Saturday Edition

Get the Blog Feed
What is RSS?

dispatches from the new world of work

An Amateur's View of Social Media
Circa May 2010
Disorganized Musings

On the evening of May 26, I made my first "presentation" (an informal talk) on social media. The affair, called "Sweets & Tweets," was held in Georgetown and hosted by corporate social media consultant Debbie Weil. I participate in social media somewhat myself, but in no way, shape, or form am an expert. Moreover, I did not spend an enormous amount of time preparing—the talk was intended to be "off the cuff." But with my obsessive penchant for lists (ah, engineers), I did jot a few things down which I shall simply call "musings from an incredibly old guy and unadulterated amateur" on social media:

Social media is not new. SM writ large is LITERALLY what makes us human!!!! Ape brains grew to accommodate socializing skills; aborigines and "songlines;" people trade refrigerators in for radios; etc.

But "modern" social media does change everything: Matt Ridley's new Rational Optimism: How Prosperity Evolves; prosperity (more or less in its entirety) comes from trading-connections (leads to inventions, econ growth); today's SM is wildly accelerating connections (crowdsourcing, etc., etc.)

FYI: SM changed my life. Blogging turned out to be the best marketing tool ever—based on giving away "everything"/90% of intellectual capital, etc. And Twitter caught me totally by surprise—my compulsion for, and emerging benefits of.

I do SM for ONE reason: fun! (Fun makes it loose, social, inclusive—and hence personal and professional ties grow.)

SM does not relationships make. Part of the game, to be sure, and "intimate" (professional) ties can arise. But, at least for now, pubs, dinners, clubs, bars, body language are imperative.

SM is an end in itself. We are simply discovering new ways of interacting—which is, as noted, "everything."

SM is not an end in itself. For me, Steve Jobs, etc. For most of us there's gotta be a great there there: iPad, iPhone, BMW, Cirque du Soleil, speeches (for me).

It appears that brand new organizational forms are arising—"emergent leadership" at Cisco, etc. The nature of implementation of pretty much everything is changing.

Da basics are the basics, always were, always will be. "Thank you." Decency. Thoughtfulness. Integrity. Etc.

Beware "sexy." Napoleon: The simple is the best, and most failure (on the battlefield) comes from generals trying to be "clever."

SM is the ultimate EXPERIMENTAL medium ever. Change. Adjust. Fail. Try again. And again. (On large scale, Google's the master.)

Beware of learning too much from others. Michael Schrage: innovation from "serious play." Gotta try your own combinations, not copy others.

Beware hanging out with too many social media peers. Hyping each other and getting caught up in "SM is all there is" is a deadly sin!

Consider differences: Women and men process differently, socialize differently. (Women around the world are the biggest market, taking over in general, especially among the young/youngish. In developed countries, older/old folks are the most incredible market (size, $$$) in history—and old are surprisingly vigorous SM/Internet users.

Consider differences: Most businesses are small businesses doing "ordinary" things—how can we help them?

Bonus/redux: This is a hoot! Enjoy!

Tom Peters posted this on 05/28/10.

Comments

Napoleon: The simple is the best, and most failure (on the battlefield) comes from generals trying to be "clever."

Two definitions of clever.

1) Mentally quick and original; bright.
2) Nimble with the hands or body; dexterous.

Posted by zorro at May 28, 2010 1:21 PM

Tom!
Just saw the above comment and definition...especially #1. Using that as a guide, you will never be old...really!!!

Posted by Lawrence E Marmion at May 28, 2010 5:44 PM

Artless defn 'without guile or artifice, open and sincere, ingenious, natural'. The 'unskilled' definition fits well with unlearning. But also easy to be misinterpreted/make mistakes with 140 characters let alone email and two finger typing! Knowing that you dont know, strength of weak ties-someone you know knows someone who knows, roles shift with each interaction...

Posted by Ruth Howard at May 28, 2010 7:08 PM

Great post- you are having fun on twitter I can tell ;). Your advice is rich with wisdom.

Thank you

Posted by debbiejbrown at May 28, 2010 9:46 PM

"But "modern" social media does change everything: Matt Ridley's new Rational Optimism: How Prosperity Evolves; prosperity (more or less in its entirety) comes from trading-connections (leads to inventions, econ growth); today's SM is wildly accelerating connections (crowdsourcing, etc., etc.)"

And our economy surely reflects how much prosperity is growing
with all this 'connecting'.

Its enabled a lot of well paying American jobs to be moved over seas where they can be turned into low wage jobs.

And, if you listen to the likes of growing influences such as Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, we are much more open minded now that people can freely reinforce their prejudices- for example, half of all the Republicans have flexible enough imaginations to entertain the notion that our current president wasn't born in the USA. And the people are so well informed with all these deluded ideas being sent around they many of them finally realize the perils of letting the Government get involved in their medicare.

We need more and more of these feedback loops where people can connect with others who completely agree with people like themselves.

Posted by zorro at May 28, 2010 10:41 PM

Tom, great "off the pocket-protector" list (alternative to off the cuff for engineers)!

#13, "Beware hanging out with too many social media peers. Hyping each other..." speaks to too much of what I see on blogs, Facebook and Twitter - chumming the SM and self-serving "atta-boys/girls". SM is not owned by those who try make their livelihood off of it!

