Margie Clayman

The 20 songs the Beatles wrote about Social Media engagement

I know that a lot of people comment on how far ahead of their time the Beatles were, especially John, who was one of the first rock stars I know of to use fame to actually try to change the world. However, what *very* few people realize is that the Beatles actually wrote a lot of their songs about Social Media, which seems weird since it didn’t exist yet. Even weirder is that a lot of the songs they wrote dealt with engagement online, which I mean…it works out great for me and my Engagement Series, but who woulda thunk??

You don’t believe they were that far ahead of their times, eh? Oh ye cynics. Well, alright. Let me lay this out for you.

Why Social Media is like the ring of power

by Margie Clayman

Are you a fan of Lord of the Rings? I’m quite a fan. Read all the books, even The Silmarillion (which I need to read again, to be honest). I loved the movies even though a lot of Tolkien purists had problems with them. I love the story, the different types of figures and characters that take part in the story. I just think it’s all fabulous. So, when it occurred to me that Social Media is like the ring of power, you can imagine how thrilled I was and how excited I was to write this post!

Oh, you want me to explain this a bit more. Fair enough.

Are you listening to yourself?

by Margie Clayman

I had quite an enlightening experience the other day. I was (I’m sure you’ll find this hard to imagine) talking to someone about what I had most recently read in the Mark Twain autobiography. I thought the content was entirely fascinating, of course, and well, there was no QUESTION that I was telling the story in a most engaging manner.

All of a sudden, the person I was talking to stopped me and said, “Um, are you doing a presentation? Is this a lecture?”

The comment was made lovingly, but it raised a good point. I had become so entirely involved in what I was saying that I had lost track of how long I had been raging on. That was live and in person.

When you’re blogging, you can’t see facial expressions of people who are reading. You can’t hear the tapping of fingers or the exclamations of “OK, geeze, let’s move on to something else!” That can be great for you on the blogging/writing side, but it can hurt you without you even noticing on the engagement side.

Lets talk about favors

by Margie Clayman

One of the more common topics out in the Blogosphere and in the world of Social Media can be summed up in one word – favors. On the one hand you have people who are asking for favors and rationalizing why they should be allowed to ask for favors. On the other side are people who feel like they are asked constantly for favors with no respect or civility.

From where I sit, everybody involved in this argument makes some good points, but I think frustration clouds over better judgment in these kinds of scenarios, so often we see posts or tweets that go a little beyond, “Here’s what I think.” I thought I would take a stab at kind of presenting both sides of the argument here in a pretty rational way, and then you can see if that helps you sort this issue out a bit.

Engagement doesn’t matter if you’re not doing something with it

by Margie Clayman

Have you ever heard of a woman named Olive Logan? I had never heard of her either, but I encountered her tale in Mark Twain’s autobiography (by the way, this autobiography is close to 500 pages long, so get used to the Mark Twain references!) and her story really stuck with me.

Mark Twain met Ms. Logan when he was on the speaking circuit around Boston. She fancied herself a speaker too, for a short while. It all started because Olive had begun telegraphing newspapers around the country about every little detail in her life. “Olive Logan purchased a dress today.” “Olive Logan is quite under the weather.” Soon, people got really used to seeing these updates everyday, and Ms. Logan became a celebrity. This drove Mark Twain absolutely crazy because, obviously, she had not *done* anything. So, when people would say, “Oh, did you hear about what Olive did?” Twain would ask them, “Yeah, so, why is she famous? What did she do?”

He reported that his friends would become “dumbstruck.” They had no idea why she mattered.

Could this fate be awaiting you?

We’re spoiled rotten and it needs to stop

by Margie Clayman

Regardless of your religious background, you’ve probably heard something about the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve lived there for a long time in total bliss and happiness, and all they had to do was avoid the Tree of Knowledge. If they could just avoid eating that apple, they’d be fine. But a serpent fooled them into thinking that their transgression would not be noticed, so they partook of the one thing in the world they were not allowed to have. And here we are, wearing Prada and Calvin Klein instead of tree leaves.

When I first joined the Social Media world about a year ago, I kind of felt like I had stepped into a very 21st century Garden of Eden. The possibilities were endless, not just for business but for improving the world. When a disaster strikes in Italy, Haiti, Greece, Japan, Libya, or Jopin, Missouri, the online world can situate itself to respond and help. What could possibly be more magnificent?

But there is a serpent looming. The serpent says that there is big money to be made here. The serpent says that if you can just outshine everyone in the online world, you can work from home, make the exact kind of living you want, and never have to worry about a thing. I hear this serpent’s voice more and more clearly every day. I think about listening to him. I bend down to listen to what he has to say.

I need to step on his head.

Margie Clayman

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