Marketing Talk

We’re going to fast-forward a bit through the Medici Popes (they had a LOT of issues, not the least of which was that Martin Luther took issue with them selling indulgences). In fact, we’re going to jump all the way to the middle of the 1500s (or there-abouts). The Medicis had pretty much been kicked out of Florence. After the run of Medici Popes and their attacks on the people of Tuscany, nobody was really a great Medici fan. In fact, the last legitimate Florentine Medici heir, Alessandro, was killed. Oddly enough, though, the Florentines thought it would be good to bring in another Medici to control the city – a Medici they could easily control. Good name, bad brain. Kind of like the plot of Zoolander.

Nobody really thought that the new Duke, Cosimo de’ Medici, would amount to much. They figured he would be a figurehead. Boy did they get that wrong. Whether it was innate skill, a brush of luck, the power of paranoia, or a combination of all of the above, Cosimo proved to be a pretty darned adept leader. Named Head of the Florentine State in 1537, by 1569 Cosimo had helped Charles V with his wars, had defeated his own enemies, and had also brought Sienna to its knees. He was named Grand Duke of Tuscany and his fame and triumphs ensured that the Medicis would stay in power all the way until 1737. Not too shabby, huh?

Who, me?

In the online world, one of the greatest things that can happen is for you to be considered an underdog. I truly believe that. Now, make no mistake. Just like Cosimo, you have to be willing to put a lot of work in. A lot of work. But until you get named Grand Duke of Social Media, being an online underdog can enable you to do a lot of things. This is something I know a bit about. See, while I’ve been going about my business, doing my own thing, a few great things have happened.

1. I’ve been able to hone my blogging style, experiment a lot, see what works and what doesn’t, and not have it all happen in the spotlight

2. I’ve been able to develop a lot of great connections/friendships with people. This would have been a lot harder if I had been greeted like LeBron James, flooded by the masses

3. I’ve been able to formulate my own opinions without having to worry about whether these evolutions in my brains will affect whatever part of my social media world I might be worried about

While I am certainly no Grand Duke, I know that I have gotten a chance to improve a lot over the last two years because I was just able to focus on my work. No one placed any expectations on me. There was no pressure but what I put on myself. It’s a pretty good path to take, or at least it has been for me.

Take the challenge

One other lesson can be garnered from Duke Cosimo. He could have gotten really bummed out that he was brought in to be, essentially, a puppet. I mean, that would bum anybody out, right? But he didn’t go into Florence a defeated man. He went into Florence a driven man. If someone treats you like you’re an underdog, accept the challenge. Don’t view it as a put-down, view it as a shot of adrenaline. Prove that you’re anything but an underdog. Prove them wrong. It’s a great motivator! If you’re into that sort of thing.

Again, all of this takes a lot of hard work. In say, 1545, Cosimo probably did not imagine that he would become Grand Duke of Tuscany. He still had a whopping 14 years to go. But he got there. Oh, also, he killed a few relatives, which I recommend you stray away from. Anyway, if you put in the time, if you work really hard, and if you stay on your own path, being called an underdog can be an invitation to excel, not a downer.

Don’t you think?

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78998728@N07/7246913292/ via Creative Commons

As we talked about in the last post in this series, Lorenzo the Magnificent had a pretty sad ending to his life, thanks in part to a kind of crazy guy named Girolamo Savonarola. Savonarola was a Dominican priest who came to Florence and swiftly became deeply disenchanted with Florentine society. Much of this bad feeling was directed to Lorenzo, who was commissioning and supporting works by artists like Botticelli.

Wait, Botticelli? But he’s considered one of the great Renaissance masters! How could anyone have a problem with Botticelli’s works?

Well, up until the Renaissance, art had mostly focused on the story of Jesus. Something sacred or holy tended to be the focal point. Botticelli could do that kind of work, but under the wing of Lorenzo, he started doing things like this:

 

What’s the problem with this beautiful painting? Well, the subject of the painting is Venus, goddess of beauty. To guys like Savanarola, these kinds of paintings symbolized a turning away from the religious world in favor of the “Pagan” world.

