Asking questions is something I’ve done since I was a little kid. If something didn’t make sense to me, I’d seek answers – no matter how daunting the task. Whether looking up a word I didn’t know or studying my surroundings to make sense of a complex situation, following the journey to a conclusion serves as an exhilarating experience for me. Simply because, when it’s over you know more than you did prior. You own it and it helps define the process by which you continue to navigate life. There is truly nothing greater. The desire to question – yourself, the things around you and how it all fits within a particular context – is a matter of curiosity. Whatever kind of professional you are this is an indispensable tool to you, it is free and it is yours. Seems obvious, yes? Well, it’s not. This I know because of the many humans I encounter regularly who settle for status quo and operate within the confines they’ve been trained to obey. So, if you’re in the former – right on, and if you’re in the latter – start asking questions about the things you’re curious about and about the constructs in which you live.

*Photo Credit* Marco Bellucci

As it pertains to business, it’s no secret or overlooked fact that we are in a new era. It is the dawn of the connected consumer who has substantially more power than ever before. Power to publish and share with a network [who has a network] in real-time no matter their geography or time zone. With this, comes the necessity and opportunity to examine what we’ve always known with a new lens and make sense of the new by inquisitively walking through it.

Asking better questions was a thread that ran through the content I took in at Blogworld LA over the weekend. In his session, “Drowning in Numbers: Turning Social Media Insight into Data,” Tom Webster did a great job of illustrating how we can seek to make sense of our often information overloaded surroundings as digital communicators. He offered four recommendations to aid in the era of big data:

Know what you don’t know
10% of people create content for people they don’t know. Social media doesn’t give you answers, but it will always give you ammo to ask better questions and draw conclusions. I talk regularly about how many awesome free tools we can use to draw conclusions from data. Some of my favorites are: Google Analytics (understand who comes to your website, what keywords are getting them there, how many of your visitors are mobile v. web based and so on. There is so much there), Facebook (search), Foursquare, Google Places, Yelp (claim your place and get data of who is checking in, how often, what they are saying, etc.), Twitter (real-time data of any search term you can think of – pretty powerful).

Ask better questions
Frosted Flakes was curious enough to turn to the Web to understand user insights about their product. They learned, from tools like Twitter (which offer free real-time data – use search.twitter.com), that people eating cereal for dinner were either drunk, broke or trying to lose weight. Out of these insights, they marketed counter-part Special K as a weight loss cereal, which has been a very successful move.

Prove yourself wrong
Science is about proving yourself wrong until you can’t. We should seek to disconfirm. For example, instead of asking what the best time of day to tweet is, seek to understand what effect tweeting at certain times/days of the week has on your community. Do the work to figure out what’s best based on your own research, not that of what others publish. Data for “content creation” is inherently incurious. Therefore, create content and measure its performance in order to create better content.

Do your own work
A naysayer of Klout from day one, I loved how Tom used it as an example of a tool that is popular because it’s an easy answer for people. Many people, those that don’t question, think it’s legitimate data because we like easy answers. They don’t think to use it with a number of other tools or fact-check if a Klout score is actually representative of influence around a particular subject. Further, Klout’s algorithm for influence is pretty sketchy. Take five minutes to dissect a few people’s Klout scores and you’ll find some interesting things [Klout bashing over]. Tom provided a few factors of influence 1) Relevance of the message, 2) Content of the message, and 3) Credibility of author. It’s good define the end point so you have a framework on how to get there.

What questions have you asked today?

Along side Meg Knodl of Hennepin County Library Systems at last Friday’s Social Media Breakfast-MSP, I shared some of my experiences as a community and digital brand manager. For those asking what the hell community management is, this is how I define it:

A business function that endeavors to foster connections with a group of people around a shared interest or topic, and the development and execution of strategy around listening and engagement with members of that community. This function typically refers to online communities (social networks, forums, blogs and other digital media), but should complement other management functions established by an organization’s business objectives .

It was a colorful conversation (more to come about my “quit your job” comment) full of great tidbits of information about this emerging discipline. Pre-event, Meg and I bounced some questions around and of course I wrote out all of my answers like a school girl, so thought I’d share them here. For some solid soundbites from the conversation, visit #SMBMSP on Twitter search.

How do you find people who are talking about Mall of America (insert your brand or business here) online? Are they an easy group to engage?
We use a few different tools for listening and engagement. We use TweetDeck, which is a free desktop application for managing multiple Twitter accounts and other social networks. This tool offers the ability to enter search queries and pull any mentions into a column so we’re able to see opportunities to engage with folks who mention our brand, but aren’t necessarily following or using our Twitter handle.

