Well, here we are. A journey that began many months ago, when there was still snow in the air, is coming to a close. I’ve written 100 posts about engagement, and now it’s time to move on to writing about, well, what you want me to write about all through August 
Before we start that journey though, I thought I would toss out a few things that I learned or experienced in doing this series, just in case you’re interested in ever doing one like it. I hope it helps!
I debated about writing this post. While I’m really excited that I’m coming to the end of this 100-post series, I’m not exactly in a Frank Sinatra mode where I can sing, “I did it my way.” On the other hand, I would say a great majority of you didn’t know me or my little site here back in April when this series started, so I opted to round up some of the posts that I thought were the best out of this series to kind of bring you in as if you were here from the start.
So, here are some of the posts that I think ended up being the best in this series. Enjoy!
As you wind down a project, you find that any little oomph that can lift you up and over the finish line is much like a lovely breeze on a burning hot day. It is thus entirely in the realm of happy serendipity that I had the experience I did yesterday.
See, for about 5 months now, I’ve been blogging about engagement online. A lot of people think engagement is an over-stressed segment of the online world because it technically doesn’t lead to you making money. I got some crap (for lack of a better word) when folks found out I’d be spending so much time on this “overdone” topic. But yesterday, I got the ultimate validation that while online engagement on its own may not have a business value, it is priceless.
If you’ve been visiting here at my blog for awhile, you know that I’ve been working on Mark Twain’s autobiography all summer. Well, working on reading it, not writing it. If you are new here, now you know. Ehem. Anyway, over the last few cycles of the moon, good ole Mark has given me a lot of ideas about modern engagement online, as strange as that may seem. Since we’re winding down the engagement series now, I thought it would be apropos to share all of the wisdom Mr. Twain has shown me about interacting with other folks.
I was a pretty late addition to the Harry Potter bandwagon, I must admit. When I was in grad school a friend convinced me to buy the first book, and I did. I sat down to read it and all I could think was, “Hmm, well that reminds me of that movie. That comes from that book. Oh, she stole that from this story.” I know, a very snobby way to look at things, but that’s what the ivory tower does to ya, right?
Thanks to TBS and their penchant for showing every single Harry Potter movie over and over again, I’ve gotten a bit more interested in the series. I watched the first part of the finale over the weekend and am planning on going to the theater to see the finale of the finale.
I’ve written about Harry Potter a bit (though of the epic film series of the oughts I tend to lean towards Lord of the Rings), but as I think about the series, there really are a lot of lessons one can take away about engagement. Here are some that I came up with.
Are you a fan of Arrested Development? I sure am. If you aren’t familiar, Arrested Development lasted 3 seasons on Fox. It is about a super rich family that’s totally dysfunctional and becomes even more dysfunctional when the dad is arrested by the SEC for illegal doings at the family-owned company. There are a lot of delicious moments in the series that could really be used to illustrate things about the world of social media, but I’m just going to talk about one today.
The two oldest brothers, GOB (stands for George Oscar Bluth, played by Will Arnett) and Michael (played by the still cute Justin Bateman) had had a huge argument. Michael came to realize he needed his brother’s help with something. He runs into GOB and says, “Oh, I’m so sorry about our argument. You’re a really great brother and you deserve more respect.” Michael then pauses for about 5 seconds. Then he says, “I need a favor.”
GOB responds, “Well, that was subtle.”
This interaction, unfortunately, captures almost precisely (minus the “brother” stuff) some experiences I’ve had online lately.
A lot of people are saying that whether or not Google Plus opens up in a strong way for business use, the fact that they can interact with people on Google Plus is going to help their business. In part, I can see that. Statistically speaking, the more people you meet, the better chance you have at meeting people you like or people who would buy from you.
But (because as Pee Wee Herman once said, we all have big buts), just talking to people and sharing kitty videos is not going to help *most* businesses. It will help you as a person, perhaps, or if you run a brand that is all about engaging online, you’ll be golden. If you’re an accountant, you may not be so lucky.
