You own nothing in social media

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Aug 24, 2010 in Blogging, Social media, Social networks, Technology | 9 comments

I’ve been saying this for years, so let’s be crystal clear:

You don’t own a thing in social media.

Not your Facebook Fan Page.
Not your Twitter profile.
Not your LinkedIn group.

You don’t own any of it, and your existence in social media is at the whim of the companies who provide those services. You can go from digital hero to zero in two clicks of a mouse. Your Klout score can vanish faster than you can say Delete My Account.

So what can you own?

Your blog, as long as you host it and pay for the hosting and domain name. It’s yours as long as your credit card remains functional and you back up your data.

Your mailing list, as long as you back it up.

Your database.

So how do you take back ownership of your database?

If you’re not in a position to have the backing of an email service provider like Blue Sky Factory, then the free option is Google Groups. Create an announcement-only group (which is effectively a mailing list) and slap a subscribe box on your web site or blog. Then start asking everyone and anyone who is a fan of yours to subscribe to your newsletter. Facebook fan page? Put an FBML tab up. Twitter profile? Stick it in your URL and tweet it every so often.

Every week or other regular interval, download your group data. Now you’ve got your database, and as long as you continue to provide value to your audience, you’ll continue to grow it.

Obviously, if you do have an ESP, use their subscription forms instead and features like Facebook Connect. I use cows to promote mine:

Whatever you do, own your database. When today’s Facebook becomes tomorrow’s MySpace, you’ll be glad you did.

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Beware of weak correlative scores

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Aug 22, 2010 in Marketing, Metrics, Social media, World of Warcraft | 15 comments

In the World of Warcraft, there exists one number that can make or break your day, depending on who you’re interacting with: GearScore. GearScore is a mathematical formula that tries to rank players based on what equipment their character has, on the assumption that harder to get equipment means you’re a better player for having it, much in the same way that driving an expensive car might indicate more personal wealth. People looking to organize groups in the game often recruit for their groups solely by advertising GearScore requirements: “Looking for damage dealers, 5K GS minimum!”. Anyone who doesn’t meet this score doesn’t get invited to the group.

Funny, both characters are the same player behind the keyboard…

The problem with GearScore is that harder to obtain gear isn’t necessarily indicative of a more skilled player. At best, it’s a weak correlation. For example, a player that works primarily in a healing role can get a very high GearScore from wearing damage dealing equipment – but that player will be completely ineffective as a healer. A player can have one character that is supremely well equipped but might have a second character that he just created that will have an abysmally low GearScore. The player behind the character may be incredibly talented, but the equipment and thus the GearScore will not reflect this fact.

Why do Warcraft players looking to create groups rely on such a potentially unreliable scoring mechanism? Because in the absence of better metrics, it’s what they’ve got to work with for making snap decisions, and the weak correlation is still strong enough that on average, a group composed of high GearScore players is somewhat more likely to fare better against fire-breathing dragons than a group composed of low GearScore players.

So what does a geeky algorithm like GearScore have to do with anything? For years, companies, especially in financial services, have evaluated potential employees based on credit scores. Like GearScore, credit score may have some correlation to a future employee’s abilities to be effective, but given how tumultuous the economy has been in the last 3 years, any company relying on this number may lose perfectly good candidates.

Why would a company rely on such a mechanism? For the same reason the Warcraft folks do – it’s a metric that lets computers and/or HR clerks filter through piles of resumes very quickly. Set a minimum credit score of 700 and your job as an HR clerk is much easier, as you’ll throw away 80% of the resumes in your inbox immediately.

So what if you don’t work in financial services? What if you’re a social media person instead? Surely no one would try to boil down the complexities of managing mass human interactions into a single number. Well…

Is there more to you than this one-dimensional metric? Probably. Will people push this score or another like it just like the Warcraft folks push GearScore? Probably. Be prepared to address it if you’re a social media professional, because there’s an ever-growing chance that a decision-maker may hire or pass on you in an instant based on this one number.

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No need to be extraordinary…

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Aug 20, 2010 in Awakening | 6 comments

… when so many businesses fail at ordinary.

Every time you put your energy and resources into looking for the next big thing, you’re neglecting your ability to put those same resources in the current big thing you already have.

Here are three things that substitute quite well for game-changing extraordinary:

1. Be helpful. People remember far more the help you give them than the features you build that they’ll probably never use.

2. Be effective. People remember what you get wrong far more than what you get right. If you focus on effective execution, you’ll clear the air enough for them to see what you get right.

3. Be educational. People are, unfortunately, easily duped. That’s good if you’re a stage magician, bad if you’re a competitor of someone who is dishing out the sizzle. If you’re losing ground to someone else’s big sizzle, counteract with education about steak. Teach, share, mentor and you’ll earn the respect and business of people who want something to sink their teeth into.

Looking for the next big thing is important. Trendspotting and being ahead of the curve are important skills. As with all things, however, it’s a question of balance and returns. Look to powerlaw curves and 80/20 rules: I’d bet you that 80% of your current business, your current revenue, your current customers come from stuff you already have that they’d like you to be better at.

Would you rather improve the part of your business that delivers 80% of your revenue or 20% of your revenue?

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Getting stuff done (video)

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Aug 18, 2010 in Productivity, Video | 16 comments

A staff memo turned into a video on how to be more productive by chaining productivity ideas together.

Systems discussed:

• 10-2-5 from 43 Folders
• Inbox Zero from Merlin Mann
• Getting Things Done from David Allen

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Are you a robot?

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Aug 17, 2010 in Awakening, Strategy | 1 comment

For a long time, business owners wanted robots. Many still think they do. Obedient, efficient, precise – qualities that were highly valued in the manufacturing era in which most of us got an education and entered the workforce. Our entire educational system is based on making human robots – grades are effectively batches of similarly aged human robots, and standardized testing is effectively basic quality control. Robots deliver precise metrics that managers crave – X number of widgets manufactured, X number of items painted, X speed of items processed at the cashier.

The problem with robotic work, of course, is that robots stop doing work the moment they’re no longer told to do so. They don’t create. They don’t innovate. They’re not passionate. They don’t volunteer to work late. They don’t have ideas to make a process better or make a customer happier. Nothing inspires a robot to deliver any more than what its performance specifications say it can deliver. True, they don’t have motivational issues or call in sick, but nor are they ever going to help you make an innovative breakthrough to take your company to the next level.

In a world and an economy where creativity and innovation define winners and losers, human robots are the last things you need on your team.

Now imagine the antithesis of robotic work: a vocation. For the linguistically disinclined, vocation comes from the Latin verb vocare: to call. Originally meant to refer to people who heard the call to an organized religion, it has expanded to include hearing any kind of calling towards a higher cause.

Can you articulate exactly how what you do on a daily basis makes the world a better place?

Can you articulate how your cause inspires in your team the calling they need to get excited, to get pumped, to be willing to go to absurd lengths on behalf of the people and customers they serve? If you’re the chief executive, can you explain in a tight, compact way how your company makes the world a better place and is worthy of the devotion that you think it should generate?

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