techguerilla talk

Why A 3 Yr Old Is Smarter Than You - The Power Of Asking Why

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{This is a partial transcript of the audio, I've left various portions out}

I'm going to try something new today. I recently wrote a piece on context, how much it matters, and how rarely we strive to fully understand the context in which something is originally presented before jumping to conclusions about its meaning. To that end I figured I'd do this in audio, perhaps it's a better medium when it comes to truly understanding the way in which the author (that's me) intended for it to be received. We'll see, I'm not wholly convinced, mainly because I found I don't particularly like sitting in a room alone talking to a microphone, but let me know your thoughts.

While writing that piece regarding context, which is over at brasstackthinking.com if you care to give it a read, I mentioned how important it is to question information. What was the source of it? Is that source biased? Was that source talking about it in a narrow context? etc. There are a lot of "what's" in there, but very little "why". That post was already too long as it was, so I left it alone, but seeing as how the topic of "why" is one of the first things I discuss with my clients, and in my opinion one of the most important, I thought this might be a good opportunity to throw a few of my thoughts out there.

Think about this scenario for a second. It's the old cliche' we say about children constantly asking "why", you know, "why is the sky blue". We make fun of these questions because they are those seemingly obvious questions, that somehow over time we stopped asking. Somehow we stopped searching for these answers because it was hard, either to come up with the answer, or to simplify into easy to understand terms. This is why your 3 yr old is smarter than you, they are still asking 'why'.

"Why" is THE most important question you can ask. Whether you are a business owner (why am I doing THIS business), a consultant (why is hopefully already in your vocabulary), a department head (why are my goals the ones they are), or low employee on the totem pole (why does my employer want that). If "What" and "how" are portions of the strategic and tactical chain, then "Why" is what the chain is connected to. How many times have you seen a company going down a path without really knowing why? How many times have you worked on great projects, but didn't really know why that project was the one chosen when there were others that were not?

At all levels it is this question of 'why' that can add insight, provide clarity, and guide everyone along the same path. But just as important, asking why allows you to back out from the ultimate objective vs. being constrained by someone elses definition of 'what' the solution is.

So don't let that 3 yr old remain smarter than you. Start asking why.

Matt Ridings - @techguerilla

On a side note, yes, I realize that I mixed in some "what's" in place of "why's", etc. when I listened back to it. Sorry about that, hopefully the point still comes across.

(By the way, the sky is not blue you just perceive it to be due to a process where certain lightwaves are scattered as they pass through our atmosphere.)

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Brass Tack Thinking | Contextual Laziness

Today’s post is a guest post from our friend and tack-minded cohort Matt Ridings, Founder of MSR Consulting, and a thought leader on integrating social media into the realm of Relationship Marketing. He blogs over at Techguerilla, and you can find him on Twitter at @techguerilla

I recently had the pleasure of finally meeting Jeff Pulver in person. While here he gave a brief talk to the group of people present in which he made the statement that “sometimes, ROI can mean Return On Inspiration, or Return on Innovation”. As soon as I heard it I started dreading what was going to come next.

Like clockwork I started seeing tweets about that statement. By far it was the thing most commented on. People loved that remark. It resonates with that part of us that thing all businesses are selfish and if we’d just care a little more the world would be a better place. It certainly resonates with me.

I then prepared myself for the fact that I was going to be approached by several people who knew that I have argued vigorously against that very statement before. Sure enough, I was soon surrounded like the leader of some cult compound. And I was in a tough spot. On the one hand, I didn’t really have any issue with what Jeff said in the context of the moment.
(Continued here)

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Hey, Mr Businessman. I Have Something For You

We have a new series of community programs in St. Louis that are catching on like wildfire. Within just the last couple of years they have grown to over 200,000 people actively participating just here in little ole St. Louis and still growing. The great thing about these programs is that they occur everyday, there's always one going on somewhere and on just about any topic you can imagine. What's funny is that very few businesses in town seem to realize it. That's a pretty huge opportunity huh? I know right, how could something that big slip under your nose? Don't worry about it, that's what I'm here for.

What would you pay to sponsor these community programs? Would you want your salesmen to start attending so that they could establish relationships? Would you want your marketers to attend and develop materials and content to distribute? Would you collect as much information (business cards, etc.) from the attendees so that you were better able to target their needs? Would you consider that a valuable expenditure of your time? How many conferences and events do you fly to every year for the sole purpose of forging new relationships with prospective customers? How many business cards did you collect? How many conversations did you have? How many were you able to actively nurture and provide value to every day?

So why, if I change the name from "Community Programs" to "Twitter", do you make a face like you just shoved a lemon in your mouth by mistake? Perspective is a funny thing isn't it? I look forward to seeing you at the 'community programs'.

