Looking Up

My dear friend Rita, a respected businesswoman in the marketing world, forwarded me a link to Pete Blackshaw's column today in AdAge. I was very moved by the piece and submitted a long comment back to Pete, but the topic is worth a couple hundred extra words...at least.

Pete, a regular AdAge columnist and VP at Nielsen Online Digital Strategy, lost his sister recently. He became aware of the contrast between real, deep offline connections and community created by her passing and shared grief and support vs the surface kinds of connections we are all running after in our online world. Here's a link to his column: http://bit.ly/Blackshaw-adage

I found myself buying every admonishment and silently vowing to work those offline relationships harder than my Twitter-based ones, but found the comments posted very interesting for the push back from a few readers. This is actually why online conversations can be so important and compelling. We actually have more opportunity than ever before to share and hear other opinions. This hopefully will make the world a little smaller, but it also reminds me of the need to remember the middle ground.

Here's what I wrote in response to Pete's column and others' comments:

"Pete, I too am sorry for your loss, and sadly grateful for the column it inspired.

Yes, there are those who feel the connection you made between your experience of a family member's death, offline, with the lifestyle we live now, online, was "kind of too much" or "nearly blasphemous."
And others will share the pathos completely and hang their heads in shame for a moment vs just hanging their heads down over a smartphone, thanks to the reminder that we need to emerge from our avatar-selves and raise our eyes and our consciousness more frequently, and seize the offline day too.

That said, the ship has sailed and I fear we won't easily be able to find our way back to the kind of connections we SHOULD have. I'm guilty of missing the chance to share a smile or receiving one, and have heard annoyed passersby say, "Look up!" And I've been annoyed in return to see every single person on the train completely absorbed in their own digital world.

Tim Sanders wrote his book, Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends back in 2002 on the premise that "being a lovecat" is the only way to succeed in the 21st century, and necessary to overcome our Dilbert society of isolation in cubbies.

We crave community. I think we're creating it in any way we can.

Digitally, time suck that it is, is just easier for many. Unfortunately, we end up back in the digital version of a cubbie after all.

Thank you for the excellent reminder to look up."

Learning to Swim at Broadband Speed

I was just reading "High Speed for the Sparsely Wired" in @NYTimes this week about the portion of the government stimulus program that allocates $7.2 billion for extending high-speed Internet access. I have to say, I'm pretty fascinated by both the possibilities facing rural communities about to get transported to the web 2.0 community via the economic stimulus plan...and by the perspectives of people in and out of those in dial-up-speed land.

Think about it: if you're reading this blog, chances are you didn't have to wait a half hour for the page to load. (And if you did, and think I'm THAT worth it, bless your heart.) That means you likely live in an area where broadband means PDQ* access to the world wide web. It means traversing global villages and accessing the knowledge of the crowd on literally any topic you can imagine. It means you can, like view images of Mars or play web chess with someone in the Czech Republic...or try the impossible of keeping up with every damn article on social media marketing, staying up every night til 2AM....

The comments on this news story are inspiring, as many in rural areas talk about gaining the ability to work virtually, or post resumes, or set up online storefronts -- helping to open up new commerce opportunities. And imagine this: expanded health care options, too! For example,

"doctors in Anchorage, 400 miles to the east, can see patients via videoconference."

It's a whole new frontier for many, down to learning how to build a skyscraper ad right in their own backyard. Of course it also means closer examinations of the less illustrious and the downright icky. Or, as "Mike" commented on this topic in a NY Times story:

"How can you not look at that [article] and think, "Hi, JokrBoy. I'm HotBlonde. What r u wearing?"

Access to the vain or glorious aside, it means a whole new part of the country will be exposed to social media tools that some 500,000,000 Facebook users take for granted. We're not talking total social media virgins, as patience, or satellite and cellular services have certainly enabled access for many. But from an almost anthropological perspective, it will be interesting to observe how superfast, 24/7 entry to Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Digg impacts life as they knew it. I can already hear the cries of "and WHY do I want to 'tweet'!?" or "What a time suck!" Oh the stories I could tell...the caveats...the techniques... Don't use all CAPS! Don't "sell!" Do remember my social coaching mantra of "Look. Listen. Learn. Participate. Lead!"