You’ll see @ mentions, “Mall of America” and “MOA” search. Having a dashboard with notifications by the minute makes it very easy to stay up on what’s going on. In this case, you’ll notice the first comment in the second column is someone counting down to an upcoming visit. She clearly doesn’t know we have a Twitter, so we can reach out and say, “We look forward to having you for a visit, Taryn!” in order to show her we’re on Twitter and convert a follower.

Actively listening online has the potential to teach a brand so much about how people relate to their surroundings and what’s important to them (gee, imagine that) − and information is everywhere and mostly public! Whether a blog post, Yelp/Trip Advisor review, Facebook post or a Tweet – it is silly to not be peeking in on what’s being said about your business. There is endless opportunity here.

When on the go (mobile), we use Boxcar for iPhone which allows for the same exact notifications so we can listen, and engage where necessary, but just pops up as a notification. We use this in tandem with the Twitter app. Facebook for iPhone allows us to manage Mall of America fan pages mobilly (comment, delete spam, etc.). We use the same tools for iPad.

I’m fortunate to work for a brand that people mention often, and that it’s typically relevant for us to reach out and acknowledge a comment, share in guest excitement, solve a guest service concern, and a multitude of other engagement points.

In addition to these tools, we use a Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) called JitterJam. This alerts us of brand mentions across social media and traditional media. Note: We use our SCRM tool to send content to Facebook and Twitter so that we can measure its performance among our community. The problem with SCRM tools is that they’re building products based on other products, like Facebook, whose interfaces iterate regularly, so I caution you to make sure that whatever third party you use, vet it substantially. Make sure your content is showing up and not being penalized by Edgerank (Facebook’s algorithm for how things show up in a news feed).

How do you separate your personal and professional identities (or do you)? 
I don’t believe in this. Just like I don’t really believe in “these opinions are mine and not those of my employer.” I do strongly believe in wherever you go there you are. While I may wear different hats in life, I like consistency and find that who I am is represented in my respective roles (wife, friend, daughter, worker, dog mom and so on). I believe this question asks bigger questions:

Why are so many people so concerned about ‘doing it right?’

What has happened to humanity that we question how to have conversations and connect with other humans; as people and as businesses?

At another recent event, I was baffled by how many people went up to a microphone and asked this very question. I understand social technologies are new, but the fundamental mechanism of it, the conversation, is not. There are a few things at work here.

 We have lost the art of conversation, partly as the result of innovation in technology and mass media. Essentially, people have become accustomed to making a message for a large audience that they never hear back from.

 We, as a people, have been trained to do things a certain way and are so concerned about not doing them right that we don’t move forward and tackle scary things.

May sound like and extreme assessment, but that’s okay with me. I just believe that we are who we are and we bring that everywhere. There’s professionalism and there’s your personality. There shouldn’t be a disparity if you’re in this business.

How do you tell the difficult stories? Store closings, accidents, etc?
This largely depends on the story. Mall of America sees an average of 100,000 people a day, so there is so much to share, positive and sometimes negative. Our number one priority is guest safety and guest experience, so we communicate about on-site issues with mainstream media and via Facebook and Twitter when appropriate. As far as social media is concerned, we usually participate in the conversation if it’s started, but don’t necessarily start it on our own. We let our community dictate that and are happy to give factual information and direct people to the best source to answer questions people may have.  Something important to remember is that we’re the house to 520+ tenants, so sometimes communication comes directly from them. Crisis situations are more difficult due to their unpredictable nature, so those are handled on a case-by-case basis. It is important to note that we have a protocol for digital crisis communication that lays over our traditional crisis communication plan.

For a little more in depth, read “How Community Management Spawned a Social Business Strategy at Mall of America.” What do you peeps have to add?

Well known blogger, human business advocate and all around cool dude, Chris Brogan, shares with his community each year his three words for the upcoming year. They’re not resolutions or goals, but what he calls a lighthouse for his actions and efforts. You can read more about it from him here.

