The admiration, respect, and friendship expressed to people who've meant so much to your professional career moved me. You wrote those letters with such honesty. And, you had the courage to publish them online.
A professional colleague gave me your book, Six Pixels of Separation, as a gift around four years ago. She knew I wanted to learn and understand the impact of new media in marketing. Your book and David Meerman Scott inspired me to pursue blogging and to participate in social networks.
Two concepts from your book continue influencing my approach to blogging and social networking:
In Praise of Slow
The Golden Rule (e.g., Saying Thank You)
Whenever I write about blogging or personal branding, I usually describe and cite the relevance of these concepts.
I remember my fear of promotingmy book review of Six Pixels of Separation on Twitter (because I included your Twitter handle in the tweet). It was one of the few reviews I'd written at that time.
Self-doubt consumed me. Negative thougts ran through my mind like "if Mitch reads this post, what if he thinks it sucks." Or, "what if he thinks I'm misrepresenting his work."
But, you wrote the nicest comment on my post. And, you shared the book review with your Twitter followers.
Your gesture and generosity meant so much. It gave me confidence to keep blogging. I started believing I was on the right path. It reinforced I was doing things the right way (e.g., the approach you described for building a credible reputation).
And, the books and articles you read and share -- Wow! I love how you share your love of reading (especially the diversity and number of books you annually consume).
I can't wait till you publish Ctrl Alt Del in Spring 2013. I know it will be great. I love the ironic play on words (because I and your legions of fans know how much you love writing with your MacBook Air). When you to made the full conversion to Apple products, that was my tipping point to invest in a MacBook Pro.
My biggest regret: not discovering, reading, and studying your book and your blog sooner. I'm not making that mistake twice. I read and study your blog every day. It's required reading in my continuing education to understand where marketing is heading.
Plus, your podcasts demonstrate why you're "the Charlie Rose" of New Media. The conversational insights and your access to New Media's A-List are beyond compare. My personal favorites are your recent conversations with Seth Godin and Ken Wong.
Your writing teaches and inspires me how to write. Every time I read your blog, I say out loud: "Man, I wish I could write like that. I don't care how long it takes -- I'm going to learn to write like that."
Letterman described how "he needed a target" (because he needed something to shoot for). His ideal was Carson.
When I write, you're my target. You're the standard I shoot for.
Thank you for inspiring me (and countless others).
All the best,
Tony Faustino
Note: Austin Kleon's book, Steal Like an Artist and Mitch Joel's public fan letters inspired this post. Pages 108 to 109, "Write Fan Letters," and Chapter 2: "Don't Wait Until You Know Who You Are To Get Started" from Austin's book are amazing. After reading Austin's book and Mitch's aforementioned posts, I made a public fan letters list of my heroes.
Please indulge me as I periodically publish these fan letters on this blog.
From page 109 of Steal Like an Artist: "Maybe your hero will see your work, maybe he or she won't. Maybe they'll respond to you, maybe not. The important thing is that you show your appreciation without expecting anything in return."
This post focuses on the smart people and the thoughtful comments they share in the thriving Start-Up of You LinkedIn Discussion Group / Community. As of the publication of this post, the community boasts 1,200+ members.
Business Function Demographics Chart (as of 6 AM Central Time, April 5th)
Seniority Demographics Chart (as of 6 AM Central Time, April 5th)
What Differentiates The Start-Up of You LinkedIn Community?
* People Genuinely Do and Want to Help Each Other. This group epitomizes how "giving is better than receiving."
* No Blog Pimping. This unwritten code is enforced by the group and its managers. How? Those who've tried posting links to their posts without contributing something to the group INSTANTLY LOSE CREDIBILITY. Their submitted discussion posts are ignored and buried in the stream.
Start-Up of You Community Members are smart and discerning. They know and identify self-serving BS quickly.
* The Group Practices the IWe (I to the We) Principle (direct quotes from the book):
"The nuanced version of the story of success is that both the individual and team matter. "I" vs. "We" is a false choice. It's both. Your career success depends on both your individual capabilities and your network's ability to magnify them."
"Think of it as IWe. An individual's power is raised exponentially with the help of a team (a network). But just as zero to the one hundredth power is still zero, there's no team without the individual."
"This book is titled The Start-Up of You. Really, the "you" is at once singular and plural."
People To Follow and Learn From. I follow a number of people in this great community. I wish I could highlight them all (but there's only so much time to write).
Here are X people I closely follow within The Start-Up of You LinkedIn Community because they're smart, interesting, helpful, and generous. Every time one of these members submits a comment or discussion topic, I pay closer attention and focus a little harder.
Why? Because I know an opportunity to learn something new and insightful is approaching. And, I don't want to miss it.
Ben is the co-author of The Start-Up of You with Reid Hoffman. He's a successful entrepreneur, New York Times best-selling author, and world-traveler. He's also the owner of The Start-Up of You LinkedIn Discussion Group.
I look forward to his group contributions because of his intelligence and thoughtfulness. This is another way of saying whenever I read one of his comments, I'm always left thinking: "Wow, I wish I would have said that ..."
"To broaden the conversation a bit to how people can learn new skills generally: one model I'm intrigued by is the "coach" model. That is, hiring a coach to work with you intensely to develop a specific skill, like programming or public speaking. Atul Gawande wrote an interesting piece about this topic a few months ago in the New Yorker:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande
As he points out, elite athletes and singers have coaches. Tiger Woods is one of the best golfers in the world, yet he still has a swing coach.