Matt Ridings - @techguerilla

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Filed under // social media techguerilla original

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Enterprise Social Media & SMB - One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

No one will dispute that there are huge differences between the way a large enterprise business operates versus that of a SMB (small or medium business). All of the cliche's about a large, plodding, politically motivated behemoth or a small, naive, financially handcuffed operation exist for a reason. They all contain a grain of truth to varying degrees. Yet, for all of their differences they share the same basic strategies when it comes to leveraging various mediums for the most part, just at different scales. And that's how it should be.

However, when I work with these organizations on social media engagements their viewpoints are shockingly divergent. And frankly, it is many of the social media experts and conferences out there that are creating/reinforcing them. Let's examine just a few of them.

Differences:

Philosophical
- Enterprise - Social Media is just a tool. All of this talk about making friends and 'being social' is a bit ridiculous, if it'll make me money that's great but someone needs to demonstrate that in hard terms first. All I care about is whether or not I can leverage it for {insert individual department function here}, but I want to own it for the whole organization in case it becomes really important.
- SMB - Social Media is more than just a tool. It's a kinder/gentler new way of doing business. If you just focus on relationships first the business will follow. All of the best conference speakers told me so.
Execution
- Enterprise - I can't do anything yet, we need to really analyze this thing to death (from a single departments perspective) and come up with a plan first. Mainly I need that plan to figure out a way to put low level people out there on social media and minimize the risk in doing so. I mean, have you seen some of these companies getting eaten alive by social media? *shudder*
- SMB - I read this article about social media so I went and created an account on the various sites. I've been talking to some people on Twitter and I went to a conference the other day. The only way to "get" social media is to simply do it, so that's what I'm doing. I'm not really sure about how I'll leverage it strategically but I'm certainly "being social".

The reality however is that they could learn a lot from each others situations. On the enterprise side philosophically there needs to be a holistic approach and viewpoint not simply a focus at the individual function (departmental) level. They need a top-down strategy. The SMB does this organically for the most part, nothing happens in these organizations without everyone else either knowing about it or being involved in it. Everyone tends to wear a lot of hats in these organizations by default. Many folks will argue that a grass roots movement within the enterprise is the way to go. I'd be happy to demonstrate to them ad infinitum why they are wrong, but suffice it to say that a grass roots groundswell is fine for getting the attention of management but it then needs to be ripped out at the roots once the organization is serious about moving forward with social media. On the SMB side, they should tone down some of the kum-ba-ya social media rhetoric. There's nothing wrong with much of it, it just needs to be balanced out with reasonable business objectives and that seems to be getting lost in the process.

At the executional level, the enterprise and SMB should find a nice comfy spot and meet in the middle. Diving into social media half-cocked is certainly not recommended, yet neither is going into analysis paralysis. It *is* possible to actually have a plan of attack that includes the fact that there are areas of social media you will dabble in without having hard justification. That is different than saying you don't need to think through certain guidelines about avoiding certain risks and exposures.

I'll concede the fact that there are very few places currently for an enterprise to turn to for a model on how to build an integrated social enterprise. It's incredibly complex, and it can't be done without significant buy-in from the top. So I understand why the departments would simply use their own segmented budgets to try and drive their own initiatives. What is the political benefit of getting involved in something you aren't going to own and that you may have to comply with later on, right? On the SMB side it's certainly understandable that the initial appeal of social media may be its perceived low cost of entry, which drives a lot of how social media evolves and is perceived in these organizations.

I get it. I do. But enterprises that can take a page out of the SMB book and simply try and do what's best for the organization as a whole vs. the individual or department will ultimately be far more successful. So if you must look at it from a selfish perspective, just consider it good job protection, or you can try and be the person who will oversee social media for the entire organization if you like. And SMB's who look to the enterprise for inspiration may find that a tighter focus on business objectives *via* those fuzzy relationships they've been creating will lead them to greater success. Serendipity will only get you so far, you still need focus and a destination.

Enterprises aren't just cold, calculating machines. SMB's aren't just warm, fuzzy, double rainbows. They both contain warm bodies who care and are trying to do a good job and contribute to a successful business. They just have different challenges, opportunities, and motivators. There is one thing however that neither party is, and that's stupid. There is a lot they can learn from one another, particularly when it comes to social media. And I'm hopeful that will occur sooner rather than later.

Matt Ridings - @techguerilla

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Filed under // consulting enterprise social media techguerilla original

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No Fluff #SXSW Panels That Look Interesting

Just a list of panels that I found interesting enough to vote for. Given how long it is until the event I tend to look for items that are assured of still being topical. I haven't made my way through them all yet so feel free to offer suggestions that I should vote for in the comments below. This is based solely on topic descriptions, some of the speakers could be complete crap for all I know.

Bodies Buried Under Social Medias Front Porch - Dan Willis, Sapient Government Service