Archives for February 2011

I saw a post over the weekend that really had me thinking I was living in a Monty Python film. Here’s the jist of what it was about.

Someone made a tweet.

Another person saw the tweet and called the first person out because they felt something was wrong with the tweet.

So then, according to this post, a third person called out the second person, saying they really shouldn’t have called out the first person.

The post itself was kind of calling out all 3 people.

Really? Are we all on a playground and really interested in pushing, shoving, and then telling on each other? Um, like, totally yuck.

So, that’s it. I’m calling you out.

Why “calling out” is detrimental

Apart from the fact that I generally hate the phrase “calling out” (I don’t know why, this hatred is irrational), there are some really good reasons not to engage in this “calling out” behavior online. Here are just a few.

• If you “call out” people a lot, your profile is going to look like just a bunch of snipey, snarky comments. Now, if you’re going for that, I don’t want to stand in your way. But first impressions and all that…

• If you keep calling out the same person, people are going to assume that you are feeling a little green. Not nauseous (although maybe), but envious. Even if you have the greatest points in the world, if you keep picking at the same person in a public venue, you will start looking pouty to other people.

• People will start becoming afraid of talking to you because they don’t want to say something that will cause you to call them out. People are unaware of your call-out boundaries, you see.

And now, ways to discuss rather than call out

This is not meant to be a muzzle. I’m not placing a mask over your face reminiscent of Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. I don’t even have such a mask, if you want the truth. I fully believe that most things can be debated. Is the sky blue? Eh, I don’t know. I see it as aqua. See? But there are ways to debate in a civil fashion and then there is the kind of icky, immature, slightly irritating “calling out” methodology.

So, how can you debate a point with someone so that other people can learn what you are trying to teach without you throwing pie in someone’s face? Well, here are some ideas.

• “I just saw your tweet and am wondering why you approached it that way. Care to share? You can DM me if you want.”

• “I had heard that tweeting the way you just did is not considered a best practice. What is your objective in tweeting that way?”

• “Hey, I just noticed your tweet and I think you may have forgotten to….”

See? Isn’t that just as good as listening to a CD of the ocean or practicing some Yoga and meditation? The calmness of it all just will wash over your Twitter stream, and everyone will not only lower their respective blood pressures but they will also learn (or ask you to expand upon) your point.

What a great deal!

And that’s not all

You may think I’m offering you quite a deal here. A calm Twitter stream, helping your followers learn things, and looking all grown up all in one fell swoop? What could possibly be added to this great deal?

Well, if you approach someone you disagree with from a standpoint of wanting to learn and teach, you might actually end up developing a relationship of respect or even (wait for it) appreciation. That’s right, building a conversation and then a continuing interaction around an initial disagreement can actually be the foundation for an extremely strong friendship.

Holy cow. What a deal!

The downside

I understand that calling out has a lot of perks. To be completely transparent, here are some downsides of refraining from the “call-out” methodology.

• You may not get to present yourself as the top authority on everything ever

• Your traffic may not spike as much as it does when you call someone out

• You don’t get to take your angst out on a person who lives in your computer -a punching bag may be in your future.

• You may not get as much attention in general if you refrain from “calling out” people who have big Social Media followings. A puppy may be in your future.

And there are probably other downsides that I’m just not thinking of. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons, I guess, and decide in which direction you wish to travel.

So what do you think?

Can we maybe move away from the “I’m calling you out” end of the spectrum and maybe move a bit more towards grown-up conversation? I’m not asking you to use phrases like “My respected colleague” on Twitter. I mean, I’m not that much of an idealist. But maybe kind of inching towards that way, it could be nice, right? Maybe?

Weigh in on this issue, woncha please? I promise, I won’t call you out.

There are a lot of mistakes companies or individuals can make. Most of them are forgivable. Take the Social Media blunder that the American Red Cross had to deal with this month – not a very pleasant situation, but you still know that the Red Cross is a strong organization.

There are some things, though, that a company just can’t seem to overcome, or if they do, it takes a REALLY long time. There are two mistakes in particular that spell absolute doom for a company or brand’s reputation.

1. Make a promise and then break it

Trust is a sort of mushy word, so marketers and Social Media folk stay away from it a lot of the time. However, if you think about it, trust is one of the keys that influence us in terms of who we buy from, who we work with, and who we listen to. All you have to do to see proof of how much damage this mistake can cause is to look at Toyota. Toyota made a business out of promising that they were the safest, most reliable car on the roads. The only thing that was as important was the Toyota customer. The rash of horrible accidents that occurred because of the brake pad malfunction broke promise number one. Finding out that Toyota kind of knew about that and didn’t say anything broke promise number two.

