The Fine Line of Authenticity

I didn't watch the Super Bowl (thus my tweet stream and Facebook page have no mention of what I'm eating, wearing or thinking about this topic) because I have little interest in professional sports and even littler interest in the teams involved. Basically, I don't have an opinion and commercials that I can view on YouTube later tonight were not a big enough draw.

But I appreciate there were a lot of people interested and thus left the commentary to them. There is a fine line between exhibiting your interest in something via social media and jumping on the proverbial bandwagon in the hopes that you'll win the social media lottery and you'll become famous. Reaching your audience is important; talking about relevant topics is also important and being genuine about both is the foundation for success in either.

Last week, a coworker told me that people who "do" social media are always doing social media. She said they sit on their couch and comment about everything. That's what makes them successful. I disagree. Those of us who "practice" social media for a living are always trying to figure out what makes sense for our audience. We are not running for president; we don't need to tell you our stance on everything. Some opinions can be kept to ourselves or shared with only our closest friends and family. And, when we don't have an opinion on a subject - like me on the Superbowl - why tweet just to be heard?

Tweeting about every trending topic is not necessary or valuable. Yes, trending topics are relevant but your audience/followers want to know more about the authentic you. Ringing in on every topic just adds to the chatter. Followers don't expect you to tweet about everything (unless you are a celebrity. Then the fact you just ate carrots for lunch may actually inspire t-shirt sales).

Your silence amplifies your heart-felt commentary.

If you have an opinion on this post, leave it below. Otherwise, that's fine too.

The Cost of Not Empowering Employees

I take my boys every two months or so to the local Fantastic Sams. We know the girls there. Natalie can speak "super hero" and keeps the boys talking about their favorites all through the cut - a stroke of brilliance which allows her to work her magic with minimal squirming from them.

Last week, they refused to honor a competitor's $1-off coupon. They've accepted them in the past, which I have greatly appreciated because when it comes to trying to coral two four-year olds and get them out the door, I'm lucky I can even find non-expired coupons.

The girls at the desk told me the owner would "have a heart attack" if they accepted a coupon from another store. I will most likely never meet this franchise owner but I'm guessing if she'd have heart failure over a dollar, she'll probably combust over losing two, consistent, loyal customers.

My family goes there because it's convenient and we know what to expect but within a five mile radius there are five other discount hair cutting places. When we are told through employee actions that our business is worth less than four quarters, we'd gladly take it elsewhere.

Business owners, empower your employees to make decisions that improve the customer experience. They are the "face" of your business. You may have "given us" the dollar-off coupon had you been present but your employees sure didn't think to do so. They even thought you'd be mad if they did. How mad will you be about this episode when you realize the cost of not empowering your employees to make decisions cost you two customers? 

Five Terms for 2012

Lowell Aplebaum over on Association 141+ wrote about Five Terms for 2012. He was inspired by an idea from Shelly Alcorn and after reading both of their posts, I'm either inspired or copycatting - reader's choice. (In all fairness, he did ask others for their five so I'm not a complete copycat.)

The five terms concept replaces traditional New Year's resolutions (because we all know how well those work). Use them as a mantra, write them on your white board, create a posted note frame for your monitor, whatever works for you to keep those ideas present in the forefront of your mind. This is what I've come up with:

1. Don't get hung up on what wasn't done. Being a working mom, this one's huge and probably the hardest. I never dwell on what I'm doing right only what could've been done better.

2. Stop allowing my inner twelve year-old to judge me. This one goes along with number one (and as you can tell from my first two terms, I am my hardest critic), I have to stop measuring my success by what preteen me thought I would be, do, say or think as an adult. So I haven't written that novel YET, Twelve year-old Christina, go play with your Barbies.

3. Be observant. I was tempted to write the over-used "be present in the moment" but what I really want to do is pay more attention to the magic of everyday life. Stop looking at life as a relay race sprint and more like a stroll.

4. Learn every day and apply that learning. Learning is essential to my happiness in any job I have but what is more stimulating is taking that knowledge and applying it to my daily processes. Am I doing things the most efficiently? Am I connecting in a way that's real? Am I getting closer to my goals or am I getting derailed by the project butterflies?

5. Get a smart phone. But then again I'm kind of attached to my sat. phone in a shoulder bag. (Okay, I'm not that bad but when you touch the screen of my cell phone all you get is dirty fingerprints.)

Now it's time to show me yours. What terms are you planning on posting?

The Cost of Silence

Obvious statement of the century in 3, 2, 1...Whether you run a company, a department or a household you know the importance of communication. Without communication people are lost, misdirected and unable to obtain their goals. But there is a far more dangerous side of "not communicating" with the people who rely on you than mere lack of information.

It is impossible "not to communicate." Even when you say nothing, you're communicating. Humans read into messages of body language, avoidance and silence. We assign an emotion to these silent messages. When you fail to communicate (or refuse to set aside time to do so), the message you are sending is that this person is not important to you. Whether it's a child or an employee, silence is not golden. Errors in communication (forgetting to include someone on an email or failure to notify them of a cancellation of a meeting) may seem like an oversight to you but if that is the only form of communication they receive (or don't receive) from you, it will carry a far deeper and more loudly heard message. The less you communicate with someone on a regular basis, the more an "oversight" will look like a shun. The amount of negativity perceived in your lack of communication is directly related to the amount of communication you have with that individual on a regular basis. The rarer your communication, the more your "neglect" will appear intentional.

The best remedy for a communication gaff is not ignoring it. The person already feels ignored. You are compounding the problem if you choose to say nothing. Failure to communicate is fixed simply by communicating.  Initiate conversation, apologize for the oversight. Do not mention you are busy or your head has been elsewhere that serves to exacerbate their feelings of alienation. Apologize and engage. Keep the apology short and move onto something about them.  

None of Us Are Experts

My professional life is awash in social media. I choose "awash" because although there is a personal strategy behind your brand, we marketers have about as much control over our brand as we do over the ocean tides. This makes it hard for the old codgers in our crew (me included) to let go. Marketing is not the same. We've lost our bullhorn. Now we have to listen. Some of us are just learning how to do that so please be patient. Remember just as marketers are trying to become more "human" we actually already are so mean, personal comments are never alright.

We've witnessed not only amazing technological advances but generational differences that we're still trying to make sense of. How do we inspire and promote to digital natives? How do we check our snarkiness at the door and remember that even the young-ins have something to add to the conversation?

We're all learning this zany social media stuff. None of us are experts, some of us just have more practice and a louder voice. We all have different opinions and now we all have an inexpensive way to reach the multitudes. But one thing we can agree on - social media has changed everything.