Unless our rural friends stay up nights studying Mashable and Brogan, Ochman to Owyang til all hours, they will have to learn it all the hard way. They will be jumping into the deep end that most of us had the chance to hold hands and wade into more slowly back in the day, last year or so.

*Now it will even be easy to figure out obscure references like "PDQ."

Black Gold and Blues

On the day that yet another attempt was made to cap the disasterous oil leak in the Gulf, I reread a blog post from the NRDC on 5/21, about dealing with the feelings of frustration and anger. Since I awoke this morning to news stories of pelicans drowning in oil and the spread heading towards all of our mid-Atlantic beaches, rereading Sheryl Eisenberg's thoughts stemmed the flow of some of my tears. For now. In my rage against the machine I offer some of her words to help us all funnel action to good:

From This Green Life blog of the NRDC: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill -- What You Can Do

In 1968, when I learned about the population bomb in biology class, I was overwhelmed. The planet was heading for disaster and there was nothing I could do to stop it. In the 70s, it was nuclear weapons; in the 80s, the ozone hole. This spring, it's the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But these days I know something I didn't know then. There is always something I/you/we can do.

I don't mean we can erase the disaster that has already occurred. That's oil under the bridge—and if we're unlucky, into the Gulf Stream. What we can do is help prevent recurrence. For recurrence is not only likely but inevitable as long as we allow offshore drilling, depend on oil and, indeed, continue to consume energy as if there were an unlimited supply.

Therefore, this is the time—when we are sick at the thought of the workers killed, sea turtles and other endangered species harmed, fisheries ruined, coastline polluted and coral reefs destroyed—to change our lives.

To begin, we must change our mindset.

We are running on borrowed energy. Oil is just one part of the problem—and oil spills just one of the risks. The trouble is our whole fossil fuel driven way of life. There is not a big enough store of fossil fuels on earth to sustain it, and if there were, it would only make matters worse. Prices would go down and use would go up. The environmental costs of extraction would rise and the climate would be wrecked that much sooner and more completely, perhaps irretrievably so.

We who care need to follow Gandhi's dictum and "be the change we wish to see in the world."

Here's how.

Step 1: Drive less. Do you hop in the car whenever you need something? Zigzag across the landscape to perform errands in opposite directions? Drive where you could easily walk? Join the club.

Americans burn up gas so freely because it hardly seems to cost them anything. The price at the pump is deceptively low and the true price—environmental destruction—is hard to recognize.

But for this brief moment in time, thanks to the oil spill, we can connect the dots. Use the opportunity to change the way—and amount—you drive. Plan your trips. Carpool. Walk. Bike. Give public transportation a chance.

Step 2: Care and repair. Cars and appliances, along with virtually everything else in our consumer culture, are considered more or less disposable nowadays. Since we expect to replace them, we don't keep them in good working order. Thus, they continue to operate, but grow less and less efficient, eating up energy unnecessarily when they run.

So take your car for regular tune-ups, keep the tires inflated, change your air conditioner filters, lubricate the moving parts of motors and do all those other pesky maintenance tasks recommended in the manuals.

Step 3: Get energy-efficient equipment. The difference between conventional products and energy-efficient ones can be quite staggering. For instance, an incandescent bulb uses four times as much energy to produce a given quantity of light as a compact fluorescent bulb—and 10 times as much as an LED. Yes, the energy-efficient alternatives cost more to buy, but they also cost less to operate. Besides, becoming the change you want to see in the world includes paying more for a cleaner, safer future. So, shop for Energy Star appliances and factor fuel economy into your choice of car.