Will Toyota ever be able to gain that trust back? They’re working hard at it, but certainly for the families and friends affected by those accidents, it will take many years and a whole lot of effort to win back that relationship.

Not all broken promises result in death and injury, thank goodness, but they can leave an awfully bitter taste in peoples’ mouths. Whether you promise a product by a certain time or whether you promise to do something for someone in the online world, a broken word is comparable to a broken back for your company or brand.

2. Set expectations and don’t deliver

Setting expectations is a bit different from making promises, although in the end it could be a matter of semantics. When you make a promise, you literally say, “I promise that this is so.” or “I promise I will do this.” Setting expectations can be a bit more convoluted. You can drop a lot of hints, for example. You can have verbal conversations that don’t get taken down into the written word. A lot of expectations are set based on how people understand their relationship with you. If they trust you (there’s that word again) they are likely to think that the expectation you are setting is as good as a promise.

If you do not deliver on your expectations, the feeling you create in your customer or even your friend can be equivalent to the feeling a broken promise creates. People do not like to feel like they have been jerked around. People do not like to feel stupid. If your actions create those sentiments in people, your company or brand will suffer for it, and it again will take a long time and a lot of effort to claw back up that hill.

Mistake Prevention

There are two sad things about these two deadly mistakes. The first is that they are grossly common. The second is that they are so easily preventable. It would have been easy for Toyota to say, as soon as they identified the brake pad problem, that something was going on that needed to be fixed. It would have been easy for BP to be more forthcoming about information regarding the Gulf oil spill, right?

In the online world, these mistakes are especially easy to fall into. You’re not shaking hands with people. You’re not looking people in the eye, and it’s really, really easy to type things without thinking about what they really mean. For example, if you type that you are going to review someone’s blog and then you never do, that might not even appear as a blip on your radar. For the person you told, however, that could be a point against you. If you make a bigger promise or set a bigger expectation and don’t follow through, the ramifications can get exponentially more serious.

To prevent these scenarios, try to do the following:

1. Think before you type. How is the other person likely to view this promise or set expectation?

2. Ask yourself if you can actually deliver on what you are promising. You are far better off to say, “Gosh, I just can’t give that the time it deserves.”

3. Pull the band-aid off quickly, but with care. If you promise something and then realize you can’t do it, tell the person right away. “I know I promised to do xyz, but something came up and I’m just swamped. I’m really sorry about that.”

Three easy steps that can save you, your brand, your customers, and your community a lot of heart ache.

What do you think?

Are there mistakes that are more deadly than these? How can those mistakes be prevented? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

http://www.sxc.hu/profile/greschoj

There is a wonderful, wonderful candy store near where I live. They are really famous for two goodies – chocolate covered oreos and chocolate covered strawberries, but everything they make is to die for.

I go into this store maybe 3 times a year (if I went more, I’d be exploding from too much weight). I always lust after the boxes – especially the boxes of their chocolate covered, nutty, marshmallowy loaves. It’s gluttonous and the boxes are kind of expensive, so usually – usually – I end up settling for these little sample-sizes they have. Two pieces per package, or maybe a bag of mini-oreos. But once, I went in and decided that I was really going to treat myself. I passed right by the usual sample varieties and got myself a box.

This story does not have a happy ending, though. When I got home, I saw that when they said “loaf,” they meant loaf. It was a 12″ long, 4 inch wide candy bar, essentially. And after picking off a piece or two, I realized it was way too much. I didn’t want it. I had been much happier with the variety that the smaller bite-sized chunks had given me.

I worry that you might be headed that way with your plans for the online world.

What is the giant candy loaf of Social Media?

In the world of social media, it seems like a lot of people are aiming to be the next big thing. It seems very achievable because as we’ve talked about before, on the surface, being a Social Media wunderkind seems kind of easy. You just tweet a lot and blog consistently, right? And what do you get? Tons of followers. Tons of fans. Tons of blog comments. Tons of connections. It seems like a world of sweetness and wonder only matched by a giant chocolate nutty marshmallowy loaf.