Why don't more top-flight professionals have coaches to work with them on specific parts of their skill portfolio? Why don't all of us? How does coaching compare to other models of learning? What's the value of a hired coach vs. informal coaching done through your network? Ruminations..."
Here's a great video of Ben being interviewed about The Start-Up of You. During the interview, he shares personal lessons learned as a lifelong entrepreneur:
Ian is a Start-Up of You marketing team member. He recently hosted the live Q&A webcast with Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha. And, he did a phenomenal job in managing some of the technical problems that arose during the webcast.
In reading and following Ian's discussion group comments, I always think: "This guy is wise beyond his years." He's smart, a talented writer, and always makes me think.
"One thought: if you have difficulty taking small steps toward a new opportunity, it's worth acknowledging this honestly rather than continuing to struggle toward a goal. I spent almost a year wanting to teach myself programming, struggling to make progress, until I discovered another subject that was easy for me to take small steps toward mastering — finance and trading. It's not to say that I couldn't have changed my approach to make learning programming more enjoyable, but my point is small steps aren't always easy but, perhaps, they should be."
"Let me start by saying that I am probably not the best person to be answering this question because I never second-guessed my choice to go to college nor do I have ambitions to start a business.
What I do know is that it's important to get many different perspectives on a question like this and always keep in mind who is giving the advice. I, for example, would probably say that college is a good choice, but I always liked school and didn't have to take on debt to attend a private college. My parents would definitely recommend it, because they are old school and don't realize that these days many of the most sought after skills (eg: programming) aren't even taught in college. Someone who didn't go to college might advise you not to go without even considering how he or she is different from you.
Out of all of this, you'll need to abstract the "objective" benefits and drawbacks of going to college.
Objectively, or at least as objectively as I can, I would say that there is a huge networking benefit to go to college - it's a chance to meet a lot of smart people. But, at the same time, you could go to dozens of conferences a year for less than tuition. Still, it's a built-in network and 4 years provides plenty of time to build lasting relationships.
Those are my somewhat jumbled thoughts. Hope it's helpful!"
Brett is also a Start-Up of You Marketing Team Member. Reid Hoffman cites Brett in The Acknowledgments Section of The Start-Up of You for his contributions in research, content refinement, and organizational support.
"To Ian's first point from the Quora thread, I might recommend a publication that comes out weekly as opposed to daily - like The Economist - which offers analysis as well as the history of what's happened in the previous week.
Another interesting idea I read about in Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From is "deep dive reading vacations," which is something that Bill Gates plans once a year - he goes off the grid and surrounds himself with all the information he can on one topic."
Matt was the first person to contribute to this discussion. His responses demonstrated his smarts, creativity, and technology savvy. If you read his many contributions to other discussion threads, I think you'd conclude (like I do) he's a great guy. He's the type of genuinely good person you'd enjoy talking with over a couple of beers.
Here are some of Matt's thoughts in the aforementioned LinkedIn discussion thread:
"I am building out a series of marketing pieces for myself. I am thinking of it like this: If I had my own marketing department, I would feed them the data and they would make this collateral for me.
I would describe the piece I am working on right now as a high level mailer that gets its own webpage instead of snail mail. Think of it as one of those glossy, multipage advertisements for a new credit card but online with a bit of interactivity.
@Travis - I have been looking at it from the other direction. Up until now my blog has been a place for posting updates and media for my daughters grand parental units. Except for the occasional coding tip or emacs command that I want to remember I haven't put much professional thought out there for public. I have put things there but they are not polished enough that I want to put those, professionally related thoughts out there. If I polish them up and put them out there I can tweak the tags or categories so that it can serve both my personal and professional interests. But it takes time to polish and organize thoughts that bridge the personal and professional divide so I haven't done it.
I have a feeling that the value in soft assets like a blog are a reflection of the amount invested into it. Much like I first noticed that Apple was different - even in the way the packaged the first computer I bought from them (A still running PPC G5 :-), I notice personal site that the author has either put a lot of time into personalizing. I wonder if it is the process of personalizing your site/content/message that is equivalent to submitting a cover letter printed on red paber except that the red cover letter only gets seen by a few people at best and your digital footprint is always there."
Join The Community. The people in this LinkedIn Group share great content, advice, and opinions. Their insightful discussions force me to think differently and open my mind to different solutions and possibilities.
Isn't that what learning is all about?
The people in this community add tremendous value by sharing how they're applying and learning from the book's lessons.
I want to thank Social Media ReInvention Blog Community members for poking around the content in this five-post blog series (sorry if that sounded like an Academy Awards acceptance speech).
Google Analytics and Feedburner show this series generated noticeable traffic. Thank you for stopping by -- it means a lot to me!
3 Qualities of a Great LinkedIn Answer
I participated in answering the following question on LinkedIn Answers: What Would Be Your Suggestions for a New Joinee of LinkedIn. Take a look at the first two replies. Both answers share the following qualities of a helpful and thoughtful response:
1. Be Helpful. Be Nice. The conversational tone you choose to take is extremely important. Your tone is just as important as your answer's substance. I've participated in answering a number of LinkedIn questions. And, some of the submitted responses I've seen are self-serving, flippant, and condescending (sometimes bordering on mean-spirited).
That unfortunate behavior is why I think LinkedIn Answers is an often underlooked / undervalued LinkedIn asset. People are afraid to pose questions because they're scared someone will "call them out."
Don't be one of those people who takes a know-it-all tone. Be Exceptional. Be Helpful. Be Nice.
