I say “we”, because I include myself in what I’m about to say.
Yesterday, I posted that what we really need is more people with solid business skills. And Justin commented, rightly so, that many of the people shouting AMEN might just be part of the problem. He’s not wrong.
It’s not likely that each of you reading this post have all of your business skills down pat, even as you agree with me about the need for them. I know I certainly don’t. But I’m working on it.
For example, financial operations is something I know at a basic budget management and profit-and-loss level, but I don’t always understand financial management strategy and revenue modeling. So I’m learning from people that do, so I can be less ignorant in that regard, and more useful to my business and projects. That’s just one thing on my list.
Go back to the second to last point on yesterday’s rundown:
People who can admit what they don’t know, and seek knowledge or help.
That means you, too. US.
Each of you undoubtedly has a solid set of things you do well. Meg Fowler is an outstanding writer and wordsmith. Bill Sledzik is an experienced educator. Kellye Crane is a solid PR professional.
But each of us could do with a gut check about the things we need to improve. And we can help hold each other accountable.
I’m thrilled beyond measure that you guys come here and comment and like what I write. It makes me feel good to know you’re out there, and that you want to spend time to connect with me. I love that people shared yesterday’s post on Twitter and Facebook and said how much they agree with the premise. But here’s the thing.
Don’t you dare come here and say “great post” or “Amen”, write a few words of endorsement, and walk away. That’s lip service, and I’m challenging you to something better than that. Something bigger.
Don’t comment here that you agree with me. Don’t tell me this post was awesome. I’m here to change the way things are done, and that means mobilizing people to action, not talk.
What I need is for you to know what you don’t know. Have the stones to face it down. Think about and communicate what will help you be a better business person, and then do something about it. Share it here if putting it out publicly motivates you. If it doesn’t, leave here and go do whatever compels you to move. I would much rather your silence than your inaction. Please.
If you share this post, please do it because you’re encouraging others to get real, too. My having a voice out here does very little good if all I can ever get people to do is read, tap out a few words, think briefly, and go back to doing things as they always have. There’s work to be done, is there not?
Are you with me?
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Although I agree with the gist of your post – i don’t wholeheartedly agree.
I work in the media business.
I work with clients.
Clients who more often than not do not understand the media business.
We try to educate – but often just some things stick… and often overpowering personalities at creative agencies then give wrong advice simply because that’s what get’s them to build cooler things – or worse: gives them extra turnover/profit.
If I am to say: well I don’t think that this is a good idea – but I don’t know for sure you can bet your bottom dollar that the creative agency is going to build a monster. And in the end they’ll put the blame on the media agency because we didn’t use the right media to make this monster look like a teddy bear.
So yes, I am willing to admit that I don’t know everything… but as soon as it means that y clients are going to have to invest in something I know (though I can’t explicitly give all examples why not) is going to fail – I SURE AS HELL am going to say: this is wrong because of y & y. Even though we could debate wether x & y are really true…. I know them to be more true than the flimsy lies disguised as reasons that the creative agency uses to sell bullshit.
So let’s also be honest in when one can be honest!
.-= koningwoning´s last blog ..koningwoning: @basvroonland – ik zou er op ingaan….. dat is een superlunch die @daanvanrossum aanbiedt. Mis ik het meest (naast collega’s) =-.
I think you’re misinterpreting a bit here.
I’m not saying we don’t all have our areas of expertise. That’s absolutely true, and we all have things that we can teach to others. My point is that we can ALWAYS keep improving and working on something we *don’t* know.
Be the expert in your field, sure. But no one can ever look me straight in the eye and tell me they wouldn’t benefit from knowing more about something else in a business sense.
My point is that lots of folks came by yesterday saying YES! We need better business people. I want to take it a step further and insist that we can each start with putting our money where our mouth is.
Amber, I think you misinterpreted me.
I think no one ever truely knows anything really and truly in our business.
One thing I have found out is that you don’t need to know everything…. you just need to understand the things more than your neighbor (or clients in my case)(or actually the creative agencies that keep on feeding misinformation.)
Basically that means that I live, eat, breathe, shit, all things digital so I stay on top.
But I constantly need to brush up on all things because it just keeps on evolving. That’s the crap of being an overall digital person in my line of work…. it’s a dirty job but someone has got to do it.
