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 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?