2. High Level of Detail. Both responses share concrete details and examples driving specific actions. These substantive answers are the exception (not the norm) in most LinkedIn Q&A forums.
3. Share Links and Additional Resources to Support Your Answer. Whenever possible, provide links to articles, blog posts, Slideshare content, press releases, etc. to support your point-of-view. Providing additional content reinforces how you're trying to share knowledge (not just your own). And, that attitude lends more credibility to your response.
6 Benefits of Submitting Great LinkedIn Answers
1. Increasing Your Personal Credibility, Authority, and Visibility. LinkedIn Answers is a great place to start to increase your online visibility and authority in a specific industry or subject. Make it a personal goal to follow through on a daily or weekly basis to answer questions in your chosen categories.
2. Earning Expertise and Trust Via Best Answer Designations.LinkedIn Answers is a great example of gamification. LinkedIn members posing questions have the option to award Best Answer Designations. Best Answers are social proofpersonified.
3. Gaining New Social Media Followers (i.e., Blog Subsribers, Twitter Followers, etc.). When you answer a LinkedIn question, you share personal insights and knowledge. Crafting and submitting thoughtful LinkedIn Answers (without blatantly selling) is a proven inbound marketing tactic. It's a classic social media example of giving to receive.
4. Earning a New LinkedIn Connection -- Validation From The Person Asking a Question. Why? Because, you earn that person's individual trust. A person posing questions on LinkedIn Answers will usually evaluate both your answer and your LinkedIn Profile (especially if he / she found your response helpful). The quality of your answer determines if you receive an invite to join his / her network.
5.Earning a New LinkedIn Connection -- Validation From The People Who Answered the Same Question. Why? Awarding of a "Best Answer" promotes friendly competition among the respondents. Remember, the answers are public to all LinkedIn members. Therefore, the people who who answer questions on LinkedIn Answers are also evaluating both your answer and your LinkedIn Profile (especially if you are awarded the Best Answer). If you impressed one of the responders, you may also receive a LinkedIn invite from him / her.
On February 23rd, I attended a great social media networking event hosted by Ben Smith and Social: IRL. The Taste, Tweet, Meet With Boulevard Brewing Company event was exceptional.
But, it wasn't for the usual reasons that I found this event so enjoyable (i.e., the personal camaraderie of social networking connections in Kansas City, the privilege of personally meeting these wonderful people sometimes for the first time, etc.).
Discuss how she's continuously informing Boulevard's customers / fans about this ongoing process
She openly fielded numerous questions. Plus, she patiently spoke with individual attendees about specific questions after concluding her presentation. I was one of those folks (more on that later).
Julie openly sharing this presentation and Boulevard's ongoing efforts in addressing the Chocolate Ale product recall demonstrates:
Leadership Lesson #2: When You Say You're Sorry, Mean It
Don't Cram Rehearsed Corporate Management-Speak / Public Relations-Speak Down Our Throats. Julie's presentation included the following YouTube video with John McDonald, Founder and President of Boulevard Brewing Company, and Steven Pauwels, Boulevard's Head Brewmaster:
Why This Apology Is Genuine. Why It Is Human. I asked Julie whose idea was it to produce and publish this video on the Internet. She said it was hers. And, she convinced Boulevard's top two leaders of immediately and publicly addressing this communications crisis.
"Speak From Your Hearts." The reason why this video resonates with me and Boulevard's many fans is because it's genuine. Julie told me McDonald and Pauwels did this video without a script.
Her only instruction: "I need you guys to speak from your hearts."
If Boulevard's fans and consumers don't consider this video a genuine and heartfelt apology (and it comes from the firm's highest leadership), I don't know what is.
Every Fortune 500 CEO in America could learn from McDonald's and Pauwels' plain-spoken example to inform its consumers of bad news (and the subsequent actions to make things right).
Weldon talked about Johnson & Johnson's apology and how it was working to regain consumer trust in May 2011 during an interview with Geoff Colvin, Senior Editor-at-Large of Fortune Magazine. Unfortunately, repeated and multiple product recalls over a two-year period upended Mr. Weldon's otherwise outstanding career (he was regarded as one of the most respected leaders in the pharmaceutical industry before these product recalls):
Closing Thoughts
Pride In Your Organization. Pride in Your Products. Pride in Your Community. Boulevard Brewing Company is a Kansas City Community Crown Jewel. And, I'm proud to not only be a HUGE FAN of their beers but I'm also a HUGE FAN of Julie Weeks and Boulevard's leadership because of their actions.
(Around time stamp :25 of the YouTube Chocolate Ale Announcement from John McDonald) "We're a proud brewery and we want to do the right thing ..."
A Vital Kansas City Civic Principle. Boulevard Brewing Company embodies a vital Kansas City civic principle: Kansas City is a proud community built and driven by the resourceful and creative entrepreneurial spirit of people like the John McDonalds, the Henry Blochs, the Ewing Kauffmans, and the J.C. Halls:
And, that entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive because of the leadership of people like John McDonald, Steven Pauwels, and Julie Weeks.
Hang In There Julie! As I conclude this post, I know Julie Weeks is working today, tomorrow, and how ever long it will take to address the Chocolate Ale situation. She takes TREMENDOUS PRIDE as Boulevard's online ambassador.
Julie, if you see / read / monitor anything remotely negative about Boulevard Brewing Company, please remember these four (4) things:
Your social media friends and colleagues are rooting for you
You're doing a fantastic job as Boulevard's Online Ambassador!