P.s. I need more understanding on human psychology, on why creative agencies get things sold better (which basically is the first one again), on technoloy in genereal, on measurement, on why which call to action works when in which instance, on the different parameters and how they apply in which situation, and a whole plethora of other things. Maybe I need to learn to focus 🙂
Although I agree with the gist of your post – i don’t wholeheartedly agree.
I work in the media business.
I work with clients.
Clients who more often than not do not understand the media business.
We try to educate – but often just some things stick… and often overpowering personalities at creative agencies then give wrong advice simply because that’s what get’s them to build cooler things – or worse: gives them extra turnover/profit.
If I am to say: well I don’t think that this is a good idea – but I don’t know for sure you can bet your bottom dollar that the creative agency is going to build a monster. And in the end they’ll put the blame on the media agency because we didn’t use the right media to make this monster look like a teddy bear.
So yes, I am willing to admit that I don’t know everything… but as soon as it means that y clients are going to have to invest in something I know (though I can’t explicitly give all examples why not) is going to fail – I SURE AS HELL am going to say: this is wrong because of y & y. Even though we could debate wether x & y are really true…. I know them to be more true than the flimsy lies disguised as reasons that the creative agency uses to sell bullshit.
So let’s also be honest in when one can be honest!
.-= koningwoning´s last blog ..koningwoning: @basvroonland – ik zou er op ingaan….. dat is een superlunch die @daanvanrossum aanbiedt. Mis ik het meest (naast collega’s) =-.
I think you’re misinterpreting a bit here.
I’m not saying we don’t all have our areas of expertise. That’s absolutely true, and we all have things that we can teach to others. My point is that we can ALWAYS keep improving and working on something we *don’t* know.
Be the expert in your field, sure. But no one can ever look me straight in the eye and tell me they wouldn’t benefit from knowing more about something else in a business sense.
My point is that lots of folks came by yesterday saying YES! We need better business people. I want to take it a step further and insist that we can each start with putting our money where our mouth is.
Amber, I think you misinterpreted me.
I think no one ever truely knows anything really and truly in our business.
One thing I have found out is that you don’t need to know everything…. you just need to understand the things more than your neighbor (or clients in my case)(or actually the creative agencies that keep on feeding misinformation.)
Basically that means that I live, eat, breathe, shit, all things digital so I stay on top.
But I constantly need to brush up on all things because it just keeps on evolving. That’s the crap of being an overall digital person in my line of work…. it’s a dirty job but someone has got to do it.
P.s. I need more understanding on human psychology, on why creative agencies get things sold better (which basically is the first one again), on technoloy in genereal, on measurement, on why which call to action works when in which instance, on the different parameters and how they apply in which situation, and a whole plethora of other things. Maybe I need to learn to focus 🙂
Yes, yes, YES. Change and improvement in real and meaningful ways in and outside of one’s comfort zone is crucial. Sharing that diversity, that learned experience is what I TRY to use Twitter for. Hope I got the message right Amber. Nice.
So, then. Let me challenge YOU. What meaningful change and improvement are you working on, specifically? Not what you already know, but where do you need to learn more? Can you share?
Yes, yes, YES. Change and improvement in real and meaningful ways in and outside of one’s comfort zone is crucial. Sharing that diversity, that learned experience is what I TRY to use Twitter for. Hope I got the message right Amber. Nice.
So, then. Let me challenge YOU. What meaningful change and improvement are you working on, specifically? Not what you already know, but where do you need to learn more? Can you share?
Amber –
This doesn’t happen often, but I don’t agree with you. Maybe I’m misunderstanding your point on this one, but why do we need to improve the things we are not good at?
Let me break it down a bit. Forgive me that this is going to be a bit of a stream of consciousness as I’m thinking about it in my head as I’m furiously typing away.
I can’t recall where I read or heard this, but isn’t it “better” to focus on what we are good at and really improve those skills to be the best? To go from good to kick ass? I think that too many people spend time on what they don’t know…what they suck at…and try to improve. Seems like a waste of time to me. I’m not saying that we should not always be seeking to improve.
As Justin wrote in So What Do We *Do* With All This Information?, we can’t do it all. Never. Ever. I struggle with this every single day.