Of course, paintings weren’t the only things that bothered Savanarola. Lorenzo’s big palace and huge parties influenced Florentines to care a little bit more about things like appearance and other “worldly” ideas and concepts. To Savanarola, these were all signs that Florence was becoming a hell on earth, and Lorenzo de Medici was leading the way.

From Lorenzo’s point of view, and indeed from the point of view of many who view the works of Botticelli today, Lorenzo had not commissioned a bunch of rabble rousers. He had commissioned a societal revolution.

Revolutions almost always yield counter-revolutions

Humans are kind of predictable, especially once you start reading history books. Wherever there is a revolution, a counter-revolution is almost always sure to follow. The revolution that Lorenzo created in Florence led to a very different kind of revolution led by Savanarola. With his Jeremiads about how everyone was going to hell, Savanarola convinced Florentines that they had been led astray from the path of goodness. What followed is what is now referred to as the Bonfire of the Vanities. Jewels, make-up, books, and paintings were thrown into a great fire. Even Botticelli threw many of his own paintings into the fire, fearing for his soul. Heck, even Lorenzo threw some stuff into the fire.

Revolutions and Counter-Revolutions in the Online World

It’s easy to get excited about a growing amount of success in the online world. Your hard work is paying off. Those months and months of no responses are finally yielding to great conversations, more followers, and a more lively community. However, this revolution (or evolution) in your online world, just like any revolution, can lead to a counter-revolution. Just like Lorenzo the Magnificent, you might find that the more power you have, the more prominent you become, the more you attract people who vehemently disagree with what you are saying and doing. They might take issue with how you recommend people navigate the online waters. They might take issue with things you think can’t possibly be argued with, like the tonality of your tweets or that link you chose to post to your Facebook page. If you’re really unfortunate, your opposition, like Savanarola, might play upon the anxieties and fears of those in your community and they all might turn against you. Chances of a bonfire are hopefully pretty slim, but you can end up feeling pretty beaten down in these kinds of scenarios.

You might even find yourself rethinking everything you’ve done, wondering if you really were leading people astray. Does your opposition have a point?

The Potential Counter-Revolution

Beyond the individual level, there is also the chance that another counter-revolution is brewing, but on a much wider scale. You probably remember the viral video from a couple of years ago that talked about the Social Media Revolution that was changing everything. Well, guess what? A bit of time has passed, and people are starting to mutter a little bit about missing face-to-face meetings. People are wondering just how deep these online connections go. People are starting to miss seeing facial expressions and hearing vocal intonations.

Could we be heading towards a Social Media Counter-Revolution that would be as revolutionary as the revolution that spawned it? What would that look like? Will people delete Facebook accounts in favor of “old-fashioned” golf outings? Will tweet-ups go back to just being meet-ups? It’s hard to predict which way this counter-revolution will go, but human history indicates that the chances are good that it WILL come. Will you throw social media into the fire or will you hold on to what you have been doing for the last few years?

Kind of interesting to think about, isn’t it?

First image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefdp/456153618/ via Creative Commons

No, Mark Zuckerberg is not a Medici, at least so far as I can tell. Although that would be kind of interesting historically speaking. Factually, the Medicis built a lot of their early wealth, power, and fame on the foundation of knowing how to make people happy. Not coincidentally, they also tended to lose a lot of power and wealth when they sort of “forgot” how to make people happy. Not too dissimilar from what can happen in the online world today, right? Let’s dig a bit deeper.

Amici degli Amici

Cosimo’s son Lorenzo, who eventually became known as Lorenzo Il Magnifico (Lorenzo the Great) realized something pretty interesting. While it was important to keep other rich and powerful people happy, the less powerful people, the poor or the sort of middle class folks, had pretty powerful voices. If you could keep them happy, you could pretty much keep anyone happy. Lorenzo took to meeting with people individually, face-to-face. They would give him something – whether it was something they baked, an animal they had killed, whatever – and he would listen to their problems and try to help them out. They would leave his home happy and would remember what Lorenzo had done for them. This network came to be known as amici degli amici – friends of friends. It was an understood part of society that if someone did a favor for you, you would try to help them out when they needed something. It was also poor form to beat up a friend of a friend, so the wider the network expanded outward, the more people would be hesitant to cause the Medici family trouble. Pretty smart, right?