An Important, Daily Habit. Every day, look for LinkedIn Questions reflecting your personal or professional interests. You don't always have to answer a question. But, a daily monitoring habit (i.e., 5 to 10 minutes of review every morning) can help you gradually and continuously build your online reputation and personal brand within specific topics.
A Two-Phase Process. The process for efficiently monitoring questions in LinkedIn Answers requires two (2) tools:
A LinkedIn RSS Feed for Your Favorite LinkedIn Question & Answer (Q&A) Categories
A Dedicated iGoogle Tab Centralizing Your Multiple LinkedIn Q&A RSS Feeds
The time investment for building this process is less than 15 minutes.
The Multiple Benefits of RSS Feed Subscriptions
Turn Your iGoogle Home Page Into a Custom Content Dashboard. RSS feeds enable you to create personalized content or news dashboards. When you set up your RSS subscriptions, you'll realize multiple benefits:
Time Efficiency: Centralized content from multiple sources is easier to find and consume
Fewer Emails:Multiple RSS feeds allow you to receive updated content without email notifications
Content Customization: Your RSS feeds subscriptions reflect only the content / knowledge you choose to receive
Here's an example of how my LinkedIn Question & Answer RSS Feeds for multiple categories look in my iGoogle Page:
Subscribing to the LinkedIn Questions & Answers RSS Feed
How to Get Started. Here are the steps, you need to follow so you can set up the LinkedIn RSS Feed:
1. From your LinkedIn Home Page, highlight the "More" link in the top, right-hand corner. You'll see a prompt for "Answers":
2. After clicking on the "Answers" link, you should arrive at the LinkedIn Question & Answers Home Page. It looks like this:
3. The next step is to select a category you find interesting. The "Recommended Categories For You" is LinkedIn's custom feature offers suggestions based on your LinkedIn Profile. You can also select a category by selecting one of the categories on the far, right-hand side under "Browse":
4. In this example, I selected the "Blogging" Category. To subscribe to the RSS Feed for "Blogging," click on the orange RSS icon on the bottom, right-hand corner:
5. Copy the hyperlink highlighted in the text box where it says "or copy the RSS link:"
Creating a LinkedIn Answers Tab in Your iGoogle Home Page
Hold on to the RSS link you just copied! We're not going to paste the LinkedIn RSS hyperlink just yet.
1. Opena new tabin your Internet browser. In this new tab, please select your iGoogle Home Page.
2. Click on your "Google Home" tab. You should see a "little down arrow / toggle switch" to the right-hand side of "Google Home."
3. Click on "the little down arrow." You should be prompted with a command that says "Add a Tab."
4. After clicking on "Add a Tab," the following screen should appear:
5. Fill in the name of your new tab and click on "Ok"
6. I named my new tab "test tab." Your new tab should look something like this (but with the name you selected for your tab):
7. In your new tab, click the prompt on the top, left hand-side that says "Add gadgets"
8. After clicking on "Add gadgets," you should see a prompt at the bottom, left-hand side of your screen that says "Add feed or gadget"
9. Click on this link and you should get a screen that looks like this:
10. Now, remember that RSS Link you copied earlier from Step 5 from Subscribing to the LinkedIn Question & Answers RSS Feed so you could be alerted to any new questions in the Blogging Category?
That box above is where you're going to paste that RSS Link. After pasting in the RSS Link, click Add.
11. If the RSS feed is added correctly, you should now see a prompt that looks like this:
12. To make sure the LinkedIn Answers Blogging Category Feed is added correctly, you'll want to click the prompt on the top, left-hand side that says "Back to iGoogle"
13. Voila, your new RSS Feed is captured in your iGoogle tab. Now, you can add multiple LinkedIn Answer Categories to this iGoogle tab to monitor several types of LinkedIn Questions -- a big time saver.
14. Adding Multiple RSS Feeds to Your Custom iGoogle Tab is Now Super-Easy. You might be thinking that sure was a ton of steps to follow! Well, you're right. But, you've done the hard part -- creating your customized iGoogle tab.
From this point forward, whenever you want to add a new LinkedIn Answers Category to your custom iGoogle tab, repeat steps 7 through 12 of Creating a LinkedIn Answers Tab in Your iGoogle Home Page.
Ben Smith, the leader of Social IRL, is one of the most valuable and generous members of the Kansas City Social Media Community. His hard work and dedication delivers outstanding and valuable educational content via hosting social media conferences in our region.
Here are my five (5) takeaways from Valeria's outstanding and thought-provoking presentation.
1. Understand and Determine the Organizational Focus
Start With Your Organizational Focus. You have to pick the organizational capability or competence that will drive and differentiate your company's brand and business outcomes:
Apple: Innovation
Virgin: People
Procter & Gamble: Research and Development
Coca Cola: Distribution
Valeria demonstrated how organizational focus impacted each company's share price. And, the data showed how executing that focus is linked to long-term financial performance.
2. Focus on Your Brand Promise
Valeria defines a brand as:
"The sum of promises, promises kept, and the unbounded expectations market."
Delivering and Executing the Brand Promise are Crucial. Why? The stock price represents public trust / confidence in your brand. And, that public trust / public confidence determines the discount or premium to "trade" with individual consumers. Higher consumer trust / confidence means a higher premium for your company's goods and services.
Or, it can reflect a lack of trust / confidence. See the stock price performance of Yahoo, Microsoft, or Eastman Kodak.