I know email marketing. I’m pretty good at the interpersonal stuff. I love to connect people. However, I suck when it comes to $$ – budgets, contracts, negotiations, deals, etc (personal and professional – ha ha). Suck. Could I get better? Sure. I could immerse myself in it. I could read, engage, connect, blah blah blah. I don’t want to. I think it’s a waste of my time to focus on that stuff. As long as I can tap into my network and find the person(s) who know that better then me, they why not leverage that relationship?
I’d rather go from Good to Great (hmmm – good title for a book, huh?).
Am I missing your point? Are we actually saying the same thing? Am I on crack? Talk to me…
DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow
.-= DJ Waldow´s last blog ..We Don’t Recycle Brown Glass =-.
Hmm. We kind of agree. But not totally. Consider this.
Yeah, I get the whole “leverage your strengths” thing and support it. But realistically, if you’re missing a skill that you need in order to further your career or your personal interests, you can choose to either learn it, or stop progressing.
You know email marketing. But do you know ALL there is to know? I don’t agree with you that it’s a waste of time for you to learn a bit about budgeting and contracts. Should you dedicate all your time to learning it in depth? No. But a little knowledge can make you more of an asset to your company and customers because you can see outside your silo.
It’s one thing to say “I’m good at this and this is my specialization”. It’s another thing to say you don’t need other skills to be better that are outside your core area of knowledge or comfort zone.
Good to Great is fine, and sure. I’m down with that. But I think it’s naive to say that you stick only with what you know and never consider that something else might be important.
I never said learn it all. I said consider what you might need to know, and do something about it. There’s a big difference between the two.
Oh, and the second thing? More than anything, I’m challenging folks here to move beyond “yeah, great idea!” and actually back their words up with actions. That can be about this or anything else. But I’m interested in finding ways to translate theory into concrete, and use our comments and discussions to drive movement. This is just one example, I guess.
Aha! What I need to learn more on: programming, financial planning, user experience, and sales principles. A book I recently purchased to improve these skills-The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization and A Project Guide to UX Design.
Is this a more revealing answer? Thank you for the challenge to step outside my comfort zone and seek real growth. 🙂
Beautiful. Good on you. Books are great, tangible ways to increase knowledge. So is coffee with someone who knows about an area you’d like to know more about. Growth, of the best kind, is rarely comfortable.
Amber –
This doesn’t happen often, but I don’t agree with you. Maybe I’m misunderstanding your point on this one, but why do we need to improve the things we are not good at?
Let me break it down a bit. Forgive me that this is going to be a bit of a stream of consciousness as I’m thinking about it in my head as I’m furiously typing away.
I can’t recall where I read or heard this, but isn’t it “better” to focus on what we are good at and really improve those skills to be the best? To go from good to kick ass? I think that too many people spend time on what they don’t know…what they suck at…and try to improve. Seems like a waste of time to me. I’m not saying that we should not always be seeking to improve.
As Justin wrote in So What Do We *Do* With All This Information?, we can’t do it all. Never. Ever. I struggle with this every single day.
I know email marketing. I’m pretty good at the interpersonal stuff. I love to connect people. However, I suck when it comes to $$ – budgets, contracts, negotiations, deals, etc (personal and professional – ha ha). Suck. Could I get better? Sure. I could immerse myself in it. I could read, engage, connect, blah blah blah. I don’t want to. I think it’s a waste of my time to focus on that stuff. As long as I can tap into my network and find the person(s) who know that better then me, they why not leverage that relationship?
I’d rather go from Good to Great (hmmm – good title for a book, huh?).
Am I missing your point? Are we actually saying the same thing? Am I on crack? Talk to me…
DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow
.-= DJ Waldow´s last blog ..We Don’t Recycle Brown Glass =-.
Hmm. We kind of agree. But not totally. Consider this.
Yeah, I get the whole “leverage your strengths” thing and support it. But realistically, if you’re missing a skill that you need in order to further your career or your personal interests, you can choose to either learn it, or stop progressing.
You know email marketing. But do you know ALL there is to know? I don’t agree with you that it’s a waste of time for you to learn a bit about budgeting and contracts. Should you dedicate all your time to learning it in depth? No. But a little knowledge can make you more of an asset to your company and customers because you can see outside your silo.
