Just Do It!
- Image by luc legay via Flickr
If it had not happened to me recently, I might not believe it. Despite David Cohn’s exhortations earlier this year, experienced, smart journalists, all atwitter, saying they could never Tweet or blog. Experienced journalists interviewing me on my blog, without reading the blog. Executives acting condescendingly toward social media. We can’t create the Complete Community Connection if we don’t have direct experience. By trying to “possess” the stories of our communities, we might lose them.
Virginia Heffernan provides insight in today’s New York Times Magazine that the world of content has changed fundamentally. Much more “with and by” than “for and to” audiences:
People who work in traditional media and entertainment ought either to concentrate on the antiquarian quality of their work, cultivating the exclusive audience of TV viewers or magazine readers that might pay for craftsmanship. Or they should imagine that they are 19 again: spending a day on Twitter or following a recipe from a Mark Bittman video played on a refrigerator that automatically senses what ingredients are missing and texts an order to the grocery store (it will soon exist!). Then they should think about what content suits these new modes of distribution and could evolve in tandem with them. For old-media types, mental flexibility could be the No. 1 happiness secret we have been missing.
Several people have made this point, but John Bell made it well, and recently:
You cannot be great with social media through simple observation. Applying it to your life and committing the time to actually “do” it will help your business. It will help you understand first-hand and give you ideas. It will suck up time. But two things happen: it doesn’t suck up as much as you fear and you end up with greater rewards than you imagined.
So, how to start? First of all, join Twitter. Follow Steve Buttry, Amy Gahran, John McGlothlen, and Steve Outing to start, along with anyone else you know on Twitter. A great introduction to Twitter is provided by TwiTip, including some informative Twitters to follow. If you really want to explore Twitter, Guy Kawasaki has some detailed ideas. Once you are up and running, try Twhirl to start, and once on your feet, perhaps Tweetdeck to sort things out.
Then, sign up for Facebook, have your Twitter feeds automatically update your Facebook account, and search Facebook for local friends, or long lost high school classmates. Be amazed at what you can discover.
For a more professional view, start with LinkedIn. You should find many people from your company already there.
If you would like more motivation, check out Xark and Twitter:
Journalists are in the communications business. Shouldn’t they at least have a professional interest in the evolving state of modern communications technology? Shouldn’t journalists at least be curious about the way other people communicate?
Only they aren’t curious: They’re hostile.
I said this back in September, and it’s as true now as it was then: Newspaper companies (and many of their employees) hate modern journalism. They resent change they don’t control. They’re angry that “the people formerly known as the audience” have developed alternatives to their mass-media monopolies.
So, let’s just do it, and see what we learn!
Are you willing?
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December 8th, 2008 at 8:32 am
My only question is who is empowered to “just do it”?
It seems like the people who could “do it” are buried under the system and the people who have the power to do it are resiting change.
Two gears moving in opposite direction – waiting to see which one will win the struggle of power.
December 8th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Well said, Chuck. Much of this applies far beyond the world of journalism, and I’m sending it right along to some former colleagues in other industries.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Here is a classic example of your point Chuck. I will change the names as to not get anyone mad – but this is Chuck’s point exactly.
Here is some breaking news – which one team scoops the other by 7-8 minutes, but – because team one is vague and team two isn’t…team one’s info flys by and nobody cares.
Tweet from TeamOne @ 29 minutes ago:
Getting news crew out to a house fire.
Tweet from TeamOne @ 22 minutes ago:
News crew on the way
Tweet from TeamTwo @ 22 minutes ago:
Fire at 123 Main St. is a garage fire. Crews still working, mostly contained. No injuries reported.
So – as “scooped” as TeamTwo is, the info was more relevant and they will fill in with more later.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Chuck, I don’t mean to be impertinent, but I’m really proud of you. You’re a CEO who not only gets it and not only talks about it, you’re living it. Show folks the way!
December 9th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
It is far easier and cheaper to just do it (sign up for twitter or some other social media site) than it is to sit around and discuss whether or not we should join.
This isn’t just about evangelism anymore – it is about making the logical decision.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
[...] I feel the timing is perfect. As the media industry continues to move along with no implemented solutions to solving revenue and audience issues, we have a chance to make a significant, lasting contribution. With that comes a high level of responsibility too. Most importantly, the timing is right to act. [...]
December 12th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
To the point of this entry — By trying to “possess” the stories of our communities, we might lose them — this seems to me going forward one of the hardest things current editorial staffs (content gatherers/managers) will have to come to grips with…ownership of their words, photos, opinions, analysis, data and the like will not exist as it has, meaning they won’t own their work exclusively and be able to covet it to the degree they do now as it will need to be disseminated freely and willingly. This will not be able to happen until they release the death grip they currently have around what they produce.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
[...] Sign up and use a social network or two. Often recommended around here are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Learn the ropes. Figure out how to upload a photo, embed a [...]
December 16th, 2008 at 7:05 am
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January 7th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
[...] organizations, mindsets, business models, collaboration and content curation, the time has come to do something. One action we can take it to participate in BarCamp [...]
May 26th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
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