I dig the concept, as I’m not a huge resolution person, but rather someone who makes a few short and long term goals for myself. The lighthouse or road map concept works really well for me because as life happens it’s so easy to get way off track. Distractions, procrastination (in my case), and other factors tend to get in the way of desired plans I might have. Simplicity always reigns in my world, so having these three words to come back to as my intended direction and purpose is extremely helpful. The words don’t symbolize an unrealistic expectation I have for myself, or a big goal I’ve written that is obtainable but still overwhelming to think about. They’re just three small words that can put me back on the right track to achieving what it is that I’ve deemed important in order to grow (integrity, service and growth are my eternal words for living).

I did some significant reflection yesterday, which was really nice. I feel really good about what I accomplished in 2010, but also found that I rarely slow down long enough to truly enjoy it, or seek understanding in the process as it’s happening. The holiday provided me a bit of balance in that area. While I plan to dig a bit deeper, I thought a lot about what I’ve done well, but more about what I haven’t done well or would like to do better. More importantly, what is getting in the way of me accomplishing certain things that I really want to conquer. Out of this inventory came my three guide words, which will help shape my personal and professional goals in 2011.

Courageous: The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery. I find that fear has the ability to hold me back from what it is I want to accomplish. More writing, public speaking, being more accountable to managing finances so that we can travel and so on. While logically I know how silly and unproductive fear is, it continues to hold me back from the things I would love to do because of the power I give it in my head. Identifying my fears and understanding why I’m allowing them to hold me back is something I need to dedicate more time to in 2011.

Thorough: Carried through to completion; executed without negligence or omissions. I have so many great thoughts, ideas and topics I’d like to explore across the ‘roles’ I fulfill in life. However, due to my tendency to procrastinate (due to fear, hence the courage), many of these things are never actualized, or I churn out average (or below) work. Organization of my thoughts in order to produce better work, writing, speaking and self in my relationships is paramount this year. I’m getting sick enough of myself in this area to make a commitment to change the behavior:-).

Act: A state of real existence rather than possibility; the doing of a thing. Yes, you see the theme in these words? I do:-). The preceding words are great, but not complete without this one. Act. It’s easy for me to make decisions or say I will do something, and then in the blink of an eye not do it because of the sloth factor, fear factor or the other ‘justifiable’ excuses I may drum up. 2011 is the year of sticking to my guns and really ‘acting’ on what I say in the areas that matter most.

So there you have it. My guide words for the new year. Nice to write them down publicly, as it holds me more accountable. Did you pick some? What are yours?

I’ve just returned from Blogworld Expo. It was my second time attending this content rich conference, complete with amazing connections with folks I’ve known online for years and random encounters with like minds — all conversations that get your mind jogging in a multitude of ways, both  personally and professionally.

There are many highlights from the conference that I hope to cover in posts to come, but more than anything, attending the conference really allowed me to put some things into perspective. Like, what happened to my desire and commitment to blogging?

Thursday’s afternoon keynote Mark Burnett, executive producer for shows Survivor and The Apprentice (to name a few), nailed a thread that runs through everything in life when he said,

“The need to be certain causes paralysis.”

While he used this in the context of how new media is changing the television broadcast landscape in terms of how he, and inevitably the rest of the world, tells stories to a global audience, this concept touches about everything. From our personal lives and growth as humans to how effectively we communicate or attempt the move the digital needle in our respective agencies, organizations and the like… and the list goes on. Uncertainty, or the inability to know the outcome of the actions we take (or would like to take), single-handedly can kill or disallow birth of really cool stuff.

Lesson in Progress

I started this blog in late November of last year with the intent to blog on a weekly basis. I’ve blogged 11 times in the past year and while math is not a strong suit of mine, 11 times in a year is far less than once a week.

But… I had good intentions.

• Blog focus that I felt qualified to speak to based on my experience and knowledge base, passion and pace at which I am constantly learning.
• Saw a need in my community to talk about things that I was experiencing as a young digital communicator.
• Share in hopes of being a catalyst for conversations to take shape that would help me and others learn and grow.
• Become a better writer through blogging
  

So… what happened?

• I was worried that it wouldn’t be perfect.  –Never is. Not possible. Practice makes us better, but we’ll never achieve perfection. If we did, what kind of fun would that be?
• I worried that what I had to say didn’t matter in the context of the greater conversations and amazing publishers of the blogosphere. –Well, if that’s the case, I’m sure a number of people will tell me, so no need to take it upon only myself to judge.
• I was worried that you weren’t going to like me. –Some do, some won’t and that’s just how the cookie crumbles. Gotta love pride and ego.
  