It’s one thing to say “I’m good at this and this is my specialization”. It’s another thing to say you don’t need other skills to be better that are outside your core area of knowledge or comfort zone.
Good to Great is fine, and sure. I’m down with that. But I think it’s naive to say that you stick only with what you know and never consider that something else might be important.
I never said learn it all. I said consider what you might need to know, and do something about it. There’s a big difference between the two.
Oh, and the second thing? More than anything, I’m challenging folks here to move beyond “yeah, great idea!” and actually back their words up with actions. That can be about this or anything else. But I’m interested in finding ways to translate theory into concrete, and use our comments and discussions to drive movement. This is just one example, I guess.
Aha! What I need to learn more on: programming, financial planning, user experience, and sales principles. A book I recently purchased to improve these skills-The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization and A Project Guide to UX Design.
Is this a more revealing answer? Thank you for the challenge to step outside my comfort zone and seek real growth. 🙂
Beautiful. Good on you. Books are great, tangible ways to increase knowledge. So is coffee with someone who knows about an area you’d like to know more about. Growth, of the best kind, is rarely comfortable.
In today’s business world, you can’t rest on laurels and you sure as heck can’t be complacent…because if you are, there’s someone out there that is hungry enough and driven enough to be better than you, regardless of what it is you do.
A lot of business people tend to put their head in the sand and hope things past over them and they ignore it until it’s too late. It’s the difference in being PROactive and REactive. With the whole financial mess, the real estate bust, customer confidence down, etc, etc….we, as marketers, regardless of how, where, what you do have got to be PROACTIVE.
Sure, it can be argued that being a “jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none” can backfire on you…but it can also be said to keep your mind open to constantly be learning.
I returned to the marketing world last year after some time in the corporate world as web editor/content manager. I’ve learned a lot in this time and still learn on a daily basis, because I’m not comfortable in my current situation to be able to say, “I know enough.”
I believe that thanks to everyone’s background, beliefs and the like, we are all different in what we want to accomplish in our personal and professional lives. I personally want to learn more in the world that I’ve re-entered and I’m prepared to learn more….Whether it be some new program, a new tactic/strategy or something as simple as a new way to stay organized.
The world is changing at a rapid rate in all sectors and something can be learned from each sector, regardless of how small it is, that can be brought over into my world and used there.
That, to me, is why the social/community aspect of business and marketing is so appealing…I’m constantly learning more and more. And I look forward to learning something new today.
Some of it becomes situational, right? So you learn new things based on the need for them in the moment.
I don’t think being a disorganized, disconnected jack of all trades is useful. If the knowledge you have (business wise) isn’t interconnected or related somehow, it’s hard to put it all together into something that’s progressive.
But I definitely think there’s something to the idea of being a deep specialist in one area, and having at least fundamental knowledge of other functional arenas. I know for *certain* that having at least a bit of knowledge about things like tech and finance has made ME a better communications professional, a better writer, and a more well-rounded business person overall.
To me, that gives me flexibility and the ability to work with different people and disciplines, and to better collaborate with people outside my core focus.
In today’s business world, you can’t rest on laurels and you sure as heck can’t be complacent…because if you are, there’s someone out there that is hungry enough and driven enough to be better than you, regardless of what it is you do.
A lot of business people tend to put their head in the sand and hope things past over them and they ignore it until it’s too late. It’s the difference in being PROactive and REactive. With the whole financial mess, the real estate bust, customer confidence down, etc, etc….we, as marketers, regardless of how, where, what you do have got to be PROACTIVE.
Sure, it can be argued that being a “jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none” can backfire on you…but it can also be said to keep your mind open to constantly be learning.
I returned to the marketing world last year after some time in the corporate world as web editor/content manager. I’ve learned a lot in this time and still learn on a daily basis, because I’m not comfortable in my current situation to be able to say, “I know enough.”
I believe that thanks to everyone’s background, beliefs and the like, we are all different in what we want to accomplish in our personal and professional lives. I personally want to learn more in the world that I’ve re-entered and I’m prepared to learn more….Whether it be some new program, a new tactic/strategy or something as simple as a new way to stay organized.
