volunteer crafters.

The staff of WE CAN will ensure that the items go directly to needy women and families in time for the holiday season. All participants — and the general public — are invited to celebrate the conclusion of the project at a public open house at Yummy Goods on Friday, December 4, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

Handmade for the Holidays especially requests the following items in adult AND child sizes:

• Scarves
• Hats
• Gloves
• Mittens
• Socks
• Blankets
• Quilts
• Softies (handmade stuffed animals)

Get together with other participants and create your items in a relaxed group setting at one of two gatherings at Yummy Goods in November:

• Wednesday, November 11, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
• Friday, November 20, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Beginners are welcome, and registrants will be notified about what type of materials to bring along if you need guidance. (Feel free to bring your own projects if not a beginner.) Relaxed and inclusive instruction will be provided.

Click here to register for any aspect of Handmade for the Holidays, whether as a crafter/creator, a donor of materials, or to attend the grand finale — the public open house at Yummy Goods on Friday, December 4 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. We’d love to have you!

It’s a good day for author J.C. Hutchins. You? You get a pretty sweet free download, if you want it.  J.C. becomes an “officially” published author. A good day!

Today, St. Martin’s Press releases the first book in J.C.’s new technothriller trilogy, 7th Son: Descent.

Today, J.C is celebrating by offering a free download of the first TEN chapters of his book. You want it? Scroll down to the cover image and click away.

Doing things differently

So here’s what J.C. did:

1. He wrote a book.
2. He was unable to sell his book to a literary agent or publishing house.
3. He shifted gears.
4. He produced and published his books as free, online audio books. People listened. They liked. They loved.
5. He worked his tail off for four years, and built his community, slowly and surely, using the power of free podcasts, free downloads, word of mouth, events in the virtual world Second Life, blogs, and oh, lots more.
6. His books attracted a nifty international fanbase. (Who then created a pretty nifty online fan community.)
7. He eventually attracted the attention of a major publishing house, which is now pleased to release the first book in the trilogy.

What’s it about? Here’s a snippet from J.C.’s website:

The president of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…

As America reels from the bizarre presidential assassination committed by a child, seven men are abducted from their normal lives and delivered to a secret government facility. Each man has his own career, his own specialty. All are identical in appearance. The seven strangers were not born, but grown — unwitting human clones — as part of a project called 7th Son.

The government now wants something from these “John Michael Smiths.” They share the flesh as well as the implanted memories of the psychopath responsible for the president’s murder. The killer has bigger plans, and only these seven have the unique qualifications to track and stop him. But when their progenitor makes the battle personal, it becomes clear John Alpha may know the seven better than they know themselves…

Image by purpleslog

I got to spend some time today with Paige Arnof-Fenn, CEO and founder of Mavens & Moguls, a global strategic marketing consulting firm based here in the Boston area. She gave me an awful lot to chew on, but the part that I want to share with you now is what she had to say about how things are changing — have already changed, in fact — in the way business gets done today.

New ways of working

One of the things she talked about was how flat organizations like hers, which largely offer project-based work that draws on a diverse network of highly qualified, niche contract workers, can offer flexibility and responsiveness that the more traditional structures can’t.

It’s a lot like what I talked about back in January, about how the smartest traditional companies are exploring how opt-in, project-based work can help cut costs and offer valued employees flexibility and autonomy, while keeping them in your company’s quiver, as it were. (This was based on an excellent post from the always thoughtful Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable. Still very much worth a read.)

While (some) consultants have worked like this for a long time, the model is starting to emerge in the HR practices and policies of larger, forward-thinking companies. More and more, people are looking for a different model of work, one that includes (1) greater variety in both projects and team composition, (2) more flexibility to work more or less as circumstances change, and (3) more opportunity for virtual work and asynchronous collaboration. Of course, ideally we all want at least a little security, and to belong to some sort of loose cadre of colleagues with whom we can build trust and rapport over multiple projects and time.

This model offers significant advantages to the organization as well. More virtual work means less overhead. More contract workers means more efficient compensation structures. All this adds up to increased agility and responsiveness for the organization that can successfully pull it off.

New ways of thinking

I believe that this trend was already taking hold in some corners before the economic meltdown of last fall, but that crisis has forced people to truly rethink how business gets done. As Arnof-Fenn pointed out, if you’re waiting for business to “return to normal” after what happened last fall, you’re going to be left behind. The train just doesn’t stop at that station any more.

So my question to you is, what new patterns are you seeing? And what are you doing to stay alert to the new pathways that are emerging in this incredibly fluid time in business and technology? Are you looking for the old patterns, or are you training your eyes to see the newer, less familiar ones?

What do you see?

(If you haven’t seen the image above before, try looking at it close up. Then get up and walk about 8-10 feet away and look at it again. What do you see?)

Just in time for Halloween, Melissa Averinos and I present:

Unicorn Stories Episode 4: Halloween Dream

(Music by Ken Tucker and James Swafford.)

(If you’re new to Unicorn Stories, and wonder what this is doing on an otherwise respectable blog about business, brands, and social media, you might want to read this.)

And if you’re new here, don’t forget to watch the first three episodes too!

Episode 1: Seaweed

Episode 2: To The Moon

Episode 3: Shell Game

Unicorn Stories, by Melissa Averinos and Beth Dunn (Yummygirls). A series of short, cute films about a unicorn, for no particular reason at all.