3. Prioritize and Focus on theDifferentiating Brand Asset(s) Driving Your Consumer Trades
Brand Assets are Your Unique Consumer Trade Currency. The digital age redefines the brand assets most valuable to individual consumers before, during, and after the point-of-sale. The Internet's real-time speed coupled with one or more of following brand assets is a killer combination:
Reputation
Knowledge / Information / Data
Relationships
Influence
Ticketmaster Prioritized Knowledge / Information / Data. Therefore, organizations need to pick the brand asset they will focus on for their unique trades with individual consumers. For example, Ticketmaster focused on knowledge / information / data to better inform consumer decisions (i.e., local-centric information, fan reviews, personal buying history suggestions, etc.) by making that brand asset easy to share (i.e., Fan Reviews are easily shared with a single-click via Twitter or Facebook).
Financial Outcome: Each "share of information" results in a $5 increase in incremental revenue.
4. The Unmet Social Media Opportunity: Empowering Individual Consumer Filters and Feedback Loops
Consumer Filters, Feedback and Intent. Valeria defines consumer intent as:
Providing the right information at the right time when someone is making a decision (and that decision may or may not be a "buying decision")
The consumer's perception of value inherent with the brand promise
How the consumer defines the "wisdom of the trade" (i.e., was the time spent gathering information / data a worthwhile investment)
Therefore, influencing how the consumer defines the "wisdom of the trade" is vitally important. This is why brands need to focus on consumer "filters" and "feedback loops":
Consumer Filters:
Culture
Language
Values
Beliefs
Attitudes
Expectations
Intentions
Consumer Feedback Loops:
Evidence
Relevance
Consequence
Action
5. Ford Motor Company Case Study in Leveraging Brand Assets, Filters and Feedback Loops
The Ford Case Study. Valeria believes brands need to do more in making individual consumers more influential. We still don't do enough here.
The process for making consumers more influential can be systematically achieved (e.g., there is a process):
* First, prioritize, and focus on the business problems most vital to your organization. Example: When Scott Monty became head of social media for Ford Motor Company, he focused on corporate reputation. This brand asset choice was particularly important when the entire auto industry came under fire for receiving government bail-outs.
Ford leveraged social media to permeate the strategic position that it was the only domestic automaker who chose not to receive receive government financing.
See this example of how Alan Mulally, CEO, positions Ford as different from other US automakers because Ford is "requesting access to bridge financing just in case something bad happens" versus "receiving direct government assistance." (see 2:26 to the end of this video).
* Second, after addressing #1, pivot your social media marketing strategy to focus on consumer filters and feedback loops that can grow a product / service:
Increase the Influence and Reputation of Your Influencers (see 1:39 to 2:52 of this video describing Ford's succsssful Ford Fiesta Social Media Campaign):
* Third, continue actively demonstrating "we're listening, we're listening, we're listening." Watch how Scott Monty and Alan Mulally work together in answering and responding to consumer tweets. It's a brilliant public relations play:
Ashley Mahoney's SocialIRL Recap. Check out Ashley Mahoney's blog post, Social: IRL Conference in a Nutshell. She does a great job summarizing key points from other presentations I didn't address in this post.
Important Note #2: My lack of notes during specific presentations wasn't due to a lack of interest (far from it). During the conference, I received an important client email requiring immediate action (so I missed some of the presentations).
That meant piecemeal, back-of-the-room listening (i.e., Kevin Magee, Director of Sales at Expion, shared some great insights on the current / future implications of localizing and managing social media marketing efforts but I was unable to take detailed notes).
The Premise / Goal / Timing of This Weekly Feature
Premise. If you like the content in this blog, you may like the type of content I regularly read and study on the Web.
Goal. On a weekly basis, I'm going to publish links to three (3) articles I find interesting. I'll include a brief summary with some bullet points explaining why I think the content is worth consuming.
Timing. I'll publish this content every Wednesday / Thursday.
Hoffman bases his networking philosophy two (2) basic principles:
* See the world from the other person's perspective -- putting yourself in another person's shoes is the first step to developing an honest connection
* Think about how you can collaborate with and help the other person versus thinking about what you can get out of the relationship -- your first move should always be "how can I help."
2. The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message (The New York Times): I'm a huge fan of Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg. In my opinion, she deserves just as much credit (or more) as Mark Zuckerberg in transforming Facebook into an advertising revenue juggernaut.
I find this article interesting because it emphasizes her multi-faceted role at Facebook:
* Sandberg is the public face of of Facebook. She's Facebook's corporate amabassador to Wall Street analysts, thought leaders at global forums such as Davos, global government leaders, and global brands (i.e., she's one of the few global corporate leaders who's been to Bentonville, Arkansas twice).
* She's the driving force in recruiting and mentoring top talent at Facebook (especially women).
* She's publicly stated her views about furthering the professional interests of women in Corporate America (particularly Silicon Valley and the technology industry).
The last point is especially intriguing because Sandberg's recently received criticism for expressing her views on the success of women in the workplace. And, the critics are women.
* His voting power with those shares (due to various agreements with other investors) grants him voting control of 60% of the company's shares.
* The article gives context to how Zuckerberg's control of company stock compares with Microsoft's Bill Gates and Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, when their respective companies went public:
Microsoft: Bill Gates controlled 49% of company shares
Google: Brin and Page controlled 16% each of the company shares (for a total of 32%)
Your Feedback Please!
I'd like to experiment with this type of post for the next two to three months. Let me know what you think (especially if this idea sucks):
How can I improve the value of these weekly posts?
Is my initial timing choice for publication okay with you (e.g., middle of the week versus the end of it)? If not, please tell me.