The world is changing at a rapid rate in all sectors and something can be learned from each sector, regardless of how small it is, that can be brought over into my world and used there.
That, to me, is why the social/community aspect of business and marketing is so appealing…I’m constantly learning more and more. And I look forward to learning something new today.
Some of it becomes situational, right? So you learn new things based on the need for them in the moment.
I don’t think being a disorganized, disconnected jack of all trades is useful. If the knowledge you have (business wise) isn’t interconnected or related somehow, it’s hard to put it all together into something that’s progressive.
But I definitely think there’s something to the idea of being a deep specialist in one area, and having at least fundamental knowledge of other functional arenas. I know for *certain* that having at least a bit of knowledge about things like tech and finance has made ME a better communications professional, a better writer, and a more well-rounded business person overall.
To me, that gives me flexibility and the ability to work with different people and disciplines, and to better collaborate with people outside my core focus.
Sometimes we as people “need to get out of our own way” so we can see clearly.
Admit they we need help with something.
.-= John Paul Aguiar´s last blog ..How I Built My Twitter Marketing Monster From 1 to 36,000 =-.
Agreed! Leaning rules ..PERIOD. My goal: By the time I hit retirement age (30 years), I hope to be deemed “un-retire-able”! Meaning- I hope to be so diverse in my knowledge and skill sets that there is always a need for my services, and that those “services” (whatever they are in 30 years) are top-notch.
Sometimes we as people “need to get out of our own way” so we can see clearly.
Admit they we need help with something.
.-= John Paul Aguiar´s last blog ..How I Built My Twitter Marketing Monster From 1 to 36,000 =-.
Agreed! Leaning rules ..PERIOD. My goal: By the time I hit retirement age (30 years), I hope to be deemed “un-retire-able”! Meaning- I hope to be so diverse in my knowledge and skill sets that there is always a need for my services, and that those “services” (whatever they are in 30 years) are top-notch.
Key word: FLEXIBILITY! Where are we, in the global business world even when it comes to this concept?
Key word: FLEXIBILITY! Where are we, in the global business world even when it comes to this concept?
While I really enjoyed the post, the meat is in the comment section.
I am guilty as the next guy – not working on my true weaknesses however I’ve recently identified them and have started to work on improvement. As you and others have stated, you can’t be an expert in everything. If something is holding you back from what you want, that might be a good place to start.
Sometimes we convince ourselves that certain skills aren’t important as a justification for not doing anything about it. Educating oneself in new areas without dropping the ball on the big picture of what success looks like to you, is never a bad thing in my opinion. Some of the brightest minds I know are also the most well rounded…coincidence?
As always, thanks for sharing and moving the conversation forward.
While I really enjoyed the post, the meat is in the comment section.
I am guilty as the next guy – not working on my true weaknesses however I’ve recently identified them and have started to work on improvement. As you and others have stated, you can’t be an expert in everything. If something is holding you back from what you want, that might be a good place to start.
Sometimes we convince ourselves that certain skills aren’t important as a justification for not doing anything about it. Educating oneself in new areas without dropping the ball on the big picture of what success looks like to you, is never a bad thing in my opinion. Some of the brightest minds I know are also the most well rounded…coincidence?
As always, thanks for sharing and moving the conversation forward.
I, not surprisingly, agree with both posts.
This is something I try to keep in mind as I progress through my career. I’ve been fortunate to have a variety of experiences throughout, and in previous lives I’ve learned how to work with lawyers to look over contracts for clients, how to re-brand a company with $1bil+ in revenue, what to look out for as cultural indicators of distress (speaking of company culture), direct marketing, email marketing, budgeting, PR (mainly technology focused)… the list goes on.
Out of all of those items, I’d only say that I truly feel like my knowledge is advanced in a few areas of my current or past “lives”. That’s OK with me, and I aim to grow that knowledge however I can. I do things like reading blog posts, reading books, or talking with people who know more than I do about those subject, to name a few.
But for the things I don’t know, I also aim to learn them. No, I’ll never be a financial modeling wizard. But, what I can do is sit with someone who is, and ask them questions to fill the gaps in my own head about that subject.