This is not a new conversation. People are equating followers on Twitter with business prospects. The logic goes that the more people you engage with the better chance you have of finding your buyers. Same for Facebook fans and blog subscribers. Again, for some folks, this may be 100% true. For a lot of people, it won’t be true at all.
Did I just douse you with icy cold water?
A lot of people in the online world talk about time. Some people talk about how much time they invest in, well, social media. Others talk about how much time it may take to build a community online or how much time it takes to get to 1,000 blog subscribers. A fair amount of time is spent talking about how to balance work time with family time, too.
With all of this talk about time floating about, it’s easy to make people feel like they’re forgotten, overlooked, or maybe not as important to you as they really are. You mean to spend time with them or on their questions, but time just seems to slip away at the worst times.
I have been struggling a lot lately with the thought that I don’t express my appreciation to some people as often as I should be. It’s not that I don’t think about them every day and thank my lucky stars that I know them. It’s just they give me so much time and support that I always feel like I’m falling short in showing them my gratitude.
Maybe you have people like that in your online reality too.
Well, I thought maybe I could convince you to do a little exercise with me (because let’s face it, the online world needs some positive vibes!). I’m doing this on Friday as a kind of elaborate take-off on “Follow Friday,” but you can do it whenever. The goal? List five people that you feel you don’t show your appreciation to enough – and do it!
Here are my five folks. They are wonderful people and I want to make sure they know I see everything they do for me and for others.
There was a time there when I thought the Shrek movies were just the most innovative movies around. I thought that until they did about two sequels too many, in fact. The movies are sort of geared at children, but they are highly amusing for us grown-up types, plus they’re charming and they offer positive messages. What more can you ask for from a movie these days?
There are a lot of lessons one can learn from Shrek, and a lot of the lessons are big, over-arching life lessons like “Don’t judge people.” But there’s one particular lesson I’m thinking about that relates particularly well to Social Media. Are you ready?
In the second Shrek movie (if you haven’t seen it), Shrek the Ogre and his little talking donkey friend take a magical formula and become, in a word, stud-muffins. Donkey becomes a gorgeous white stallion and Shrek gains a “cute button nose and a tight, round buttocks.” Shrek’s wife, Fiona, who is also an ogre most of the time, is also affected, and goes back to being a beautiful, red-headed princess. At the end of the movie, Fiona can decide if she and Shrek will stay in their human forms forever or whether they will go back to their ogre selves. Donky is not part of the conversation, but he is ultimately deeply affected by what the loving couple decide.
When you engage with people in the online world, you are often in the same position as Donkey. If you really come out and support a person, you are staking your credibility on how they will act. If they decide to do a total goofball thing, your credibility, along with theirs, will be affected. If they get into really hot water because they do something wrong, you are also going to receive raised eyebrows because, after all, you suggested to a ton of people that this person is a great find, a great blogger, a great…whatever.
Of course, there’s another side to this coin. For everyone with whom you engage, you’re in the position of Shrek, and everything you do can impact how the members of your community will be received elsewhere in the online world.
At its heart, Social Media engagement is about taking a leap of faith. It’s saying, “I hope, if given the choice, you’ll let me stay a stallion instead of making me turn into a donkey.” In a big way, your online fate is in my hands, and mine is in yours.
Does that, or should that, influence how you act? How you speak? What do you think?
This is post #92 in the Engagement Series. If you are worried about missing posts, please feel free to hit the subscribe button. Thank you!
Image by Damián Martinez. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/amilcarxl
As we wind down on the Engagement Series, I have to admit that I’m filled with a solid mixture of nostalgia and gratitude. I mean, let’s face facts here. Did I know you when I wrote post #1? Statistically speaking, the chances are good I did not!
I’ve learned a lot and (I think) I’ve grown a lot this year and over the duration of this series, so I thought I would use this time to tell you about the experiences and people who helped me get here. I share this information in the hopes that you will be able to enjoy the same benefits as I have!