Step 4: Go local—and not just with food. It's simple: goods need to be transported to market. The shorter the distance, the less energy required. Therefore, look for products made close to home.

Step 5: Change your habits. Today's norm is to live wastefully, but you don' t have to go along. To save energy:

• Turn off lights when not in use.
• Wash full loads of dishes and laundry.
• Air dry both.
• Change your clothes before the thermostat.
• Unplug chargers and always-on appliances.
• Reuse and recycle.
• Eat less meat.

Step 6: Buy less stuff. It takes energy to produce goods. Think twice before you throw it away on things you do not need.

Whatever you do, don't let this moment pass without some step toward change.

And one thing I just did with some savings from buying less? Contributed to the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. It's a start.

TED brings it home - augmented mapping from Bing

If you have heard of "hyper-local" or "augmented reality" meet them combined in Bing's mapping discussed this week at TED:


This is an important video to watch all the way through (it's only 8 minutes) if you want to see what is possible RIGHT NOW. Just another example of how we are truly in the midst of seeing change take place in the world as we know it -- and not just HOW we see it, but how we CAN see it -- right in front of our eyes, and right in the palm of our hands.

Staying the Course is Key

MSNBC had a great article last week about Tech Fatigue. I think one of the most astute lines was:

"We have reached a tech bump in the road, augmented by news-at-the-speed-of Internet, which leads to immediate inflation and deflation of new products even before, or just as, they're released."

Here's what I wrote in response to the some of the other comments on that good article:

"Most commenters are really missing the big picture of the story. It's not just about your iPad or iPod or whatever. It's about those and ALL the gadgets, sites, platforms and tools being thrown at us. This is the best takeaway quote from the story: "we have reached a tech bump in the road, augmented by news-at-the-speed-of Internet, which leads to immediate inflation and deflation of new products even before, or just as, they're released."

The author did a great job in summing up the challenge companies are facing if they don't take advantage of 2.0 customer input and build a trusted brand in this era of information overload and consumer fatigue. Personally, I'm exhausted, not just from trying to figure out my new Droid or now Google Buzz or next Mobile TV (MDTV?), but as a social media marketer, I can't shut down or I'll get shut out."

That's why it's essential for companies to get in and stay in the game. Think of the shelf life of a Tweet. If you catch people reading their newsflow at the time you tweet, they might catch your comment...then it's gone from the top of the newsflow pile. Unless you repost it there, and elsewhere, and catch more attention, but it's like collecting water in a coffee filter. And that's why there's a twofold challenge to keeping your brand present and relevant: being present at right time... and grappling with consumers' information overload.

Hence the point of the MSNBC story: We're ALL on overload. We are drilling down as fast as we can, or trying to learn the latest gadget or gizmo when all of a sudden, WHAM!, the next one comes along. So where do we turn, what do we do?
Some may throw up their hands in frustration and catch a boat to the closest desert island. (Sounds good to me.) But lots of us will just pray for a single easy platform (which is what FriendFeed tried to be, and now GoogleBuzz, or GoogleWave or whatever, hopes to deliver) to come along and just make life and info easier to manage.

But who do we trust? Everyone is promising to be THE panacea.

And THAT's what brings me back the importance of staying the course.

Now more than ever companies have to be present and maintain. Be the rock. The redeemer. Suck up the negative and course correct as possible. Show gratitude and leverage the positive. But stay in the newsflow. Show us you're not going away like a flash drive in the pan. Help me find you wherever I am hanging out so I don't have to do a big search to find that solution or tool I read about on some platform that I meant to bookmark that was going to make my life so easy.

Adjust your Set

I was skimming CSRWire.com - an interesting media platform for social responsiblity content - and came across a post by their CEO, Joe Sibilia, in their terrific TalkBack blog section. Only Joe was writing not about social responsibility but about social media. He wonders if Boomers will adjust to it. He shares examples of those who have adapted and prevailed personally and in business, and others who question the value of sharing...yeah, yeah...the old "what I had for breakfast" content, and dismiss social media with those kinds of digs about it. (I'm so done with that, by the way. See my "Facebook Off" post. Reminds me of that old "Jennifer Anniston's sweater" line.)