But there’s a catch. Being the next big thing means doing a lot more than what meets the eye. It’s hard to take little bite-sized chunks out of something that big. You can’t make as many deep connections, maybe, or maybe your handful of emails that you could respond to right away have multiplied into an army of emails that are driving you nuts and making you feel bad.

Pretty quickly, your great big dream can turn into something that is just making you feel kind of sick. You can get burnt out. You can get tired of the whole darned thing. And then what?

Make sure you can live with what you’re dreaming of

One thing you can say about something like a mini-oreo or a single piece of candy – you can eat it. You know you can. In fact, you can even luxuriate in the experience. You want to make it last. And yet, when you’re done, you feel content. You’re satisfied. You’re not really needing 75 more pieces of the same thing.

In the world of Social Media, there are things you can do that are just like that. You can build your community carefully and luxuriate in the experience of getting to know lots and lots of special people. You can refine your writing so that you are creating blog posts you’re really proud of. You can work on answering questions in LinkedIn so that you can really make an impact there. Each of these things can be really rewarding. They can also keep you plenty busy.

Do you really need to be the next big thing?

What do you think?

Image by Zsuzsanna Kilian. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nkzs

It’s coming up on the year anniversary of when I started blogging, tweeting, and doing other such things. I have learned so much over the last year that it seems pretty hard to believe it has only been a matter of months that I’ve been in this world. I can’t wait to see where I am a year from now!

In the meantime, I have been reflecting on some of the resources that have helped me immensely over the last several months, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to share them, and others, with you.

Books

They say that hindsight is 20/20. If I was starting my Social Media efforts right now, as you might be, I’d start out by reading the following books, in this order.

UnMarketing, by Scott Stratten

Content Rules, by Ann Handley and CC Chapman

Trust Agents, by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan

The Now Revolution, by Amber Naslund and Jay Baer

In my defense, only Trust Agents was published at the time that I started. Still, no excuses!

Must read blogs

ChrisBrogan.com (Chris Brogan’s Blog): The idea of interweaving humanity into my online presence was molded as a result of reading Chris’s blog religiously. There’s always a ton of other great info over there, too!

PushingSocial.com (Stanford Smith’s Blog): Stan focuses most on blogging (and with good reason, he’s a master), but he is also a great source for motivation!

CopyBlogger.com (founded by Brian Clark): Content, content, content – and great Social Media tips as well.

ProBlogger.net (founded by Darren Rouse): Lots of other posts about content creation as well as how to make a living from your blog.

DeniseWakeman.com (Denise Wakeman’s blog): Denise is a blog queen and her own blog is always full of helpful information. I learned an awful lot from her when I was first starting out.

DawnWesterberg.com (Dawn Westerberg’s blog): Social Media and marketing wisdom plus a sunshiny disposition.

Kherize5.com/blog (Suzanne Vara’s Blog): Social Media and how to market your company online.

MarketingProfs Blog: A constantly updated resource that is worth checking daily.

People to follow on Twitter

Look for the following hashtags:

#blogchat (Sunday night chat, begins at 9 PM EST)

#tweetdiner (Saturday night chat, begins at 9 PM EST)

#usguys (24/7 conversation with some of my favorite people in the online world)

and look for the following people (among others)!

@OneJillian

@qstreet

@KnowledgeBishop

@FredMcClimans

@REALChaseAdams

@SuzanneVara

@debmorello

@myagenda

@solete

@carlsorvino

@ckburgess

@pprothe

@pushingsocial

@dwesterberg

@dannybuntu

@ianmrountree

These folks are just a few of the ones who have helped me get to where I am (wherever that may be). Tell ’em I said they have to be good!

Posts to read right away!

I highly recommend reading these posts. Some of them helped me when I first got started, and others would have helped me if they had been written at the time!

50 Power Twitter Tips, Chris Brogan

Why Smart Readers Prefer Dumb Bloggers, Stanford Smith

How to be a Twitter Champion, Heidi Cohen

Is there a crisis in crisis management? Cheryl Burgess

You, me, the internet, and the war for attention, Tommy Walker

5 grammatical errors that make you look dumb, Brian Clark

This is why you don’t bury your blog’s gold, Mack Collier

I’ve also written a few posts to help you out if you’re just getting started:

Ten Tricks for Twitter Newbies

1 month, 40 blogging action items

1 month, 40 Twitter action items

Do you have resources that have helped along the way? Let me know!

Image by Jean Scheijen. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/vierdrie