In the online world, there are many ways to create this kind of network. The easiest way, perhaps, is to comment on a person’s post. This shows that you are interested in what they have to say, are willing to take the time to comment on it, and aren’t just leaving a comment for your own good. It’s also a good way to know people. You can also create a network of friends online by answering questions a person might have, supporting a project of theirs, sharing their posts, or other favors that show you are interested in their success. It is understood (I think) that when someone does a favor like this for you, it is good form for you to try to return the favor some day. In the 21st century online world, this has come to be called “Give to get.”

Of course, the more you give just to get, the less you’ll actually get. Your desire to help has to be genuine. That’s the tricky part.

Too many friends!

Here’s the interesting thing about the concept of the amici degli amici. Eventually, Lorenzo got a LOT of amici. He had festival-like parties at his palace almost every night where folks like Botticelli would hang out and talk about arty things (Michelangelo would be there sometimes, too).  The more friends he got, the more people came by asking for favors. As Lorenzo became more and more entrenched in his art and culture buddies, the less involved he became in the family business. In fact, a lot of the Medici banks had to close down because they ran out of money during this time. Not surprisingly, Lorenzo started to forget some of his friends. He simply couldn’t keep up with all of the favors people were asking him for. People left empty-handed, and they left mad.

If you’ve been online for awhile, you can probably feel this problem resonating with you.

In the online world, once you are seen to be a person who supports people, “friends” start coming out of the woodwork. You get more followers. You get more blog subscribers. It’s a great problem to have, but if you get too far behind in paying people back, you are going to create a stream of really angry people who won’t be so ready to jump to your defense when you run into trouble. In fact, that’s exactly what happened to Lorenzo. As we’ll talk about tomorrow, Lorenzo’s love of art and non-traditional “Pagan” paintings earned him damnation from Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola. Indeed, Savonarola convinces Florence that they are all a bunch of sinners, and his last words to Lorenzo are that Lorenzo is headed for hell. By that time, Lorenzo doesn’t have many friends left who are ready to jump to his side.

Keep expectations realistic

Perhaps Lorenzo’s biggest mistake is that he gave the impression he could be the friend of every single person in Tuscany. He gave the impression that anyone who came to his house would get their problems solved. Promises like these are of course seldom sustainable. So it is online. It’s impossible, no matter how hard you try, to keep everyone happy. There will always be a person who feels you don’t visit their blog enough after they comment on yours. There will always be a person who will complain that you don’t reply to them as often as you should. This is inevitable, and the bigger your community grows, the more likely it is that you will tick people off.

Keep expectations as realistic as possible. Be observant, too. Try to spread out who you do favors for – if you always help one or two people you’ll be accused of clique behavior rather than social network behavior. Try to give a hand to one new person on a regular basis – daily, weekly, whatever. And make sure you do your best to let people know you’re trying your best. Don’t complain about how much it stinks to have so many people in your community. Be grateful. Just be real about it.

How do you think the amici degli amici concept is working online today? I’d love to get your input!

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelheiss/6889352598 via Creative Commons

This week we’re going to be playing it like MC Escher. We’re going to do a series within a series. I know. It’s unthinkable. It’s like crossing the streams from Ghost Busters. But I just can’t help it, gosh darn it.

The series, as you might have garnered from the title, is going to focus on the Medici family. As it happens, they have an awful lot to teach us, both good and bad. They pretty much covered the gamut from most positive characteristics to the most deplorable. But first, a brief introduction for those of you who might not know about the Medici family.

