Heidi Cohen was busy over the weekend putting together a great post chock full of data that you should consider as you’re making your 2012 marketing plans:
Social media continues to evolve and mature. As it does, so does the ways marketers use social media and how they integrate it into their marketing plans.
To maximize the effectiveness of your social media efforts, make sure that your goals are aligned with your business objectives and that you understand your target audience in terms of marketing persona and social media persona.
Here are 47 social media facts and what they mean for your marketing and your 2013 marketing plans.
In his epic book “Here Comes Everybody”, Clay Shirky writes:
We are living in the middle of the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race. More people can communicate more things to more people than has ever been possible in the past, and the size and speed of this increase, from under one million participants to over one billion in a generation, makes the change unprecedented, even considered against the background of previous revolutions in communications tools. The truly dramatic changes in such tools can be counted on the fingers of one hand: the printing press and movable type (considered as one long period of innovation); the telegraph and telephone; recorded content (music, then movies); and finally the harnessing of radio signals (for broadcasting radio and TV). None of these examples was a simple improvement, which is to say a better way of doing what a society already did. Instead, each was a real break with the continuity of the past, because any radical change in our ability to communicate with one another changes society.
So now you are an expert. I know it. You know it. It’s the rest of the world that may not know it. Yet. In my humble opinion however you did not get to this ripe old age of wherever you’re at without becoming an expert in something. The 10,000 hour rule is just that – Malcolm Gladwell hypothesized that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. Now think of all the things you are an expert at!
Here’s the problem, however: your area of expertise may be so narrow or specialized that no one in your town or county or even your state needs it. There are however almost 2,000,000,000 people on the Internet. Even if your expertise appeals to only one in 1 million people that still means there are 2,000 people who need you to guide them. The 10,000 hours you spent gaining your expertise probably means you’re pretty good thinker too. The challenge is you can be the sharpest knife in the drawer but if no one can find the drawer you’ll never get a chance to get out…
Chris Brogan says:
“As you now know, if you have no Google results, in a sense you don’t exist.
My good friend Dana VanDen Heuvel, a thought leader in his own right, says “there are thinkers and there are thought leaders. They both have a point of view. The thinker has a point of view that is limited by word-of-mouth but the thought leader is only limited by world of mouth.” Using the good, fast and cheap tools available on the Internet a thinker can make his or her thought leadership position searchable, findable, knowable, usable, and shareable. Because of all those ‘ibles’, they may actually become credible. Publishing your thought leadership position will give you a share of voice which may lead to share of mind and ultimately to share of market…
The first step in ‘being known’ is actually accepting the face that you ARE an expert and discovering your ‘onlyness’ as author Nilofer Merchant puts it in her book “11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra“:
The foundational element starts with celebrating each human and, more specifically, something I’ve termed onlyness. Onlyness is that thing that only one particular person can bring to a situation. It includes the skills, passions, and purpose of each human. Onlyness is fundamentally about honoring each person, first as we view ourselves and second as we are valued. Each of us is standing in a spot that no one else occupies. That unique point of view is born of our accumulated experience, perspective, and vision. Some of those experiences are not as “perfect” as we might want, but even those experiences are a source of ideas and creativity. Without this tenet of celebrating onlyness, we allow ourselves to be simply cogs in a machine—dispensable and undervalued.
Merchant, Nilofer (2012-09-12). 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era (Kindle Locations 107-113). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.
So now we have established the foundation of being known; you have to define your area of expertise and embrace your ‘onlyness’; only then can you take the next step. More next Tuesday…
On Friday, I launched a series on Getting Things Done [GTD] on the internet. I wanted to include this 2010 interview with David Allen but as humbling as it is to admit, I couldn’t track it down on my own site! :-D
Fortunately, I did locate it and I share it with you here as part of the series. The action starts at about 1:50 into the recording…
Pat Hopkins of Imaginasium in Green Bay [yes, we have very smart people here too!] wrote:
Steve Jobs had it. Bill Gates did, too. Their successors? Not so much.
Don’t get me wrong — Apple and Microsoft may still be successful. It’s just that they’ll never be the same companies that they set out to be.
These days, they’re operating based solely on sound business practices, rather than rallying around a unified, inspiring vision that made them the undisputed leaders in their field.
Same scenario in government: In 2008, Barack Obama had it in droves. This year? Both he and Mitt Romney have played it safe — relying on tried & true tactics rather than a bold vision to rally around. Thus, there’s been no clear leader in the race to date.
And remember good ol’ George H.W. Bush? After serving as Vice President to Reagan — an unequaled storyteller with a clear, compelling vision — he sought to continue the same successful policies for another eight years. Yet, he only served one term.
Bush 41 had an incredible resume — on paper, there was perhaps no one more qualified in recent history than he to serve as president. As he focused on the comfortable role of handling issues one-by-one and in the here-and-now, his advisors urged him to speak to broader themes. He referred to it as “that vision thing,” and didn’t see it as important as solving problems and letting his record speak for itself.
It cost him the election — voters instead rallied around a new candidate who urged them to “don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.” (And Clinton went on to serve two terms, with unparalleled popularity even today).
Vision is what every successful leader and company thrives on, yet one of the hardest things to truly communicate and achieve. In fact, it’s the most critical long-term success factor and challenge you’ll face.
You can get by for a while without it. But you won’t lead your industry. Or make as much profit as your competitor. Or retain the best talent.
And unless you also weave it into a compelling story and get good at telling it, you’re likely to face the same fate.” via About That Vision Thing….
Takeaway? Find yours — vision, that is — and pursue it while you still can…
I do offer personal digital coaching via GoToMeeting on applying these principles to your e-mail system. Here’s what one happy student said:
Carrie Klassen (client)
Carrie hired you as a Business Consultant in 2011
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
“I spent two hours with Todd that will save me at least a gazillion hours. His patient coaching and time-saving processes helped me get to an inbox of zero (!!) that same day. Highly, highly recommend e1evation for any consultants and thought leaders looking to manage personal and professional information overload.” October 11, 2011
Heidi Cohen was busy over the weekend putting together a great post chock full of data that you should consider as you’re making your 2012 marketing plans:
Bright, shiny objects! 
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