In essence, I. WAS. SCARED. And because I was uncertain of how my blog would be received by the world, I slowly progressed into a place where creating content based on my original intent became an afterthought and often an excuse-filled discussion with those who cared enough to ask me why I wasn’t writing.

Fear is a marvelous thing. It is innate in humans. If it were not a part of us, “we would run out in the middle of the road and get hit by a car,” as a friend of mind says. This is the good kind of fear.

Then there is the other kind. The kind that manifests itself and can often dictate our course if we’re not equipped, willing to or ready to walk courageously through it, which requires a lot of honesty and quite a bit of faith. It affects or, if you prefer, infects us on various levels depending upon our ability to regularly address what we’re fearful of and take the action necessary to get through it. In my experience, the more you walk through it, faith strengthens and the ability to take on, tackle and address things without ‘knowing the outcome’ becomes a far easier errand. While something I seek on a personal level regularly, my ability to apply this professionally is a bit trickier for me.

So what?

Well, sometimes we need a refresher on life’s little lessons and various people are placed somewhere at the time we are particularly receptive to hear what it is we need to hear. Hopefully, we’re ready to take action as well. While what Burnett said is not earth shattering or new, it’s one of those concepts that as humans (or certainly, this human) struggle with regularly because we all want to do great work, make cool stuff, be liked, never screw up and once more, the list goes on.

It was just the thing I needed to hear in order to post something and reassess my commitment to sharing the work that I do and my take on communications from where I sit.

Don’t let your uncertainties paralyze you from doing everything you want to do, whatever that means. I’m serious *smile*.

In the spirit of talking about things other people don’t talk about openly, but at times desperately want to or should, I’d like to share a little something about an exercise my husband and I are doing to be better communicators and build a stronger marriage, specifically as it pertains to MONEY.

My hubs and I, a.k.a. Chad, have been married for a little more than one year and have been together for almost seven (wow). We communicate beautifully in most areas, but like many couples out there money is not our simplest issue to explore. We have different experiences with money (as everyone does). These experiences helped to develop our value systems and behavior patterns with money, which inevitably are also different. Sound familiar? Well, it’s usually the reality of most couples and people out there in some regard.

We’ve had our fair share of money arguments along the way, but managed to come to a decent understanding before we were married. We knew we had further work to do, but hadn’t found the magic potion on our own just yet. We interviewed other couples, our parents, chatted about it during premarital couples counseling and talked about possible money management methods and systems in private at home. Despite all of these efforts, the doing something piece, the taking ACTION piece wasn’t falling into place.

So… for Christmas we decided the best gift to give each other was a money class we’d both heard amazing things about over the years called ‘Couples and Money,’ taught by nationally known financial educator, expert and author Ruth Hayden.

We went to our first of five classes last Monday and I gotta say I’m really looking forward to the next four.  The following are my takeaways so far:

• One of the first things mentioned in class was: It is socially and politically incorrect to talk about money. In our culture. In our relationships. And consequently in our families. Well, no wonder money is hard to discuss!!! It’s kind of a no brainer and really a huge relief when you think about it this way. Our societal and cultural framework doesn’t have the ‘let’s talk about money like sane, rational and open adults’ built into it in a healthy way. In essence, it’s embedded as a natural dysfunction in our cultural and relational fabric.

• The purpose of this class is to make us a better management team; It’s about learning and being in partnership with money. It was explained that there are two parts to money: Counting and Managing. Counting is ability to know how much you make, how much you need, budgeting, etc. The management piece includes how you make it work, how you make decisions, how you and money coexist, etc. (after you’ve counted the money). Many couples think that if they count it and the numbers ad up that that’s most of the battle. There is much more.

• Class is about DIALOGUE and INTROSPECTION. I find personal reflection to be one of life’s most important, and often most difficult things. I’m a big advocate for Emotional Intelligence and its importance in the bigger picture. It is my experience that when I take inventory of my stuff, my interactions with the rest of the world are far simpler. This class is no different. This class will challenge both of us to take a hard look at our part in how we view and interact with money — and then we will come together to discuss it. When thought about in this way it makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? I know that in past discussions about money I walk in thinking I’m right, which sets the discussion up to fail because I haven’t really dug deeper. I hope that makes sense.

• People don’t change unless they have to. Then they change just enough to get out of crisis. Love this because of the truth in it. Won’t get into it too much, but obviously the goal of this class is to change the necessary behaviors around money so we can be in better partnership with it and our mates.