The real godfathers

The Medici family started out in Florence as a banking family. They did alright, but nothing special. The big break came when Giovanni Medici took a gamble on a pirate named Baldassare Cossa. Cossa was tired of pirating and decided that he wanted to become Pope, and in fact the Church was so messed up that he actually stood a chance. He just needed the financial backing for his campaign. The Medicis supported him all the way up the ladder, and indeed he became Pope (Pope John XXIII). In return, Cossa essentially appointed the Medicis “Papal bank.” If you hadn’t guessed, that’s a pretty good deal for a little Florentine family.

Over the course of about 200 years, the Medicis had their hands in pretty much everything that had to do with the Renaissance. They commissioned works by Donatello, they adopted Michelangelo, worked with Leonardo, and nurtured Botticelli. It was a Medici who sat in the Vatican when Martin Luther posted his theses. It was the rule of the Medicis that inspired Macchiavelli to write The Prince. The Medicis hired Galileo to tutor some of the later dukes. And in fact, it was Giorgio Vassari, a sort of PR professional for the later Medici dukes, who wrote a book encapsulating the two centuries of Medici rule as the “rebirth” or the Renaissance. Not bad, right?

You can probably see now how we can learn a lot from the exploits of this amazing family. Even so, lesson one might seem like a bit of a paradox. Be humble? In fact, Giovanni Medici preached just that to his son Cosimo.

Afford a fast car but ride a mule

Giovanni Medici became rather rich and powerful during the course of his lifetime, but if you had met him on the streets of Florence back in the 15th century, you might not have realized how well he was doing. Instead of dressing ostentatiously or making a big deal of himself, Giovanni rode around town on a mule. He did not stray far from his humble beginnings, and he advised his son, Cosimo, not to shine the light on wealth. Not all of this was about a Florentine sense of humble pie. Florence was all about family feuds. Giovanni knew that as the Medicis grew more powerful, other powerful families would take notice and would try to take them out (very Hollywood, right?). Giovanni also understood, though, that humility makes you much more attractive than a giant ego. If you’re powerful or wealthy, that will speak for itself. You don’t need to beat your own drum about it, especially if there are people around you who might not be doing so well.

Giovanni’s advice is highly relevant for the online world. He would likely chastise those people who refer to themselves as “experts” or “ninjas” or “jedis.” He would probably have a pretty big problem with something like Klout – why broadcast how much value you have on any given platform? Especially if what is being broadcast can’t necessarily be proven! He might advise you not to worry too much about things like how many followers you have, and it’s likely he would say that you probably don’t need to broadcast how many followers or subscribers you have. Float under the radar. Let your power speak for itself.

Being humble can be less fun

By the time Cosimo was coming into his own, the idea of humility was sort of passing by the wayside. Cosimo brought in Benozzo Gozzoli to paint the walls of the chapel that was within the Medici palace. The room, painted on all sides, depicts the Medici taking part in the procession of the Magi, and any friends of the family also got to be painted in. In other words, if you were hip with the Medicis, your face got on their gold-encrusted wall. Cosimo also used his great power to oversee Brunelleschi’s building of the great Basilica di  San Lorenzo dome, the symbol of all things good in Florence. He also got to be buds with Donatello. None of this really sounds too trying, does it?

But as it happens, Giovanni’s advice turned out to be pretty solid. Cosimo got powerful enough that another family, the Albizzi, had him imprisoned and were pretty intent on killing him (he was able to buy his way out and eventually raised an army that took back Florence). Had he stayed a bit off the radar, perhaps the Albizzi wouldn’t have noticed his growing power. Maybe he could have taken advantage of a moment of weakness on their parts.

In the online world, if you fly below the radar you might avoid negative attention. You might avoid negative comments on your blog. You might avoid being “called out” on Twitter. Of course, if Cosimo had been nothing but humble pie, we might not have a lot of the works that Donatello created. We might not know the name Brunelleschi. Maybe the Medicis never would have evolved to where they did.

Perhaps the best advice is not necessarily to be humble, as Giovanni suggested. Maybe the lesson is to be gracious. Be successful, but don’t gloat. Don’t rub your success in peoples’ faces.