I don’t aim to be “jack of all trades, master of none”, but as a business person I truly believe that I owe it to myself, and the companies that I work for, to be able to have a base level of knowledge about the various bits and pieces that affect my job. My job itself? That’s where I should be a subject matter expert, and in turn help teach others about how my job affects theirs.
I, not surprisingly, agree with both posts.
This is something I try to keep in mind as I progress through my career. I’ve been fortunate to have a variety of experiences throughout, and in previous lives I’ve learned how to work with lawyers to look over contracts for clients, how to re-brand a company with $1bil+ in revenue, what to look out for as cultural indicators of distress (speaking of company culture), direct marketing, email marketing, budgeting, PR (mainly technology focused)… the list goes on.
Out of all of those items, I’d only say that I truly feel like my knowledge is advanced in a few areas of my current or past “lives”. That’s OK with me, and I aim to grow that knowledge however I can. I do things like reading blog posts, reading books, or talking with people who know more than I do about those subject, to name a few.
But for the things I don’t know, I also aim to learn them. No, I’ll never be a financial modeling wizard. But, what I can do is sit with someone who is, and ask them questions to fill the gaps in my own head about that subject.
I don’t aim to be “jack of all trades, master of none”, but as a business person I truly believe that I owe it to myself, and the companies that I work for, to be able to have a base level of knowledge about the various bits and pieces that affect my job. My job itself? That’s where I should be a subject matter expert, and in turn help teach others about how my job affects theirs.
There’s an entire class of MBAs about to graduate and we are to tackle complex problems, and . We know we have a lot to learn from people who’ve been in the trenches for 20 years, and we’re excited to share with those same folks some of the leading edge research that’s being done in the field. We’re all (desperately) looking for jobs right now, but we’re also looking for seasoned mentors. Put us to work, show us the ropes, and we’ll try to inspire you with some new ideas and a fresh perspective.
.-= Devon Smith´s last blog ..Foursquare might just be the next Twitter. My initial research… =-.
Although apparently we’re not quite as adept at html as we’d hoped. *Should have read*:
There’s an entire class of MBAs about to graduate and we are better prepared than ever before to tackle complex problems, and passionate about social issues. We know we have a lot to learn from people who’ve been in the trenches for 20 years, and we’re excited to share with those same folks some of the leading edge research that’s being done in the field. We’re all (desperately) looking for jobs right now, but we’re also looking for seasoned mentors. Put us to work, show us the ropes, and we’ll try to inspire you with some new ideas and a fresh perspective.
There’s an entire class of MBAs about to graduate and we are to tackle complex problems, and . We know we have a lot to learn from people who’ve been in the trenches for 20 years, and we’re excited to share with those same folks some of the leading edge research that’s being done in the field. We’re all (desperately) looking for jobs right now, but we’re also looking for seasoned mentors. Put us to work, show us the ropes, and we’ll try to inspire you with some new ideas and a fresh perspective.
.-= Devon Smith´s last blog ..Foursquare might just be the next Twitter. My initial research… =-.
Although apparently we’re not quite as adept at html as we’d hoped. *Should have read*:
There’s an entire class of MBAs about to graduate and we are better prepared than ever before to tackle complex problems, and passionate about social issues. We know we have a lot to learn from people who’ve been in the trenches for 20 years, and we’re excited to share with those same folks some of the leading edge research that’s being done in the field. We’re all (desperately) looking for jobs right now, but we’re also looking for seasoned mentors. Put us to work, show us the ropes, and we’ll try to inspire you with some new ideas and a fresh perspective.
I love when a blog post starts out with a picture of a bull-whip and is still work-related. 🙂 I’ve done IT for 12 years and marketing for 4, and I still learn something new almost daily in both of these fields. As a social media guy, I still struggle with how to search in the right places to locate customers and the best ways to interact with people who are not just unique, but so connected to one another. I try to learn every day by following (literally and Twitterly) people who are successful and know more than I do, no matter how insignificant it seems at the time, and to thank them for it. Reminds me of “Slumdog Millionaire” where so much in your life plays a role in what you know. If you are not learning, you are dying.
