Tag: social

Being a Moderate is a Pain in The Ass.

Posted by – November 9, 2010

Just like the Bible, Quran, et al, our own Constitution is constantly being re-interpreted and skewed by the very people that claim to care about it the most. I watched and participated in the last presidential election. I saw the people, even some conservatives alongside liberals, all stand together and vote. I also saw most of them flip to the other side in a furious backlash 2 years later for the recent election (last week). In my opinion, the problem isn’t democrats or republicans, it’s people. We’re fickle…..radical fundamentalists in particular. It doesn’t help that our political climate and social culture does not lend itself to us moderates…culturally we’re always forced to ‘pick a side’…..which is pure nonsense. We aren’t robots (last time I checked anyway). We should be focusing on the issues and how they affect everyone, not just those that believe what we believe as individuals. If you stripped the issues away from the politics and personal insecurities you’d probably find that most of us are generally on the same page, we just go about it differently.

The cool thing about us moderates is that we can fit in with almost any crowd, have meaningful conversations with both sides of the fence. The other side of this though is that moderates need to put up with more people giving us shit for being who we are because we choose not to exclusively surround ourselves with fundamentalists on a one way street to blind chaos. We moderates are stuck in the middle of the political and social storm that by definition won’t let it resolve itself. We are sandwiched in between the soul-less fascist nightmare and the whiny unorganized emo-hippie. What is a well-intentioned, intelligent, open-minded, non-judgmental, communicative group of people supposed to do in a country whose majority population can’t stop thinking in black and white? It’s bittersweet I tell ya….but it feels good to know that I’m not drinking anyone’s Kool-Aide just because it’s brightly colored and has a little extra sugar in it.

To Clarify

When 9/11 happened and I started to learn about the history behind the west vs. east, I had switched to the left. I was much more on the conservative (and very uninformed) side of the moderate needle for a long time before that. The left doesn’t fit me though either I’ve found because I’m still conservative on some stuff. For the last 9 years I have hung out in many social circles that lean towards every belief and ideology under the sun. Aside from a few unique individuals, I’ve found that no matter where you go, who you vote for, what type of car you drive, what your sexual preference is, the majority of the people are all the same. Defensive and insecure. The moment moderates propose a new idea about something, a new way of thinking, a different path, everyone around them immediately tries to pigeonhole it to the left or the right, airing on the side of delusional self-preservation. They can’t seem to help themselves.

For all those radicals out there, right left up or down, that think they have their shit together by hanging out ONLY with like-minded individuals, I have some information for ya…..

You Are Not a Fascist, Redneck Office-Thief If…

  • You think people deserve to earn more money, in some cases lots of money, for their hard work and experience.
  • You enjoy the (ethically acquired) fruits of capitalism.
  • You appreciate owning and/or using a firearm at a shooting range or for lawful hunting that yields food for you to eat later.
  • You have particular religious beliefs.
  • You eat meat.
  • You have a beard.

You Are Not a Bleeding Heart, Lazy Socialist Freeloader If…

  • You care about the environment and believe in alternative ways of pumping energy into our infrastructure.
  • You believe we should all try and help others in need when we can.
  • You hope for peace and love.
  • You question authority.
  • You care about animal rights.
  • You have a beard.

It behooves humanity for you to think for yourself, to question yourself, and to keep an open mind.

Onward.

Social Media: Meaning & Purpose Are In Our DNA.

Posted by – October 14, 2009

Photo Credit: User "Scoobay" on FlickrControlled Capitalism is Changing

The problem with one-way communication and some of the old way of doing marketing is that for years, in an effort to solidify and meet our revenue forecasts, we have trained human beings to be the type of consumer that doesn’t think for themselves. They’ve been rolling with the consumer herd so that large corporations with nebulous names can spoon feed them what they need to like, and pay for, next week, next month, next year.

In this awesome age of information that we are swimming in, people are now learning from a young age to think for themselves when it comes to consumables and how they have the power to choose the next trend and influence others, even people they don’t know (customer reviews for example). This power has also made them hungrier and less patient when it comes to the ROI attached to something they read, eat, drink, smell, etc….people expect a return now when you engage them and frankly, I don’t blame them.

Think about how much time and money is wasted marketing something in a way that creates no return or meaning for the customer. Think about the thousands of banner ads that were designed by pricey agencies that were ignored and never clicked, the print ads were never read or that never drove one direct sale or word of mouth reference. It’s mind blowing to think about all the money spent on that with nothing to show for it.