Anyway, it was thoughtful post, but with one mistep, I think. He quoted a Social Media Examiner article that suggested a Twitter plan with "up to 20 tweets a day" to grow your business. And those still harping on breakfast commentary content could easily use that as more fuel to justify throwing their hands in the air and stepping away from the keyboard. "I barely have time to email..!" It's not like I have to DEFEND the pervasiveness and benefit of social media (though, that's sort of what I do when I coach executives in it), but I do feel like we are in the middle of a huge sociological shift that we should enjoy observing and being a part of, and not fight the phenomenon.

Here's my comment to Joe's post:

As a boomer who is a social media professional, I can tell you that it IS hard to embrace this world as nimbly and naturally as, say, my teenage nephew or 20-something niece. But as a marketer I see the imperative to keep up with the way the world is going. Debating the very question of "whether we'll adjust" is sort of moot as I think we'll have little choice within the next couple of years. We ARE adjusting, in our own ways. Why, I actually know some boomers with touch-tone telephones! Ha. (or LOL, if you prefer.) There will always be Luddites among us - as there have been for every advancement - but there will always be those like my 80-year old aunt who sends me daily jokes via her WebTV. FYI, the latest research from Comscore shows use of Facebook by boomers up 106% year to year 10/08 to 10/09. And it's sort of a trite research point already that next to teenage boys, moms are the second biggest demographic playing mobile games.

The one thing that I take exception to in your post is that the "be prepared to tweet 20 x a day" was taken a bit out of context from the Social Media Examiners article. They end that article with the reminder that:
"...Although a tweet plan [to schedule and auto-release up to 20 tweets/day] is useful when your schedule gets busy, it’s not a way to avoid real-time tweeting. ...But there are different opinions about scheduling posts. Many people feel scheduling tools take away from the value of real-time interaction on Twitter. And they are right.

You must find a balance to make this work for your business. And you can only find this balance by jumping in, listening to your audience and tweaking the content you share on Twitter to get the best results."

Twitter is just one tactic. But don't forget that you received 20 comments and counting on this blog -- which is another tactic of 2-ways communication. We just each will find the platforms and ways to reach out and find and engage in communities in our own ways. We are a tad starved for human contact, and sadly a lot of us will rely on digital versions of it...boomer or GenXer. The good news is that we are ALSO finding ways, like Tweet-ups and Meet-ups to take our interactions OFFline, too. But we arrange those in-person meetings through...you got it: social media.

Social Media on my Mind

I should be sleeping. It's after midnight and I've been running all around the city for a few days now, participating in every free panel discussion and conversation I can fit in during Social Media Week - the international "convo-bration" of digital word of mouth.

The problem is that I'm kind of wired, partly because of Wired. The magazine hosted a panel discussion this morning that included some brainiac speakers, including Denis Crowley, the founder of FourSquare (don't worry, if you haven't heard of it yet...YOU WILL. Remember when you'd never heard of Twitter?), as well as Tony Jebara, the Chief Scientist at Sense Networks. Tony described the fact that we're basically evolving around our devices. See, the more you rely on Google Maps, for example, which I'm quickly getting addicted to, the smaller your hippocampus gets along with your ability to navigate without your map crack.

I have been having a great time meeting people in person who I only touch-typed before... discovering one of my favorite bloggers and another friend I "met" on Twitter and I all share the same hand therapist for our poor, overworked typing hands, and so on.

I'm thinking I maybe should have majored in philosophy...or anthropology. This is a fascinating time. And while I'm pretty sure we won't all grow extra thumbs as we evolve around our PDAs, I do think we're facing an amazingly fast paced social morph into a vastly different species in most of the planet. Or at least those places where a Social Media Week is filled to capacity.

Stay tuned...