Obsessed with Conformity

Taking Control in Social Media

I did something tonight that I rarely do - jump into a Twitter #chat. I've participated in a few #scriptchats recently, and observe other #chats from a distance - soaking in what I can use and leaving the rest. But tonight I dove into #blogchat, and I'm sure there are more than a few people who thought, 'Who the hell is this guy?' From what I can discern, most #blogchat people are either in public relations or have some type of journalism background. Like I said, I usually keep my distance. But tonight I was following their topic of 'influencers and control' with an eye on a prospective client strategy. The conversation shifted a bit to whether you have any control of dialogue in Social Media. Yes, this directly pertained more to bloggers and commenters, but I believe you definitely have the opportunity to control dialogue in Social Media so I decided to contribute to the #chat. In 140 characters, however, I'm pretty sure my position looked something like lunacy. So consider this post my explanation. 

First, you don't control everything. Obviously. People aren't robots. So, when I say control - I don't mean *total* control. That doesn't exist. 

Second, because people aren't robots, the best way to build an audience in Social Media in any capacity is authentic, transparent and open dialogue with people. Real people. Not just demographics. That in itself is a foreign concept for most companies. 

Third, because it's a dialogue (i.e. a 2-way conversation), it requires a well-conceived strategy to guide how it progresses. Remember, people are people - not robots. Every dialogue is as unique as the people engaging in it. 

As an advertising guy, I've spent my career inside of the heads of people discovering the precise tone and message necessary for communications to act like internal conversations to the people reading it. The overall goal of every project I've ever worked on has been to get someone to act or think favorably. The only way to reach specific goals is to have a sound strategy in place. A strategy requires thinking through every possible contingency to ensure that no matter what someone might think going into the conversation, you're prepared to overcome any objection and ultimately influence (control) the outcome. Based on the strategy, you engage the mind of a reader in a meaningful dialogue. The moment the reader engages with the communications - you own control. Even if it's for :15 seconds on the radio, :30 on the telly or 140 characters on Twitter. What you say counts. Say it well, and with sincere respect to your audience, and you're on your way to controlling the dialogue. The only difference in Social Media is that you must be prepared for reciprocal communications (which makes it a true dialogue.) If you've done your homework, and you have a solid strategy in place - almost nothing can throw you off.  

Understand this - you no more control how people think and what they say any more than you control the weather. Likewise, if you think BUY MY PRODUCT will work on everyone who comes into contact with this command, you're delusional. My point is not that you control what everyone does, thinks, says or writes - but rather that you control what *you* do and say. Preparation means you're more likely to influence people to get them to do whatever it is you want them to do (based on specific goals within a strategy.) 

I have to tell you, writing this post is not what I expected to be doing at 1:00 a.m. on a Monday. But sometimes you've just got to think things through. Thanks for that, #blogchat.

[Note: Because of its exclusive 1-way nature, traditional advertising is a lot like smoking in a restaurant to the Social Media crowd. But what you might not know is that for us to get to the point where the messages we create have an impact on an audience requires a lot of 2-way conversations that take place only in the minds of the people creating the communications. Which makes traditional communications problem solving a lot more relevant to Social Media than you probably realized.]  

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of the virtual advertising agency smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter at @smashadv. 

Welcome to the 'Real' Human Network

Imagine for a moment that tomorrow everything blinked off. All sense of normalcy gone. No Internet. No phone. No electricity. Nothing. But darkness.

What would you do? Well, if you're not throwing yourself out of a window in panic or looting the local electronics store (duh), your next step would be to start doing whatever is necessary to survive. Things like hunting for food, finding water and gathering firewood. But then what? Well, you’d probably reach out to others. That’s right, you’d turn to your network. And in turning to your network, you open your line of communication up to other networks. Eventually you’d come to find out that a massive solar flare torched north Asia and fried all power on the planet. Then you’d pass this information back down through your networks to inform and enlighten people so that they can do what's necessary to survive.  

Don’t let the word ‘network’ throw you off. The idea of human connectivity has been around a lot longer than Twitter. Yet, we focus so much on the tips and tricks regarding the medium(s) of communication here in Social Media that we tend overlook the basic fundamentals that make this technology so amazing in the first place. Why? Because fundamentals are too basic. Too obvious. Too simple. Who needs them? 

We do. 

To me there’s only one rule of Social Media – be human. And sorry, there are no shortcuts. When you’re sincere and compassionate here you become less of an avatar attached to a string of characters and more like an actual person. And because human beings are your audience, the more human you are - the more likely you are to develop your network. Social Media is about dialogue. Between real people. Just like in real life. 

Admittedly, a massive solar flare taking down the planet’s power grids is probably a little far fetched. But not impossible. The idea is that something like being a compassionate human being to those around you is the same in Social Media as it is in everyday life. So whether it's oversimplified or not, if you really want to make the most of SM, stop thinking of it as a new and tricky medium that you have to manipulate for maximum gain and start looking at it for what it is - people talking with other people. And then talk. Because you never know when you're going to have to rely on the compassion of others to see you through a dark stretch. 

Be yourself and engage. Everything else will take care of itself. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv

Nude in Public.

This morning I made a comment on a blog that resulted in some strange and beautiful private dialogue. First, here's the blog. 

For those who don't know them, Wray Ward owns 'advertising' in Charlotte. Sure, there are a couple of other agencies that bill MANY tens of millions annually, but WW is pretty much synonymous with advertising in Charlotte. That's all I know about them. I once interviewed there, but nothing ever came from it. Which is cool in retrospect. A good decision. 

Wray Ward was also a very important sponsor for Social Fresh here in Charlotte, and they did an outstanding job. My comment on the blog was made purely as a professional observation in a public forum - which is the essence of Social Media. I don't think you can bucket the breadth of Social Media (or Social Marketing as it's referred to in the video) into a two-minute video. And I definitely don't think that the same thinking that goes into traditional marketing (driving sales) is nearly as important today as driving trust between a brand and its audience. 

Right or wrong, I left my comment. By virtue of my submitting a comment in public, I am more than happy to engage in public a public debate via the blog. This kind of transparent discourse is one of the things that makes Social Media such a revelation. The best ideas and arguments win. Big Brands no longer own the conversation. Which is also to say that a conservative/traditional approach to communications doesn't really apply as much today - as we scramble to figure out how to harness this awesome new forum. Only, it's unharnessable. It's give and take. Besides, is there some rule that I missed that states we all have to be agreeable in public forums? No, there's not - I looked. 

Getting back to the point of this post - I was warned by more than a few people that my comment on the SoFresh blog above could result in some kind of backlash from Wray Ward. No, really - backlash. Without getting into specifics (and for fear of incidental libel - which indeed could result in some serious backlash), let me just say to all the people who warned me - we're cool. I stand behind my comment and don't really fear much of anything. That being said, if something really weird happens to me soon - you guys know what to do. ;) 

And for the record, my shop is teensy. But we've been virtual since before virtual was cool. Google virtual ad agency and we show up on the first page (w/o paying for it). For now it does, anyway. 

To the benevolent folks at Wray Ward - keep up the good work. You set a standard by which the rest of us measure ourselves. 

Jim is a father, husband, copywriter and founder of a teensy virtual ad agency called smashcommunications. You can find him on Twitter @smashadv