What content are you reading?Please share your links with our community in the comments section!
That's why solving without shilling is an unmet need and first step in building a trustworthy and credible online reputation.
LinkedIn Answers: One-To-One Trust Building
Building a Reputation Requires Focus and Prioritization. Investing one's time and knowledge over multiple social platforms is part of active social media participation. Therefore, prioritizing and allocating time becomes even more important if the goal is to build a go-to reputation in a particular subject or industry.
LinkedIn Answers: Overlooked and Underrated. LinkedIn Answers is an overlooked and underrated platform in earning individual trust and building credibility. For better or worse, the Internet is a medium powered by buzz around "bright and shiny objects." What's was yesterday's Delicious.com is today's Pinterest.
An Unmet Need: Helping Others Help Themselves. LinkedIn Answers provides opportunities and benefits in helping an individual person address his/her problem. That's why participating in LinkedIn Answers presents a HUGE opportunity to build one-to-one trust.
How to Get Started in LinkedIn Answers
1. In your LinkedIn Home Page, look under the "More" Tab:
2. Click on "Answers." You should now see this screen:
3. Click on a category / topic you find interesting. You can choose a topic in the Recommended Categories or you can browse all topics found on the right-hand side of your page:
4. I frequently review the questions under Recommended Categories. Click one of those links to see "Open Questions" posed by LinkedIn members.
Let's see what open questions are available under "Internet Marketing:"
5. Next, choose the questions you can answer really well. In step #4, I clicked on the question titled: "In your experience, do you think that an impressive blog will take the place of a formal website?"
The individual Q&A screen for that question looks like this:
6. Click on the yellow "Answer Button." The next screen that pops up provides a field where you can write up and submit your answer. You also can include hyperlinks to web pages supporting your answer.
5 Benefits of Participating in LinkedIn Answers
1. Increasing Your Personal Credibility, Authority, and Visibility. LinkedIn Answers is a great place to start to increase your online visibility and authority in a specific industry or subject. Following through on a daily or weekly goal to answer questions in your chosen categories.
2. Earning Expertise and Trust Via Best Answer Designations.LinkedIn Answers is a great example of gamification. LinkedIn members posing questions have the option to award Best Answer Designations. Best Answers are social proofpersonified. And, earning them is fun and motivating!
3. Gaining New Social Media Followers (i.e., Blog Subsribers, Twitter Followers, etc.). Every time you answer a LinkedIn question, you share insights about your knowledge. Take advantage of this personal branding opportunity! Crafting and submitting thoughtful LinkedIn Answers (without blatantly selling) is a proven inbound marketing tactic for promoting a personal brand or your organization's products / services.
4. Earning a New LinkedIn Connection -- Validation From The Person Asking a Question. Why? Because, you earn that person's individual trust. A person posing questions on LinkedIn Answers will usually evaluate both your answer and your LinkedIn Profile (especially if he / she found your response helpful). The quality of your answer determines if you receive an invite to join his / her network.
5.Earning a New LinkedIn Connection -- Validation From The People Who Answered the Same Question. Why? Awarding of a "Best Answer" promotes friendly competition among the respondents. Remember, the answers are public to all LinkedIn members. Therefore, the people who who answer questions on LinkedIn Answers are also evaluating both your answer and your LinkedIn Profile (especially if you are awarded the Best Answer). If you impressed one of the responders, you may receive a LinkedIn invite from him / her also.
Conclusion
Daily Monitoring and Answering of LinkedIn Questions. I monitor opportunities to answer LinkedIn Questions everyday. My daily personal goal: answer one (1) question that I know I can provide a really good answer. However, that doesn't mean I answer one everyday. I answer only questions when I know I can provide strong and differentiating responses. LinkedIn Answers supported with facts, additional hyperlinked resources, and a confident tone are killer!
New Learning Opportunities. If I'm unable to answer a question with a differentiating answer, I move on. But, here's the learning opportunity: I continuously identify areas for new growth opportunities. When there's a great question I know I can't confidently answer, I record it in my idea book to start Evernoting and studying articles to fill that gap.
A 15-Minute Daily Process Generating Huge Personal Brand Returns. Monitoring the conversation and answering selected questions on LinkedIn Question & Answers literally takes 15 minutes.
Is there a process for efficiently monitoring LinkedIn conversations in Questions & Answers?
What exposure can a LinkedIn Answer provide beyond the LinkedIn Community?
Answer to #1. Yes. That's the subject of Post #4 in this series (scheduled publication: next week).
Answer to #2.Your LinkedIn Answer can achieve national / global exposure because it may get published in a branded, global, online publication. That's the subject of Post #5 in this series (scheduled publication: two weeks from this post).
I remember Tom's insight 2+years ago during a small breakfast meeting at La Peeps Restaurant in Overland Park, KS. Our discussion centered around the burgeoning cottage industry of books and seminars touted by self-proclaimed social media experts, gurus, ninjas, and evangelists.
More importantly, his statement summarized both the opportunity and barrier to entry for people pursuing social media as a profession or as a credible vehicle for personal reinventions beyond a current job description.
I remember asking if he copyrighted this wisdom. He said no. But, he smiled and said if I ever use his quote, I should assign him credit and attribution (which I hope I did here).
Because I knew I'd reference his statement in a blog post someday. That day arrived.
First, This IS NOT a Bash-the-Author Piece. It's quite the opposite. Please read the entire Forbes article because Cari Sommer (the author) offers valid advice on building one's online credibility, reputation, and visibility the right way.