I look forward to sharing more about what we learn and how it helps us navigate through developing better communication and a  strong financial partnership for a successful future! As always, I love to hear your experience or thoughts if applicable:-).

When I came across the criteria for the SobCon2010 “Blog it, Earn it”contest via Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker, I was elated with not only the fact that I could win and all expense paid trip to SobCon2010, but more importantly that I could address how a person online has made a difference in my life; how they’ve made my life easier, better, smarter, more productive and more meaningful.

There are a lot of people online (and off) that make a difference in my life because of the content they share, the conversations we have, and the connections we make, but rarely do I articulate in writing how these people have impacted my daily life (I try to tell them all in person).

While there are many, I want to share one that has and continues to make difference. That person is Brian Solis. Note: I could have written about this without the incentive of winning a trip, but being a relatively new blogger, I wasn’t prepared to write a random post about why I have a purely professional crush on Brian . The following is why I dig Brian:

As a young public relations practitioner that has a knack for establishing mutually beneficial relationships between an audience and its publics in a more human relational way, I believe Brian truly encapsulates and demonstrates superior insight and knowledge to the discipline of marketing communications and far beyond.

Upon entering my first agency job I took a lot in, as is to be expected. I love public relations and the foundation upon which it was built, but in the agency setting I found myself at times wondering why PR could seem so impersonal and contrived. My capstone project in college had addressed the question of how social networks were impacting the public relations industry, so naturally I began to gravitate to the online marketing group’s side of business in the agency (where social media was housed). The unfortunate thing about the agency was that the synchronicity between practice groups was more of a fight than a collaborative effort. Who owned the social media piece of an account (PR or online marketing) or who got hours seemed more of a priority than getting down to business and developing sound strategies of how to provide clients with the best means to reach the folks they were trying to reach.

During this time I began to read Brian Solis’ blog then called PR 2.0, now called Defining the Convergence of Media and Influence. Additionally, I got my hands on “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” a phenomenal book coauthored by he and Deirdre Breakenridge.

Brian’s thought leadership surrounding communications and how technology and new media are profoundly influencing a firmly rooted discipline(s) has fascinated me since discovery. Brian has a very simple way of articulating some very difficult things. Essentially, he has managed to take existing silos and present ideas, concepts and realities that are influential in breaking those silos down or at the very least allow people to look horizontally through them, instead of just vertical.

Finding his content and position early in my career has given me confidence in my view of the public relations profession, which is that PR is far more than news releases, media relations and getting someone to write a story that reflects your client in a positive light for the sake of it, even when that may not be the case (a one-way dialogue between an organization and its publics). It’s more about truly connecting a group of people to an entity for the right reasons and can be done in a really personable way instead of the old oiled and typical public relations engine, which at times may be nothing more than a relationship with a reporter or follow protocol that in my humble opinion is a small piece of the true PR puzzle. Among my favorite posts from him are those concerned with the Conversation Prism. The idea that “I hear you. I’m listening to you. I understand you,” as a means to create a community for your entity instead of the illusion of such.

The Conversation Prism: The Art of Listening, Learning and Sharing (Creation of Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas)

I’m not saying that traditional means are not important or profound in their own right. Without our foundation, the new could not exist. What I am saying is that there are far better ways to connect people to what they need and what will make them loyal to your client, company, etc. that serve everyone better, and yes, will probably require more work (a two-way dialogue). It is this that makes me so excited about public relations and communications.

Brian’s contribution has allowed my excitement about things such as this to grow, given me the tools to be a better practitioner, brought me cutting edge approaches to a field I love and ultimately the inspiration to continue on my path. I thank Brian for helping me be a better, smarter, more productive practitioner by the content he shares and the hard work he does to produce this content. It certainly makes the PR discipline more meaningful to me.

Brian does a really great job making himself accessible to interested parties, despite being very busy all the time. He responds to his blog comments, tweets back and forth and engages with a lot of people regularly (basically, he practices what he preaches). It’s nice to know that if ever I had a PR 2.0 challenge, I could ping him and he’d do what he could to help out (I don’t know that this will ever happen because he writes about everything before it becomes a problem – for me).

I was lucky enough to meet Brian for a small second and exchange a hug at Blogworld/New Media Expo in 2009. I hope to have a better chunk of time with him someday to chat about his evolution through this discipline, life and what’s next – really just get to know him a bit.

I look forward to his new book, “Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web,” which hits stands any day now and can be pre-ordered over at Amazon.

