Over the past few days I’d been mulling over a theme for a posting when that same theme started cropping up everywhere. It made an appearance in someone's blog posting and then a magazine I was reading. It was mentioned in an audio book I’m listening to and even popped up in a casual conversation with a friend.

Basically, the reoccurring themes was – are we consciously putting limits on ourselves and our abilities? Let me explain.

I was reading an article by Robert J. Holland in which he questions how anyone can follow hundreds of people on Twitter and possibly get any work down. Holland goes on to mention (as if boasting) that he limits the amount of people he follows to 30 (now 44) because any more would be far too distracting.

Then while reading this blog posting from Chris Brogan, he cautions about spreading yourself too thin in the online world.

As I said, I’m seeing this all over the place. We are constantly setting limitations on our informational input/output levels or building dams on how much we can process. That’s fine and I understand the urge to set your own limits. Not everyone can watch television with a laptop in front of them and divide their concentration between both efforts. And not everyone has the time to write blogs, post to Twitter and keep their Facebook page up to date.

But what if future generations are simply expected to pull this off? Our hunger for information at break-neck speeds isn’t diminishing – it’s only becoming more ravenous. So isn’t it safe to assume that the next crop of communicators will be forced to have their fingers in multiple pies (so to speak)?

Alarmists predicted 10+ years ago (incorrectly) that email would be the death of face-to-face conversation. These same people screamed that Blackberries would have them working all hours of the day and would be a constant distraction (also incorrect, to a degree). Companies still don’t trust their employees to have full access to the internet as the temptation to slack-off is too great.

The reality is that these tools took time to adjust to. We needed to adapt our thinking and the way we approached our work but now businesses couldn’t survive without email, mobile offices and of course the internet.

Now here we are celebrating social media, but doing it all over again, with post after post instructing people to limit how much information they take in, instead of saying – take in as much as you can, find a comfortable place and work from their. Adjust your habits, try something new and push your limits.

I don't mean to point fingers at the "old guard" but are you really helping yourself by closing doors? By trying to force new styles of communication and technology into your old style of work habits aren’t you just putting a date-stamp on your knowledge and capabilities? 

How can you definitively say “I can only keep track of a few followers on Twitter,” when you’ve never tried to follow more? How can you say you have trouble monitoring more than one or two social networks when you’ve never attempted to start a third?

Social media is still in its nascent stages so you can decide now to fit it into your existing schedule or you can choose to adapt, try a new schedule and really test your limits.

Which one will you choose?


photo by DoBeRaGi'sIn all my years of communications, I’m still amazed how many people run head-long into a project without determining the most important factors – why are you doing this? What are you hoping to achieve?

With social media as the sexy new toy that everyone wants a part of, this is happening at an alarming rate. I’m seeing more and more projects with the same consistent thread – “Get me into that social media space at any cost.”

With almost no thought to audience or desired outcomes, companies desperately want to lather themselves in social media suds. They’ve seen everyone else doing it and don’t want to be left behind.

While this is commendable, before you unleash the dogs and set your communications staff running in every direction on the web, stop and ask yourself a few questions.

What are my goals? Set a goal and then chase it down. Without one you’ll just keep going in circles achieving nothing and wasting everyone’s time. It sounds obvious, but it's usually the most ignored part of the plan.

Who’s my audience? Depending on how your online efforts evolve, this might not be the same audience that your other marketing efforts are geared towards. It might also be a more segmented, micro-audience than you’re used to.

What tools suit your goal? Pick the social media efforts that are going to help you achieve your desired goal. Don’t invest your time in every online tool just for the sake of it. This brings me to my next point;

Don’t invest time and effort into something just for the sake of it. I know this isn't really a question, but your brand doesn’t necessarily belong in every web space, so concentrate your efforts where they’ll be most effective.

Do I have the skills to do this? Be brutally honest with yourself here. Do you know the landscape well enough to risk your company’s time and potentially their reputation? If the answer is no, then ask for help. Find someone who knows this stuff, maybe they already work in your organization or maybe you’ll need to hire an outside consultant, either way the web can be an unforgiving place, so try and get it right the first time.

Before you answer, head over to Dave Fleet's website. He's written an insightful post speaking to how valuable an outside agency can be in these circumstances.

Thoughts? Rebutals? Suggestions?

I had a really great chat with a friend the other night – who also used to be my boss (and consequently taught me some of the most valuable communications practices).

We were both sharing experiences about companies and brands and the way they interacted with their customers. We felt they were way off the mark and agreed that so often companies insist on speaking to customers the way they think they should be spoken to.

There’s an entrenched belief with a lot of communicators that there’s one voice in which to speak to your customers. The button-up, business minded approach that uses lots of flowery language, and sounds oh-so sincere. This is of course absurd.

On any given communication, you’re dealing with an enormous spectrum of people who learn and receive information differently and with different levels of education. 

Sure when we sit down to communicate with these people we ask ourselves the fundamental question: Who is our audience? But have we become so staid and predictable in our methods that we don’t truly get to the heart of that question? Are we happy to churn out these form-style letters that address all people in the same generic way? It’s no wonder new media has caught on in a marketing and advertising forum. It allows us to talk one-on-one with people and speak to them in a way that’s personal, not general.

So maybe the question should become, what does my audience want to hear?

Chris Brogan (one of my favourite social media/communications bloggers) wrote a great piece on social media being just another tool in your repertoire.

I won’t waste time breaking it down. Read it here

Recently Seth Godin (who I think is overrated) was named the top social media blogger.

If you put his blog next to Chris Brogan’s I think it’s pretty clear who’s interested in engaging, communicating and interacting with his audience and who’s content to drop morsels of “wisdom” to his followers.

Which one sounds more social?