Second, This Post Describes Why Cari Sommer Is a Great Example of Personal and Professional Reinvention. Cari Sommer transformed her professional career and trajectory by reinventing herself into a bona fide communications expert and entrepreneur. A major portion of this post explains why I believe she's a credible and successful expert in her field.
Check out these Google results on these infamous keyword phrases:
"Social Media Guru" = 2,160,000 results
"Social Media Evangelist" = 1,090,000 results
"Social Media Expert" = 1,060,000 results
"Social Media Ninja" = 281,000 results
Based on this quick analysis, I wonder if:
There really are that many people who can credibly make those self-proclamations?
"Ninjas" have a better long-tail chance of being found via search than "Gurus"?
"Evangelists" and "Experts" are interchangeable titles (give or take wading through 30,000 results)?
Expertise Is Earned, Not Self-Proclaimed
Ms. Sommer's Provides and Shares Credible, First-Hand Expertise Earned From Her Personal Experiences. I buy-in to Ms. Sommer's generously shared advice on building a solid online reputation and positioning oneself as a social media expert (or an industry expert). It's credible and emphasizes a learn-by-doing attitude:
Self-publishing content on social media channels (i.e., a blog, LinkedIn industry groups, etc.)
Attending and speaking at industry conferences
Identifying and building relationships with industry bloggers and journalists
Pitching one's expertise to the industry influencers
But, The 3.5 Million Self-Proclaimers Haven't Practiced or Applied Any of Ms. Sommer's Advice The sad fact is so few have consistently performed (or even attempted) any of her recommendations over the long haul. Why? Because, the advice she imparts requires major time investments in:
Focus
Practice
Patience
Experimentation
Creativity
Hustle
Hard Work (aka Malcom Gladwell's Rule of 10,000 Hours)
Commitment
Want to Be Really Good at Something? Invest 10,000 Hours.
Malcolm Gladwell on 10,000 Hours.Here's Malcolm Gladwell in a CNN interview describing the significance of the 10,000 Hours Rule (timestamp 2:30 to 4:00):
Ms. Sommer Earned Her Expertise -- She Didn't Just Proclaim It. An influential, global media organization like Forbes didn't just hand her an outstanding personal branding opportunity because she proclaimed her industry expertise.
Unlike the aforementioned millions of great pretenders, she:
Earned this gig by executing her own advice
Earned her position as a communications expert through professional experience
Earned her expertise by being relentless (e.g., she wasn't afraid to fail)
See these excerpts from her Forbes Contributor bio and her communications consultancy homepage. She made it happen. She didn't just proclaim expertise.
A Case Study in Personal and Professional Reinvention
Ms. Sommer Reinvented and Transformed Herself Into a Communications and Public Relations Expert. Look further down her Forbes Contributor biography. She professionally reinvented herself from being a former litigator at an international law firm to becoming an entrepreneur and CEO of her own communications consultancy:
Where's The Cari Sommer's Substance? You can study it first-hand in this CBS News.com video.
Conclusion
I wish more people like Cari Sommers had the substance and experience to back up the "I'm An Expert" claim. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be so cynical.
I look forward to her future contributor articles in Forbes and other media sites. Until then, I've started following her on Twitter because I want to continue learning from a bona fide expert.
Sony will release the DVD for Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, on January 10, 2012. The 2011 film recounts how Billy Beane, the Oakland A's general manager in 2002, employed sabermetrics statistical analysis and research in his player evaluation and acquisition strategy.
Moneyball's Unsung Hero: Bill James. Mr. James is the creator of sabermetrics who now works as a Senior Adviser of Baseball Operations with the Boston Red Sox. His self-published Baseball Abstracts from 1977 to 1988 influenced Billy Beane's decision to operate on a different competitive dimension: identifying undervalued and overlooked talent from non-traditional baseball metrics (i.e., on-base percentage) and data analysis versus traditionally accepted baseball scouting methods and metrics (i.e., batting average).
Bill James's Background (e.g., he wasn't always affiliated with the Red Sox)
Why / How He Questioned Conventional Baseball Talent Evaluation
His Motivations as a Writer
Inspiring Lessons in Leading, Self-Publishing, and Questioning Conventional Wisdom. James inspires me as an aspiring blogger because of how he started and cultivated the influential and powerful sabermetrics tribe before the benefits of the modern-day Internet. And, he continues leading via his work at Bill James Online and several published books.
Questioning and disrupting the status-quo establishment
Self-publishing to spread ideas (i.e., social media: blogs, social networks)
Writing about and sharing what moves you
Leading a tribe that flourishes into an industry-wide movement
Ignoring the limits of a "current" full-time job description
1. Write About What You Love
You Can't Fake Passion.The Bill James Baseball Abstracts are famous for their quality and quantity of statistical analysis and data. But, more importantly, James made this new form of baseball knowledge interesting and accessible to all passionate, hardcore baseball fans.
And, his love of writing and baseball is why he explains both the science and art of sabermetrics better than anyone. That's why Bill James is the sabermetrics authority. Here are direct quotes from Moneyball (the book) describing his passion for both writing and baseball:
"I think about baseball virtually every hour of my life."
"I'd probably be a writer if there was no such thing as baseball, but because there is such a thing as baseball I can't imagine writing about anything else."
"I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say."
"If it doesn’t move you emotionally, don’t write it (realize emotion is relative – it doesn’t have to move every member of your audience, but if it moves you then you’ve done it right: it’s going to impact someone else that way too)."