Thanks to Liz Strauss and Terry Starbucker for presenting the opportunity to chat about how Brian’s contributions have impacted my life. Hope to see you at SobCon2010!

Human business advocate and one of social media’s finest, Chris Brogan, rolled through Minneapolis last week to keynote the LaBreche and Minnesota Business Reputations Event at Best Buy Headquarters. Some other folks have recapped the event and shared about the panel discussion, so if you’re interested in other perspectives just Google or Twitter search #BroganMpls and you should have access to some good posts and tweets from the event. Additionally, I captured a few afterthoughts from Jason Douglas, Keith Privette, Christian Betancourt (fodder for another conversation) and a clip from the Q & A with Chris.

A few things…

I dig Chris and this is why: Chris is just a guy who knows how to talk to people (the human-to-human way), and as the result of being an excellent relationship cultivator, he’s managed to build something profoundly great and share it with a lot of people.  If I can look back and say that I built something similar with those around me and gave it away, I’ll be one heck of a happy gal.

My regard for Chris goes a bit beyond his keynotes and his public social media persona. I’ve had a few opportunities to get to know Chris outside of his keynotes, both at Blogworld in 2009 and over dinner when he passed through town last week, and it’s nice to be able to say that his insides match his outsides, as in he’s not full of shit IMHO (in my humble opinion).

The Keynote: My Thoughts

Instead of the obligatory hello, Chris began his talk by addressing the audience with the Zulu greeting Sayubono, which translates into “I see you.” Chris explained that “I see you” is at the heart of this whole social media thing.  If you take whatever hat you wear off for a second (public relations, marketer, CEO, student of life, etc.) and look at the logic behind this, it should make sense. Being impersonal and going through the motions in life is boring, not particularly enticing and usually has little action associated with it. It’s lazy. If I get something in the mail (or via another medium) that is irrelevant to me and poorly executed, someone obviously didn’t really take the time to understand why they needed to chat with me. They didn’t SEE ME. And by the way, I’m not just talking about this in terms of how marketing communication people address their audiences’ needs. I’m talking about with your check out gal at Target, with your friends and family. I’m talking about everything you do. What’s the point of any of it if we don’t SEE one another? Seeing is the beginning of it all, and most importantly something we have complete control over.

Listen. Connect. Publish. The keynote was framed by these three verbs, and upon them a discussion was built. Here are some raw notes:

Look for the relationship. SEE YOUR PEOPLE .By listening to your publics it should be pretty simple to determine what it is they need you to say to them. How do you build content around the people you equip? Peeps will reveal what they need. You can’t assume they want to talk to you there (various mediums). When you find where they are you need to participate where they are, you’re there to be a participant – not there to manage the brand. Equip them! It’s amazing what happens when you give people collaboration tools. Help people belong. Build the relationship, a relationship that yields and benefits. Listen and BE HELPFUL. The important thing is DO NOT USE the tools if you’re not willing to listen, if you’re not willing to build relationships.

Sentiment. Many post-event discussions with peers reeked of disappointment with the event overall. The social media literate tended to find the event repetitive in nature or took issue with having the same discussion, or as Andrew Eklund stated in a Minnesota Business recap (nice thoughts over there btw), “Social Media is having a hard time growing up.” Here’s what I say to that: The social media literate were not the intended audience for this event. Beth LaBreche said it herself during the panel discussion. While she appreciated the turn out, she was hoping for clients and prospects less versed in the social media discipline to show up and get some wicked education. Problem is, you stick the Brogan in as headliner and you draw his fan base and those who may want to be his fans because they’ve heard about him from his fan base.

To the literate: While hearing about listening and creating the appropriate content based on the information we’ve uncovered by monitoring, listening or whatever, the reality is that so many people still need to hear the YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO BE HUMAN message, which is really at the core of the whole listen, connect and publish thing (and Brogan happens to carry that message well). The underpinnings of social media are the humanity piece. My strong belief as someone who has participated here for a while is that teaching people about the human part, about what that really means is most of the battle. At the end of the day a lot of people don’t know how to just have a conversation with people, let alone figure out how to go talk to a bunch of people they don’t know strategically. Add the “we should market to people using social media” piece without a foundational knowledge of this and you’re in a world of trouble.

Those of us that want to (and some are) get into the sophisticated realm of growing social communication channels, developing new measurement infrastructure, social products and services for consumption, etc., keep doing it. DO IT! Then when you’ve done it, you can get on stage and TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE.

