What LOLcats can teach us about social media efforts
I was watching the other day as some folks inside the social media fishbowl were poking fun at a company’s somewhat ham-handed attempts at using Twitter. Phrases like “clueless” and “they just don’t get it” were bandied around and it occurred to me that this judgement was overly severe. Yes, the people executing on a campaign did so with less than the quality or integration into the community that you’d like to see, but it was a start.
Here’s the reason why bad social media efforts aren’t all that bad. Clay Shirky pointed out in an excellent TED talk at TED@State that LOLcats were a vital and important sign that the gap between being a content consumer and a content creator had been bridged. A LOLcat picture may be the bottom of the barrel as far as creative and artistic expression goes, but it’s a significant jump to go from never creating to taking that first, tentative step of content creation.
For everyone railing against social media efforts that are less than well thought out or less than flawlessly executed, try taking a step back and seeing the larger picture. A poor attempt at using social media means that someone at the company at least understands a little of the value of being social. A poorly executed social campaign means that they need more practice, to be sure, but they’ve made the transition from non-socially aware company to at least minimally socially aware, and that’s a huge first step to make.
Our responsibility, the folks who are active, experienced practitioners, is to help show new folks the path to the extent that we can and that the new folks on the path are willing to accept a guide or suggestions. Instead of greeting less than perfect efforts with derision, help educate and you might not only help someone understand the social space, but in a few years’ time, you might have yourself a powerful ally and partner.
For those interested in Clay’s original talk, you can watch the video below.
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CSI: Accomplishment
Julien Smith had an interesting and provocative blog post the other day discussing why a lack of motivation may be holding you back (NSFW language). Unfortunately, he missed two key ingredients that go along with motivation (or lack thereof) for achievement.
In the world of police detective stories from Sherlock Holmes to CSI, criminals need three things to accomplish a crime: means, motive, and opportunity.
Means. Do you have the capability to commit the crime? Is it within your ability to do so, and do you have the resources needed?
Motive. Do you have the motivation to commit the crime? Do you have a good reason to do it?
Opportunity. Is there an opportunity to leverage your means, powered by your motives, to commit the crime, or is there no chance of it occurring?
Apply these to nearly any endeavor. You may have the motive to become a famous photographer, and you certainly have the opportunity with the ubiquity of photo sharing, but if you don’t own a camera – the means – the chances of you becoming a famous photographer are virtually impossible. Obviously, your motivation can power you to find the means, but if you don’t have a camera in your possession, you don’t have a camera in your possession.
You may, as Julien uses in his explanations, have the means and the opportunity to achieve your goals, but without motivation, they’ll be nothing but daydreams and unharvested fields.
You may want to be President of the United States and may have the vast fortune and political base to do so as well as the burning motivation, but the opportunity only really comes once every four years, so the opportunity isn’t there at this very moment. (assuming you’re not reading this in a Presidential election year)
Accomplishment isn’t driven solely by motivation alone. Understanding which of the three areas of means, motive, and opportunity you’re weakest in first will guide you as to what you need to do to accomplish your goals. Simply saying “just do it” takes a lot for granted and presumes that the only gap in your lack of accomplishment is lack of motive and motivation when there may be deficiencies in all three areas. Address what’s most deficient first to move closer towards achieving your goals.
It’s easy to call someone a pussy, but to truly understand and help them figure out what they need the most to succeed… that’s the cat’s meow. /sunglasses
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How to improve the quality of the blogs you read
Want to change up your reading habits?
Want to find better stuff consistently?
For the next week, every time you retweet a blog post by someone else, I challenge you to subscribe to that blog if you haven’t already. Don’t just blindly hit the retweet button – when you see something of actual value to you, take the extra 30 seconds and subscribe to it.
See how that changes the quality of what you read in your blog reader every day.
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#the5 for the week ending December 3, 2010
I tweet out #the5 regularly on weekday mornings. It's a list of the 5 things in my various channels that I think are worth paying attention to, usually culled from thousands of blogs and tweets in my Google Reader. Folks have asked in the past if they could somehow get these tweets in another fashion, but every Twitter/Wordpress plugin I've seen makes a mangled, annoying mess of processing the Twitterstream, so until there's a better option, I'll just throw out this digest. If you'd like to get these before the summary, just follow me on Twitter.- #the5: Wikileaks to release Bank of America documents? http://ar.gy/51V
- #the5: What’s the fastest way to determine your newsletter’s value? My top tip: http://ar.gy/54g
- #the5: Want to know your most profitable subject line? I show you how @blueskyfactory does it: http://ar.gy/4xy
- #the5: Today is Dec. 1. Archive all mail older than November 1, you’re not getting to it and you know it.
- #the5: Seth Godin tells you where ideas come from (not gift ideas): http://ar.gy/51U
- #the5: Read #contentrules? You know the value of an editorial calendar. Check out this WordPress plugin for exactly that: http://ar.gy/596
- #the5: One of mine, how informational snacking might kill your career: http://ar.gy/4xx
- #the5: My holiday shopping guide for those who need ideas: http://ar.gy/51T
- #the5: In case you missed it last night, Google/Bing confirm Twitter & Facebook influence SEO: http://j.mp/gCfM62
- #the5: I show you a simple and easy way to test your website calls to action: http://ar.gy/595
- #the5: How much do you value freedom, I ask: http://ar.gy/4_8
- #the5: Hints of an SEO trend. Be sharing your stuff or risk ignorage by Google News: http://ar.gy/550
- #the5: Getting ugly: the battle between governments & Amazon vs. Wikileaks: http://ar.gy/54p
- #the5: Did Google just nerf SEO value of mainstream media? Maybe: http://ar.gy/54v
- #the5: Details of the Irish bailout’s punitive terms for Ireland, turning it into an EU debt slave: http://ar.gy/4_9
- #the5: Bruce Schneier says it’s time to close the Washington Monument and concede the war on terror: http://ar.gy/594
- #the5: Bruce Schneier details how much damage $1 can do in Al Qaeda’s hands: http://ar.gy/4_B
- #the5: Barry Ritholtz on things most of us agree on in order to fix America: http://ar.gy/4xs
- #the5: @shoemoney on 6 networking tips: http://ar.gy/4_C
- #the5: @seomoz on how Google’s new local results is changing search rankings: http://ar.gy/4xv
- #the5: @mitchjoel on the secret to getting attention: http://ar.gy/51W
- #the5: @gapingvoid says America isn’t f’ed, just stupid Americans: http://ar.gy/4_D
- #the5: @chrisbrogan on how to say now: http://ar.gy/4xt
- #the5: @chrisbrogan gives you a daily task to do: feed the network: http://ar.gy/593
- #the5: @chrisbrogan explains the side of social media ROI that can’t be quantified but is valuable: http://ar.gy/54o
- #the5 Bonus: if you’re just back from holiday, here’s how to clean out your inbox and KEEP it clean: http://ar.gy/4y0
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An incredibly simple way to test your calls to action
Google recently implemented Instant Preview in their search results, a small magnifying glass that appears next to each listing. Clicking on or anywhere near it brings up a thumbnail version of your web site. Here’s what the Blue Sky Factory web site looks like:
Look at that beautiful thumbnail. It’s an ideal testing tool for you to see your calls to action as if it were on a small mobile device or across the room.
Can you spot your calls to action from inside that little thumbnail? Does your web site look trustworthy, professional, or create the emotional state you want even at a small size? If not, use tools like this to help sharpen up your site.
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