2. Write Because You Love It (Not to Get Paid for It)
"The first Abstract, in 1977, sold 75 copies, at $4 a copy. In 1978 sales edged up to all of 325 copies. Undaunted, James slogged ahead, checking the boilers, working on his numbers and producing editions of the Abstract. Sales passed 600 copies in 1979 and 750 last year, but the readership, while small, is enthusiastic, and James has become something of a cult figure. Esquire magazine assigned him to do season previews, and he even received an order of for the Abstract from Norman Mailer, which left James, a literary hero-worshipper, feeling both honored and abashed. He sent Mailer a copy but returned the writer's check. Mailer sent it right back with a note saying, 'If ever an author earned his five dollars, you have.' The price has climbed since then (to $13 for the 1981 edition), but James has yet to break the $10,000 barrier. 'It's been discouraging." he says, 'but not as discouraging as having to get out of bed in the morning and go off to work.'"
How Are You Going to Monetize Your Blog? One of my closest and most trusted friends posed this question when I started blogging two years ago. My response: "I don't know, yet."
But, after publishing 100+ posts, I know now. I Plan Making Zero Money (Ever)
Ask these questions about whether or not you really love blogging or writing:
* Are you willing to invest the significant time required to research and write individual posts either before or after putting in a full-day's work at your "real-world" job (and usually at a time when the rest of your family is asleep)?
* How much do you enjoy commenting on other blogs to build relationships and add to the conversation?
* Are willing to confront and push through The Dip after the initial excitement of starting your blog ends (i.e., around the first six (6) months?
* Is getting paid how you'll ultimately measure or determine whether or not you're a successful writer or blogger?
Discipline, Conviction, Belief, and Courage. If you answered "No," "I don't or not a lot," "I'm not," and "Yes" to any of the aforementioned questions, invest your scarce, valuable, free time in something else. Why? Because, blogging or writing is a long haul endeavor. Individual discipline, conviction, belief, and the courage "to consistently put yourself out there" drive the long-term outcome.
3. Lead a Tribe by Expressing YOUR Point-of-View
Because That's The Unmet Opportunity. James's research and scientific sabermetrics analysis challenged major league baseball's conventional wisdom in player and talent evaluation. But, it's his writing and unique point-of-view (e.g., his art) that distinguishes him as THE trusted sabermetrics authority (aka The Sabermetrics Tribal Leader).
"But once again, the details of James's equation didn't matter all that much. He was creating opportunities for scientists as much as doing science himself. Other, more technically adroit people would soon generate closer approximations of reality. What mattered was (a) it was a rational, testable hypothesis; and (b) James made it so clear and interesting that it provoked a lot of intelligent people to join the conversation."
A Tribal Leader Lurks Inside Us All. Study this Ted Talks Video from Seth Godin. In February 2009, Godin introduced his ideas on Tribes. His points describe how James built and led his tribe. And, how the same leadership opportunity is available to all of us:
6:50 to 12:09 - The Concept of Tribes and Leading One that Becomes a Movement
12:10 to 14:17 - Heretics Look at The Status Quo & Say I Don't Like It
16:00 to 17:27 - The Common Traits of Tribal Leaders
They Challenge Everything
They Build a Culture
They Connect People to One Another
They Commit to The Cause
4. Define Yourself Through Your Art (Not Your Full-Time Job)
A Former Night-Watchman Became Major League Baseball's Foremost Authority in Scientific Sabermetrics Analysis and a Senior Adviser of Baseball Operations With the Boston Red Sox. When Bill James started self-publishing the Baseball Abstracts, he worked full-time as a night-watchman in a Stokely Van Kamp pork and beans factory in Lawrence, Kansas:
(From Moneyball (the book)"It was while guarding Stokely Van Kamp's pork and beans that James stumbled seriously into putting his thoughts down on paper, in response to having things he absolutely needed to say that he was unable to convey any other way."
(From Daniel Okrent's Sports Illustrated article) "Later, he worked for a time as a boiler attendant--a watchman of sorts--in a food-packing plant in Lawrence, which turned out to be an ideal job for James. 'I'd spend five minutes an hour making sure the furnaces didn't blow up,' he says, 'and 55 working on my numbers.'"
And, The Boston Red Sox ended an 86-year championship drought by capturing World Series Championships in 2004 and 2007.
Technology and The Internet Don't Care About Your Current Job Title. Anyone reading this blog post has the same opportunity to lead, influence, and access a global audience. In the following interview, Seth Godin states the case for why technology levels the playing field:
* Your Laptop Is The 21st Century Factory (0:40 - 1:56). Now, you own the means of production. But, the driving question is what are you going to do with your laptop to make something that changes the world? That "something" could be:
A Web Page or Website
A Blog
An E-Commerce / Online Retail Site
* You Can Globally and Directly Connect (2:17 - 3:54). The Internet enables your global connections to promote your work and do business (and vice versa). Marketing is no longer a game of who shouts loudest. It's a game of competing for and earning "the whisper-time" of your target audience in their social networks.
* You Can Spread Ideas Via Social Media Connections (3:55 - 4:58). Developing these connections (or knowing people who have them) is vital. Why? Because, social media influencers determine:
The ideas that get a head start
The ideas that spread
It's Our Turn To Lead. We’ve all got something inspiring inside of us. Share it in your blog, your column, a self-published eBook, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Google+.
The opinions blogged herein represent only those of Tony Faustino and do not reflect those of his employer, persons or companies mentioned herein, or anyone else. The posts on this blog are provided "as is" with no warranties and confer no rights.
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