Until then, I think we should expect to remain on the 101 information highway for a while because that’s where the majority of folks are. Those of us who have been playing on the playground for a while need to keep doing what we’re doing, help others, keep ourselves right sized in the whole scheme of learning curves, give back what we’ve been given and create results using our preferred communication medium.

What do you think?

For those of you that don’t know who Chris Brogan is, I recommend you Google him  (you’ll find that he blogs regularly over at www.chrisbrogan.com about community and social media, he’s co-author of New York Times Bestseller, Trust Agents, is president of New Marketing Labs and participates in a number of other endeavors). You’ll either be into his voice or you won’t. I’m acutely aware that not everyone is a fan.

In addition to my great social media friends and colleagues, I have a lot of wonderful friends and connections that do not hang in the social media sphere per se. These are folks that may use Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace (yes I just said MySpace) for personal use, people that are just getting on various social networks to make professional connections or reunite with people from high school or college. Their intentions do not exceed this purpose, however, the desire to do more as the result of mass growth in social media use for business, etc. is sparking curiosity. I get messages from many of them saying things like, “Half the time, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” It’s not that they’re disinterested (well, some are and give me a hard time); it’s that many of my status updates aren’t really relevant to them. I forget most of the time that terms like augmented reality and mentions of various mediums like Twitter, Foursquare and Plancast etc. are not really that commonplace. With that being said, it’s time to talk to those that don’t really talk about and/or do this stuff ALL THE TIME.

I want to take this opportunity to directly and more thoroughly approach a series of related questions that one of my IRL (in real life) and Facebook friends asked me after my last blog post. (I’d be so grateful if experienced readers take this opportunity to share your thoughts and help others that know far less than you do). I’ve inserted her Facebook message below. NOTE: To capture this image and make quick and easy edits I used a program called Skitch. Skitch is a great tool to pull images off the Web, edit them and convert for easy insertion into documents and blog posts.

I’d like to start by thanking Jane (fictitious name) for asking me her questions, allowing me to use her private question to me as subject matter to post. To keep the identity of her business and name private, I’ve blacked out references to each.

Jane is in a position, like many I know, where she serves as content curator for her workplace(s), spokesperson and brand evangelist for what she represents. While she is all of these things, she’s not familiar with how social media can help her spread the word about her awesome company, its product benefits and brand promise. The boss has assigned her the task. As the result, she’s asking:

What to update? How to get loads of followers? How to make people see our updates?

These are great questions and I’m so glad she asked (me – and I’m hoping you too). The questions are tricky to answer directly because there are quite a few steps in between these questions. Some conversation starters are below (I replied to her privately as well). My goal here is for as many peeps as possible to come in and share links (perhaps to a related post you’ve written) to helpful resources for beginners and drop a useful tip that address her questions. I’ll cover a few, as we’d be here quite a while if I tried to cover it all.

Because I believe that newer communication tools are about creating a two-way dialogue (instead of one-way message distribution model), here are a few suggestions for learning about existing communities and how you may create your own.

Primary and Secondary RESEARCH. My number one approach to just about anything is RESEARCH. I like a blended approach of secondary research (research that others have done and documented) and primary research (gathering my own conclusions and data as the result of first hand experience).

Some helpful secondary resources I use are Google, Twitter Search, Technorati or BlogPulse (blog search tools). You’d be surprised what you’ll dig up as you move through the resources that come up. One thing leads to another. There are many blogs that cover social media and creating online communities out there (they touch the technology piece all the way down to strategy and supporting subjects). Your blog searches will help you hone in on these. Some of my favorites are: Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Social Media Examiner and Mashable. Others I enjoy can be found in my ‘Stuff I Read’ section.

In regards to primary research, hop on and establish yourself in the mediums you plan to participate in. Practice makes perfect, right? So, if you’re comfortable enough after you know what Twitter is, open an account. WATCH and LISTEN to people. Using Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) seek out keywords that are relevant to you using quotes. (Example “public relations” or “social media.”) By searching for specific terms, you will be able to find exactly who is talking about the subject matter you are interested in. This will help you determine if you want to follow this person/people and if the conversation is a place you want to engage. If you have a prospect list or are curious if specific people are utilizing Twitter (or another medium), go to Google and type in “Jane Doe on Twitter” and anyone by that name will pop up. This is very useful, as you can get granular very easily to determine where you should be spending your time.

