Category Archives: People-to-People

Three Ways To Write Blog Posts

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lungs

Being a preacher and a pastor, you get taught a valuable lesson when it comes to growing church by keeping your visitors and inspiring them to come back week after week. I think it applies to blogging too.

You can write blog posts one of three ways:

1. Preach them full.

Give everything you’ve got, and then give them more than the need. 10 reasons for this, 39 tips for that, 15 ways to do naught. Stuff them full of content. Sure they are full and you have satisfied the need, but in doing so you have eliminated what drove them to you in the first place: hunger. Continue reading →

People-To-People: A Few Thoughts

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Me and @farhan, 9 months in the making!

The above photo was a long time coming. That was last Friday when finally, after 9 months since we first attempted to meet, Farhan and I finally shook hands. It’s an interesting thing, this photo, and it ties together a few thoughts I’ve been having over the recent weeks on People-to-People which I’d like to share. Continue reading →

Friendship 2.0 and Beyond

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0h0LlCu8Ks

There’s a great discussion going on right now at my friend Robin Dickinson‘s blog on “Building Relationships: A Question of Quality Over Quantity” (go and read it!)

Today I’m hoping we can pick up on a key topic that has risen from the comments on Robin’s post, mainly about what I guess is easiest to describe as Friendship 2.0. We’ll look at what’s wrong with the current idea of friends, how we misplace confidence in community, and how we can move forward with genuine connections that get things done. Continue reading →

2010: Make Sense, Or Die

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Everyone’s giving their predictions for 2010. Here’s mine: Make Sense Or Die.

There’s too much content, both online and offline, for everyone to cohabit – meaning those that lack clarity will, by the end of 2010, die. Furthermore those who aren’t making sense probably don’t have much money left to continue not making any sense, so unless they start making sense, they too will die.

This isn’t just bloggers. This is everyone in the industry of Social Media, Social Business, and whatever else you can put ‘Social’ in front of. The BS wears off this year, because likeminded people who know what they are doing are getting together – and guess what – they have more than celebrity status to back their talk – they have their own actual case study proof.

There’s a gravestone out there with a whole bunch of websites and businesses names on it – and the only way to survive 2010 is to make sense.

Making it tangible, here’s the way I see it:

  • Make sense by providing frameworks, step-by-step actions, case studies and models, or die by producing rehashes of old posts, non-ordered calls to random actions, and posts with toe-deep analysis, while someone else makes the bold move to do the former.
  • Make sense by being real, having personality, and most of all, being vulnerable, or die by being arrogant, distant, and unhuman, while someone else makes the bold move and has the guts to do the former.
  • Make sense by showing us how you’ve walked your own talk, with case studies to prove it, or die by being too much of a celebrity or airhead to roll your sleeves up and work, while someone else makes the bold move to do, and profile how they are doing, the former.
  • Make sense by sharing content that cost you more than time to develop, or die by keeping it locked up while someone else makes this bold move.
  • Make sense by turning the microphone on other people and giving voice to their stories, or die by keeping it on yourself while someone else makes this bold move.
  • Make sense by making Social Media make sense to the bottom line and the early majority, or die while trying to be ‘just like so-and-so’ and becoming another cheap copy of an original, while someone else draws the actual paying attraction by doing the former.

Happy 2010. I’m ready to make sense. Are you?

Leadership and Management in Social Media

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I’ve been thinking and writing for a little while now about the underlying concepts of Social Media – stuff that I keep on insisting to people are the ‘bigger concepts’ that are regardless of tools, much of which enters the realm of cultural and economic commentary. I started examining the change from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy – essentially discussing the fact that the majority of businesses in Western World now deal mostly with intangibles that are knowledge-based as opposed to production-based. For me, this was ‘The Reason Why Most Companies Don’t Get It‘, because it requires these companies to cease managing people like parts in a production process, and adjust to leading and developing the knowledge skills of their staff in this knowledge economy. Continue reading →

The Problem With ‘The Last Tweet Of 2009′

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I’ve been seeing lots of Businesses on Twitter saying “this is our last tweet of 2009″, mostly around December 22/23 – before the office closes for two weeks.

Given that Twitter is more about augmented reality than blogging (it’s even changed in some circles from ‘micro-blogging’ to ‘micro-media’), then isn’t saying “this is our last tweet of 2009″ like saying “this is our last conversation of 2009″?

Whilst you might say “this is my last blog post of 2009″, blogging isn’t the same as conversation, so when I see tweets like this, I realise there is a fundamental misunderstanding about Twitter’s use as a platform for ongoing conversation.

In my opinion, this suggests that conversation ends for special occasions, that we cease to talk to one another because it’s the New Yew, or a bank holiday. But the reality is that it is on holidays like Christmas that we talk more, so then why put Twitter away?

I faced this challenge myself on Christmas Day. Should I tweet, or not? Well, if tweeting is like work, then yes I should consider not tweeting. But if Twitter is augmenting my reality, and extending my relationships from just being those in close proximity, then why not wish Merry Christmas to people around the world through Twitter and Facebook?

Do you not use a mobile phone to text people on Christmas, or even call them? I’m not saying you don’t pay more attention to the people you’re spending the day with – but I wonder why many of us have this rather inconsistent and incongruent view.

The future is not set for less augmentation, but more. I certainly felt a few years ago that texting on Christmas day was somewhat rude, but now it’s common place. Should businesses, then, begin thinking like this too?

Perhaps you have a thought to add here?

Rage Against The Machine: The Case Study In Spreadability vs Reach

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In case you didn’t know, the UK is experiencing, right now, one of the greatest Social Media case studies ever. The headline and subtext from the BBC is this: “Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts: Rock band Rage Against the Machine have won the most competitive battle in years for the Christmas number one”

But the real headline here is this: that 3 months of prime time television marketing and audience engagement are beaten by Social Media. Continue reading →

Handing Off vs Signing Off

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Wait .. Don´t go !!One of the most significant challenges in 2010 and realtime is the inability for agencies to function in the traditional mode of signing things off.

PR, Marketing and Ad agencies typically, when writing copying, releasing images, video, etc, for a client, have it all signed off. This is a way of providing protection – for both the brand, and the agency – and it makes perfect sense. The challenge is that in 2010, with more emphasis on realtime response (on the web, and off the web), there is simultaneously the removal of the time to sign off on every engagement and interaction.

The solution that I pose for this problem is a fundamental shift in the way outside parties handle brands and accounts – a change from signing off to handing off. I’ll explain: Continue reading →

10 Insights Into Guidance, As Opposed To Governance

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Yesterday I attended #1pound40, courtesy of Thomson Reuters and Amplified. Naturally, it was very informative, lots of fun, introduced me to some wonderful thinkers, and gave me an opportunity to see people from the London Twitter scene that I’ve been getting to know better. And, of course, there was some great discussion that really got me thinking, which is what I want to talk about today.

Continue reading →