What do you think? Do you agree with the advice Giovanni gave his son? How do you approach your own online world? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yanivba/459712516/ via Creative Commons

Even if you do your best to avoid art and history, it’s hard to avoid the legacy of Michelangelo. Heck, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made sure of that. You’ve probably seen Michelangelo’s Statue of David, maybe his Pietá, and maybe his Sistine Chapel. As a side note, when I was in high school one of my peers asked our teacher where the other 15 chapels were. They had always thought it was the Sixteenth Chapel. But I digress.

Given all of his accomplishments, you might think I have a typo in my title. Why shouldn’t you be like Michelangelo? He did great work. He left a powerful legacy. Truthfully, though, Michelangelo made two mistakes over and over again, and his mistakes are not too dissimilar from paths I see people on in the online world.

Work first, everything else second

The kind of work that Michelangelo did was not easy. He was not an artist sitting in a comfortable studio, air conditioning blowing, brush flitting across the canvas. Michelangelo worked with marble and well, heck, he painted a huge ceiling. It is said that Michelangelo would work so persistently on his sculptures that his hands would begin to bleed. He wouldn’t eat much or sleep much. He didn’t like company. He’d stay in the same shoes or boots for so long that he would pull skin off his feet when he finally removed said footwear. By many historical accounts, while his work was beautiful, he was not a happy or pleasant man.

Is that really a great legacy to leave?

In the online world, you see a lot of people tweeting at seemingly all hours. People tweet about how they aren’t sleeping. I see tweets all of the time about how people worked right on through lunch, or people who worked so hard they forgot to eat for two days. You’ve probably seen things like that too.

Even if you are a great blogger…even if you are a highly successful speaker…is this the best approach to your work? Do you really need to upload photos of your anniversary dinner to Facebook? Do you really need to miss your kid’s baseball game while lamenting how much work you have to do on Twitter? I’m not convinced you do, but there seems to be this one-track mind sort of thinking about work that seems prevalent in the online world. You’re not really working hard unless your hands are bleeding, you have no real friends, and your feet are stuck to your boots.

I don’t really buy that line of thinking. I don’t really recommend it, either.

The ebb and flow of the leadership

It would have been hard for Michelangelo to live in more turbulent times. Every city state in Italy not only battled other city states, but they also had battles within. Florence was forever being caught in a tug of war between the Medicis and their rivals, and Michelangelo was one of many, many people who got caught in the cross-fire. Brought into the Medici household as a promising young artist, Michelangelo, for most of his life, went from works commissioned by the Medicis to works commissioned by their rivals. He committed to grand ideas by the Medicis that he really didn’t want to do only to discover that they couldn’t pay him. He’d work hard on a project for their rivals only to see Florence swing back towards the Medicis again.

In a lot of ways, Michelangelo was like a piece of driftwood in the sea of the times in which he lived.

I see a lot of people similarly caught up in the ebb and flow of social media leadership. A person will present herself as a staunch supporter of someone, but then when another influential person points out a problem with said someone, our friend will say, “You’re right, I agree with YOU. That person is dumb.” If the tide changes, the person’s loyalty will change again and they will go back to their original guru.

I’m not sure how much maneuverability Michelangelo had in his world. It was the great leaders who could commission his grand works. He was competing with Raphael, for heaven’s sakes. That was no easy task. But people nowadays, we have a lot of choices. We don’t have to drift from leader to leader. We don’t have to drift from clique to clique in the online world. And yet that seems to be what happens to many people. Their loyalties, their beliefs, their tonality, their views, change as the wind blows. Where on one hand they will encourage people to “call someone out,” on the other hand they will tell said person how great they are.

Is this a great legacy to leave?