Legos Are Deep, Man

A nice write up entitled, “Finding Purpose in Labor (and Labor Economics)” was posted by Daniel R. Hawes where he posts some thoughts and opinions regarding a study that was done and documented called “Man’s search for meaning: The case of Legos

Here’s a quote from Daniel’s write up about the experiment talking about it’s premise:

“Meaning, or purpose, in the task was manipulated by what the MIT and University of Chicago experimenters did with Lego toys after a participant had put them together. For one group of participants – the group with the meaningful task – the constructed Lego toys were piled up on a table for the participant to see, and new Lego pieces were provided to build further toys. For the meaning-deprived group, each constructed toy was immediately disassembled (for the participant to see), and the parts given back to be reused for subsequent building efforts.
Maybe not surprisingly to you, but possibly surprising for economic theorists, the average amount of toys each person was willing to build significantly differed between the two groups.”

……and here is a quote from the researchers doing the study:

“Despite the fact that the physical task requirements and the wage schedule were identical in the two conditions, the subjects in the Meaningful condition built significantly more [Lego toys] than those in the Sisyphus condition. In the Meaningful condition, subjects built an average of 10.6 [Lego toys]  and received an average of $14.40, while those in the Sisyphus condition built an average of 7.2 [Lego toys] and earned an average of $11.52.”

After reading I was reminded of one of the most simple rules to good marketing, and more importantly in this day and age, surefire tactics for upping the statistical odds of you getting a return for your social media campaign initiatives: Meaning & Purpose.

As a Social Media Marketer, It’s Already In Your Bag of Tricks

Something as simple as Legos remind us of one of the low-hanging fruits of social media. The study above reminds us of something very simple and fundamental.To me, the above data states something that should be obvious to any social marketer.

When you run a campaign, is there a meaning or purpose for the user when they arrive at your campaign landing page, click on your shortened URL, follow you on Twitter, etc.? Do they feel that when you engage them does your promotional delivery wreak more of the ‘take’ than the more important scent of ‘give’?

If you build your social media efforts on a foundation of meaning for your audience, the revenue and brand awareness will come naturally. Even something as simple as Legos prove it.

Onward.

[lego photo credit: Scoobay on Flickr]

Automation Killed The Social Media Star

Posted by – September 1, 2009

So a short while ago the mighty Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) tweeted the following: “Social media isnt cool. Human interaction is cool. Just fyi.”

Some people took that as him dogging Social Media but if you know Chris you know that’s not true. I think he’s just getting a little spent on the level of noise and clutter that is being slung around Twitter spammy DM’s and other social sites. I’m sure he’s also probably tired of all the new social media “experts” that have cropped up that are more savvy as used car salesmen than they are true marketers who actually care about the conversation. The buzz-word minutiae that won’t seem to let up when it comes to “Social Media” is…..overwhelming, like tidal wave :-) . When I hear or read that phrase now, it is starting to feel like I’m getting my first tattoo and the artist keeps going over the same spot again and again and again even though he should be moving on to another spot. “STOP I GET IT!” Shotgun marketing methods and not knowing the real point of Social Media is the cause of all this chaos.

Here’s How I See It

Now onto the main point of this post. Whether you are using Auto DM messages on Twitter or regularly and aggressively scheduling libraries of recursive tweet ads (twads? blech…) on TweetLater, you are tired of the time commitment and maintenance of this new “social media” fad that you are trying to convert into a “get rich quick” scheme. My humble message to those people: I have some news for you.

Automation (“in the recurring output of scheduled ads” sense) and Social Media cannot live in the same in universe philosophically with causing the apocalypse. This does NOT include one press release tweet being scheduled early one morning, an Auto DM set up to let people know you are on vacay, etc. I’m talking about the meager attempt, whether intentional or not, by low quality marketers who are trying to replace human interaction and relationship building, with scripts and automated tools.

We all know that the marketing relationships with our customers are only as solid (and lucrative over the long term) as the amount of time, effort and genuineness that we are willing to give to them. It takes time to cultivate real conversations and relationships in marketing. You can’t automate that. It’s like me trying to write a script that will raise my 3 sons for me…..as much as I’d like to have that lying around when they are bickering so I could go have a peaceful cup of coffee some place until my new bickering children script helps them figure it out, there will never be a time when marketing is not about real people having real conversations, especially in this day and age.

If you don’t like people, interaction with people, investing time in people, then please don’t get into social media. :-)