Analyze your research. Upon gathering information, sift through it and make some decisions about what you’ve found. Does the data found fit within the overall PR, marketing and business strategy of your company, or will it help you develop a stronger mar-comm strategy? Perhaps you will determine that you need to set up some Google Alerts and use Twitter Search everyday for a week or month and log the results to get a better idea of what’s being said and how you may create community for your people. Does your company culture suit having open conversations with its publics (hopefully it does), or does it just want to blast out one-way messages in hopes of making a sale? If that be the case, you may want to just advertise to save your brand’s reputation.

Closing thought.This may be shocking, but if you know how to talk with another human being, and I’m talking like human-to-human, none of these things will be a problem for you. Yep, I said that. Think about it. These mediums are tools that allow communicators the ability to do what they’ve been doing all along: CONNECT with (audiences) people by realizing common interests (which suggests that you’re a good listener), SHARE and GIVE of yourself genuinely. In essence, create a community or be a good community member. Just may have to do a little extra work to figure out the technology:-)

This is a small piece of the puzzle here and it’s intentional, as I’d love for the awesome community who live this stuff to share the rest in comments.

I had a serendipitous moment yesterday while (finally) writing this post. I saw a tweet come up from one of my peeps, Albert Maruggi (@AlbertMaruggi) that simplified my thoughts a bit (thanks Albert!). Our Twitter conversation reads:

Albert: “Lincoln said, ‘Character is what you do when people are not looking.’ Social media are the constant eyes focused on brands. Now what?”

Me:“Integrity better be a priority (smiley face).”

Albert: “Remember what JR Ewing of Dallas TV fame said, ‘Once you get passed honesty, integrity is a piece of cake.’”

Integrity is something I think a lot about. Growing up, “insides matching outsides” (my preferred definition of integrity) was at the top of the “principles you better practice list.” Over the years, that little phrase has transformed into a question I ask myself regularly as well as what I expect from my surroundings (business relationships, employer, professional associations, personal life, etc.). Why? Well, because without truth, what’s the point? How can anything truly successful be built? I don’t think I really need to make a case for what a lack of integrity and honesty leaves in its wake. Just watch the news or read the paper (yes I just said news and paper) and you’ll find many examples of integrity breech.

Integrity has found its rightful place at the head of the business communication revolution table. Words like authentic, transparent and genuine (all synonymous with insides matching outsides) are among the most popular vocabulary words of today. Not because people do these things particularly well, but because the act of exuding these characteristics is highly desirable, especially as it pertains to communicating. Integrity is what we crave and expect in our interactions with other humans (brands) — and we should expect nothing less.

Technology innovations (such as social networks) and Web 2.0 culture (collaboration culture) not only foster this dynamic, but have the ability to hold communicators and businesses accountable to act with integrity, which has ultimately sent a large percentage of folks into panic mode. For the majority, it’s incredibly scary, as we’ve comfortably been living in the one-to-many culture for quite a while, so the ability for anyone to take hold of a message and say whatever they like whenever they like is a tad overwhelming. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s not necessarily businesses that struggle with this are lacking integrity or being dishonest, more so that they are used to talking with people in a much different way as the result of age, business type, poor teaching or advising and the list goes on. The humanizing of brands is in full swing and many company heads are slowly starting to realize that the behavior shift in people (consumers) and the preferred way to communicate is here to stay.

The intersection of new communication tools, like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and good ‘ole traditional marketing-communication practice present the ability to do more better, if we choose.

In answer to Albert’s comment/question, “Lincoln said, ‘Character is what you do when people are not looking.’  Social media are the constant eyes focused on brands. Now what?” I think it’s very important to reflect upon a few things here when thinking about engaging in the world of social media:

First: If your character needs an overhaul (meaning, you are dishonest and lame or have other issues), take a look at yourself (business) and take responsibility and action (emphasis on action) for what you can do better.

Second: Consider what you value and how you want to convey that (how it plays into your overall business communication strategy).

The sad reality here is that people are hopping into a very serious set of communication tools without a defined communication strategy or real distinction of what their company or brand truly represents. In essence, lacking a solid foundation from which to build something — not mapping out how to translate their insides (company culture) to the outside (public) successfully.

The next decade will be fascinating to watch. Not just which businesses succeed and how, but how the marketing-communications discipline will change as the result of ongoing innovation and its ability to empower people to hold business and other powerful entities accountable through transparent platforms. It’s just the beginning of it all and can only get more interesting.

What are your thoughts?