Archive for November, 2009
I hear Facebook will be dead in 5 years
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
I was reading an interesting blog post awhile back that was discussing whether Facebook will even be around in five years. It seems that social networking sites are unable to find a business model that translates into profits. Being that my business revolves around social media, this started to concern me. But then I realized: who cares!
My epiphany came in the realization that social media is not at all a shift in technology; it is a shift in the way we communicate. No longer are we dependent upon a single source to push out a message through a given medium. Although television, radio and magazines will almost certainly continue in some form, their impact has already begun to dwindle. Large conglomerates no longer dictate what information we should know; we have become a water cooler society.
What I mean by water cooler society is that our information is now distributed casually from person to person, just like rumors at the office water cooler. Yes, we can learn about the Iraq war from the massive amount of television coverage or we could read the blog of a soldier fighting on the front lines. Yes, we can get a recap of yesterday’s news from the newspaper or we can hear it from our friends in our news feeds.
Although it may seem like it, this water cooler society did not arrive on our doorsteps overnight. Since the advent of the internet we have been moving in this directions. Forums, chats and groups paved the way for what we now call social media. Forms of blogging have been around since the mid-nineties and modern social networking sites since the early 2000s. Granted, this is a quick timeline in the sense of changing how information is passed from person to person, but is by no means instantaneous. Society has been striving for a new way to communicate for sometime now.
Even if Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn all fall off the face of the earth tomorrow the way we communicate is unlikely to change. In their void will come new technologies that allow us to continue our water cooler society. Gone are the days of one-way communication and here to stay is an era of word of mouth conversation. So, die if you must Facebook, it wont effect my business none.
Tags: communication, Facebook, linkedin, MySpace, social media, social networking, Twitter
Posted in Opinion, social media | No Comments »
The six years the Corps and I shared
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
In July of this year I ended my 6th year in the United States Marine Corps. Today the Marine Corps celebrates its 234th year protecting this nation. I figured I would take this opportunity to reflect on the six years that the Corps and I shared.
For most, the memory of their time in the Corps starts when they are told to get off the bus and stand on the yellow footprints. For me this seems completely detached from my time in the Corps. Even the day I received my coveted Eagle, Globe and Anchor now seems meaningless in hindsight. The one thing that I do remember from boot camp though is when a drill instructor told us that we would not be “real” Marines until we came back from our first deployment.
This stuck with me as I finished up my training and, as fate would have, it would not take me long to learn what the drill instructor meant. The day I checked into my reserve unit I was told not to get a job, not to go to school, not to do anything: I was going to Iraq. I remember feeling proud because I was going to do what Marines were supposed to do.
The first time I left the safety of the base in Iraq I felt this flood of emotions pass over me. I was excited, scared and proud, all at once. It felt like I could not see, smell or feel fast enough. Every light was a possible enemy, every sound an ambush, every movement an attack. My job on that first day was to close off a road so that other Marines could search for explosives.
It was the summer months in Iraq and we had been out since early in the morning. I was hot, tired and convinced nothing was going to happen. As soon as these thoughts entered my head, a car came rushing past our stop signs, past the concertina wire and straight for my unit. After my shouts and arm signals would not stop him, I looked through the scope on my rifle, saw the driver and pulled the trigger.
There would be several more times that I would do this throughout my deployment, however, it was that first time that stays in my mind clear as day. It turned out that I missed, the driver stopped and everything was fine. But there would be days when I didn’t miss, when the driver wouldn’t stop or when everything wasn’t fine. For each of these days I felt myself slip further and further away from what boot camp taught me it meant to be a Marine and towards what I considered to be a “real” Marine.
After two combat deployments, several trips to other countries and six years, I try to define what that “real” Marine was that I was striving for. I think about the men that I know to be real Marines. I think about Sergeant Shogren who took me under his wing and forced me to be prepared for our deployment. I think about Staff Sergeant Conly who refused to leave the frontlines after being seriously injured and then snuck back onto the battlefield to be with his men. I think about Sergeant Jacobs who had us give all our money to a poor Iraqi family.
I think about these men and the definition of a real Marine comes into view. These are brave, selfless men that did more then they ever had to do, in the world’s worst conditions. It is hard for me to consider myself a “real” Marine when I compared myself to these amazing men. All I know is that I feel humbled to have stood next to men like these, humbled to have shared the title of Marine.
Tags: combat, Iraq, Marine Corps
Posted in Observations, Opinion | 6 Comments »
The 80/20 rule of social media
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
In a recent seminar I was harping on people that they need to be constant and consistent in their postings on social media sites. Things were running along smoothly until someone asked a strange question: what is it that we should be posting constantly and consistently?
The question took me back at first. I was expecting questions regarding how to use a certain feature or how to share information in a certain way but not on how to create the content that should be posted. The question lead to a good discussion about what separates the asker in the marketplace and what kind of conversations she wants to have with potential customers. By the end of the discussion everyone was scribbling down ideas on what they could post.
After thinking about it, I realized that very question is what separates me in my marketplace. There are countless trainers out there that will show you exactly how to use every possible feature on social media sites, but so what? The fact of the matter is that I could train a monkey to do 80 percent of my job; anyone can learn how to do it. What is not easily teachable though is how to create dialogue and discussion that will drive consumers to the next step in the sales process.
This careful construction of dialogue is what makes up the other 20 percent of my job. And, like most 80/20 rules, it is that 20 percent that brings in 80 percent of the business. Yes, knowing how to use the tools is important but knowing how to use the tools to increase sales is what makes all of the difference.
To learn how to drive business with social media, pretend that you have a potential customer sitting in front of you. What questions do you want to ask them? What reasons can you give them to buy from you? How will you convince them that they need your product or service? What is the ideal conversation that you will have with them?
It is as you work through this ideal conversation that you start to realize that social media is essentially a combination of sales and networking but on steroids. By applying the solid fundamentals of sales and networking you will start to learn the 20 percent of my job that is so challenging. With a good amount of practice, it should start to drive in the 80 percent of customers that you are currently missing.
Tags: sales, social media, social networking
Posted in social media | No Comments »