On Napoleon. Has no one read any histories and biographies? The man lost many many major battles through stupid errors and hubris - resulting in 100's of thousands dead, abandoned allies and armies, disrupted nations, looted cities, "gulag'd" enemies, made crony-ism rampant, literally destroyed Europe - and he's a great source of leadership wisdom?
I sincerely hope we won't next be reading about the leadership wisdom of Pol Pot!

Posted by Randy Bosch at May 29, 2010 9:24 AM

Great list. Thank you. The WHY behind social media is indeed nothing new in human behavior. It's the level of connectedness and transparency that is so dynamic now. I think we all, internally, want to share and collaborate to make the world better. Every day it gets easier and easier to actually do it.

Posted by Daniel Decker at May 29, 2010 11:15 AM

Our planet is now a very small place. Reminds me of the tiny English village I was brought up in. I chose my friends carefully yet knew a lot of people in the village :-)

Happy Saturday to all in TP's little village.

Posted by Trevor Gay at May 29, 2010 1:13 PM

Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML to allow scientists to share ideas on the internet. That happened in 1990.

So, the latest big accomplishment that everyone is patting themselves on the back for is the name 'social media?'
You are rewarded for realizing that this activity that has existed for 20 years suddenly now changes everything?

How about doing something really significant and give us all a new name for walking or breathing?

Then we can write articles and blogs and books and become consultants and experts how how to go about those renamed activities.

Walking. That reminds me ofhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7wsomething.

Posted by zorro at May 30, 2010 1:46 PM

Try again.

Walking. That reminds me of something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqhlQfXUk7w

Posted by zorro at May 30, 2010 1:47 PM

"iPad, iPhone, BMW, Cirque du Soleil, speeches (for me)."

I'm an ordering Ipad, so I love Apple's stuff. I don't have a problem with cool stuff.

BUT - none of these companies have solutions to our biggest
problem (energy) (maybe BMW does)

Can design thinking fix the hole in the bottom of the sea?
Design thinking could probably give us better names than Top Hat or Top Kill etc (how about Devils Toupee)

I saw Bill Gates on an interview on CNN - He pointed out that USA investment in alternative energy peaked 30 years ago.
Why? (its because of the fundamentalist small government religion and this fundamentalist religion is the most dangerous of all the fundamentalist brands. Its responsible for the tar balls flowing from the center of the earth)

Can fortune cookie fortune sized twitters help us find a way to get the petroleum needle out of our arm?
Will we twitter all of our intellectual capital on theories about twitter?

Posted by zorro at May 30, 2010 8:10 PM

Way before "Social Media" there was Paul Revere, Grass Roots Marketing, etc. So while words may or may not have improved over time, we all have access to the best megaphones ever built. Everybody has a chance to be heard now.

Social Media = Much Stronger Voices

Posted by stu rodnick at May 31, 2010 8:37 PM

A new "Twist" or "evolution" of Social Media is Transmedia, which is the telling of stories across all forms of media platforms, including social media, video, gaming, etc. It is the telling of stories (fictional and non-fiction) evolving through these mediums that is changing the ways and tone and method of storytelling. New ways of interacting equals new ways of telling stories.

Posted by Paul Wood at June 1, 2010 10:29 AM

Social media, the great liberator, or everyone talking at once and no one listening? Re: #12: Cacophony is a component of chaos!

Posted by Randy Bosch at June 1, 2010 4:39 PM

I was going reply with a pearl of my own wisdom then I read Randy's last comment and decided to listen instead!

Posted by PaulH at June 2, 2010 1:43 AM

#13 is key! SM is a tool to be used to advance your strategy. If you just hang out with SMers you may forget that there are other pieces to the puzzle as well.
cheers

Posted by Michael Van Osch at June 2, 2010 10:19 AM

What about the ADDICTION to Social Media (at least the electronic kind)? I’m sure I’m not the only one who vows to limit his SM time every day, then gets sucked into the vortex. There must be a 12-step cure for this.

Posted by John O'Leary at June 2, 2010 8:39 PM

Thanks, I love the pithy list!

I'm looking forward to reinventing my agency to offer social media and throughout the month of June, I'm reviewing your rich book "ReImagine!"

Loving it. Today, I posted Day One... in case you are interested: http://themidascenter.blogspot.com/2010/06/retreat-day-1-change-agency.html

- Andrea Cook a/k/a/Social Media Maniac

Posted by Andrea Cook at June 2, 2010 9:23 PM

Tom Peters ... you were my hero when I was in grad school, as well as required reading ;-)

I am delighted to see that you have joined the Internet marketing revolution. Your insights on social media remind me that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Posted by Barbara Elizabeth at June 2, 2010 9:28 PM

Ridley's "Rational Optimism" looks like an interesting read, though he's known to grind a heavy political axe. The selective sources he cites for his conclusions on global warming are a tad disconcerting.

In "Rational Optimism" Ridley revels in the fact that the 'pessimists' of the 1970's who spread the fear of running out of oil were nothing but alarmists.He fails to mention the 'pessimists' from the 1970's who predicted we'd go to war over oil and experience large environmental disasters.

Posted by zorro at June 2, 2010 9:55 PM