Michelangelo today is remembered as a great master, but he is not usually remembered as a great man. How do you want your work to be remembered years and centuries from now? How do you want people to think of you? Being remembered like Michelangelo isn’t all bad. I have to believe there’s more to strive for, though.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/captainchaos/382029326/ via Creative Commons

Joan of Arc, much like Hildegard whom we talked about earlier in this series, was a woman of immense talent during a time when such things were rather hard for guys to wrap their heads around. She was born a poor peasant girl, uneducated, headed for a rather non-extraordinary life. If you know your history, that is exactly the opposite of how she turned out. She turned out to be a brilliant strategist, a religious hero, a great debater, and a staunch defender of her king and country.

There are a few things you could pull from Joan’s story as you sit down to blog. Consider:

Don’t be persuaded that you’re wrong: At 17, Joan of Arc started trying to visit the dauphin of France. She wanted to tell him that she had had a vision that she was to help him become king of war-torn France. Upon her first attempt to visit the royal court, Joan was laughed out of the room. How would you react if a teenage girl from a poor family came up to you and said that voices had told her to do stuff?  However, Joan was not discouraged by this reception. She relentlessly came back, wanting to let her dauphin know what her visions had revealed.

As a blogger, it’s extremely easy to be “laughed out of the room.” Especially if you are new, it can be hard to stand by what you say and think. Don’t let people push you to give up, no matter how influential they are in the online world. Hold true to what you believe and to what you are saying.

Create a new prototype: The Medieval world really didn’t know what to do with Joan of Arc. She was a woman and never pretended to be otherwise, but she dressed in men’s clothing and cut her hair short. This went against everything women were “supposed” to do. Certainly women couldn’t be great soldiers and retain the qualities of a pure woman at the same time. And yet somehow Joan managed to combine all of these traits. Not only that, but she became a great hero. There had been no one like her in any kind of memorable history, yet she did not let standards and guidelines suppress her.

As a blogger, it can be easy to look for a pigeonhole to stuff yourself into. You can try to blog like xyz blogger. You can talk about the same stuff as this group of bloggers. You can try to adapt a voice that’s like some other blogger you know. But there is nothing wrong with chucking all of the stuff that’s been done. Start with something new and uniquely you. Why not? You have a lot less to lose in doing so than Joan of Arc did in the 15th century, right?

Choose your allies wisely: In an extremely short period of time, Joan of Arc succeeded in liberating Orleans. Her dauphin, Charles, was crowned king (Charles VII). Despite all she had done for Charles, however, he quickly abandoned her once he ascended to the throne. He found her, perhaps, to be too militant while he wanted to make peace. Whatever his reasoning, Charles did not grant Joan more troops. She went off to attack Paris on her own, without his support. When she was captured, he did not try to rescue her.

Choosing allies as a blogger can be similarly risky. You may find that after helping someone find success, they quickly abandon you and pretend that their success is only due to their own efforts. While a “mission” and helping others is extremely important, self-preservation should also be in the mix somewhere. This is a lesson Joan had to unfortunately learn the hard way.

Don’t let other peoples’ smarts intimidate you: At the end of her life, Joan of Arc was put on trial before French clerics and scholars. They wanted to try to prove that she was not worthy of her heroic reputation. It would have been easier on them all if it had been proven that she was just crazy or otherwise unreliable as a heroine. Facing a panel of scholars might have convinced Joan from the start that she had met her match, but records show that she held her own, out-debating these men who had had so much more formal training than she. According to all accounts, she did not approach her trial as a meek underdog. She approached it as an equal.

As a blogger, there will be times that you will disagree with a person who perhaps seems smarter than you, who has more experience than you, who might have a bigger following than you. It can be easy, in these situations, to simply give in and abandon what you believe. After all, they know best. Don’t let other peoples’ smarts or experience intimidate you. Don’t let other people inspire you to believe that you are surely the one in the wrong.

Joan of Arc comes down to us as a one-of-a-kind woman who turned the tide of the 100 years war and reinvented how women could work in society. As a blogger, everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, has the opportunity to change blogging forever. You can make any kind of impact you want. You can leave a footprint as big as the one Joan of Arc left on France, if you want. Stand your ground. Believe in yourself and what you are doing. And don’t let anyone think they can defeat you.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthea/281700306/ via Creative Commons