I love when a blog post starts out with a picture of a bull-whip and is still work-related. 🙂 I’ve done IT for 12 years and marketing for 4, and I still learn something new almost daily in both of these fields. As a social media guy, I still struggle with how to search in the right places to locate customers and the best ways to interact with people who are not just unique, but so connected to one another. I try to learn every day by following (literally and Twitterly) people who are successful and know more than I do, no matter how insignificant it seems at the time, and to thank them for it. Reminds me of “Slumdog Millionaire” where so much in your life plays a role in what you know. If you are not learning, you are dying.
Devon –
You are making Amber’s point for her in a way. Jut because you have an MBA really doesn’t mean much. What is the practical experience and practical application that you can put that “knowledge’ to work in? Have you built experience while acquiring that great bank of knowledge you have now? A degree does not automatically mean you should be given opportunity. That’s entitlement.
We all need to face our business demons as well as personal ones. I am working to get away from theory in social media and getting my hands more dirty in the actual building of communities. Theory makes for great blog posts and Amen comments but it doesn’t pay the bills. Actual work does.
.-= Frank Reed´s last blog ..Is There Room for Newsletters Anymore? =-.
Devon –
You are making Amber’s point for her in a way. Jut because you have an MBA really doesn’t mean much. What is the practical experience and practical application that you can put that “knowledge’ to work in? Have you built experience while acquiring that great bank of knowledge you have now? A degree does not automatically mean you should be given opportunity. That’s entitlement.
We all need to face our business demons as well as personal ones. I am working to get away from theory in social media and getting my hands more dirty in the actual building of communities. Theory makes for great blog posts and Amen comments but it doesn’t pay the bills. Actual work does.
.-= Frank Reed´s last blog ..Is There Room for Newsletters Anymore? =-.
Amber, great posts. I’ve been thinking along the same lines. While I always want to be better at my job or learn new things to broaden my horizons a little, I rarely take action on it unless it’s a normal part of my business life. For example, if the company wants to send me to a training class, great, but I don’t always take action to learn things on my own even when I recognize the weakness. Over the past few weeks though I’ve subjected myself to a (hopefully) objective self-assessment of my job performance over the past year and identified some goals or things I could do to improve the areas where I thought I was weakest. If anyone wants to use my basic process as a model for self-assessment, here’s the link: http://www.clearpm.com/blog/2010/1/8/improve-your-performance-no-not-enzyte.html. This article shows a copy of my self-assessment and a template for someone else to use for their own. Love reading your posts and the comments/discussion. Keep it up!
Amber, great posts. I’ve been thinking along the same lines. While I always want to be better at my job or learn new things to broaden my horizons a little, I rarely take action on it unless it’s a normal part of my business life. For example, if the company wants to send me to a training class, great, but I don’t always take action to learn things on my own even when I recognize the weakness. Over the past few weeks though I’ve subjected myself to a (hopefully) objective self-assessment of my job performance over the past year and identified some goals or things I could do to improve the areas where I thought I was weakest. If anyone wants to use my basic process as a model for self-assessment, here’s the link: http://www.clearpm.com/blog/2010/1/8/improve-your-performance-no-not-enzyte.html. This article shows a copy of my self-assessment and a template for someone else to use for their own. Love reading your posts and the comments/discussion. Keep it up!
I need to learn metrics. In a really big way. I can offer the content. I can offer the strategy up as far as helping with what kinds of platforms will be best. But measuring how well the content does? Not there.
I’m severely budget-strapped which means relying on blogs like this one (Amber, you’ve written a few concrete things about metrics which I have to make time to go back and parse) and free webinars… if only more free webinars were offered on metrics!
Any good ones you know of? Books that dumb it down for n00bs like me? Other blogs, other resources in general?
.-= Christa M. Miller´s last blog ..Does Google reflect who you are? =-.
One really good freebie is Google’s Cnversion University to learn Google Analytics. As for measuring social media more effectively as a whole, let us all know what you come up with on that one!
I need to learn metrics. In a really big way. I can offer the content. I can offer the strategy up as far as helping with what kinds of platforms will be best. But measuring how well the content does? Not there.
I’m severely budget-strapped which means relying on blogs like this one (Amber, you’ve written a few concrete things about metrics which I have to make time to go back and parse) and free webinars… if only more free webinars were offered on metrics!
Any good ones you know of? Books that dumb it down for n00bs like me? Other blogs, other resources in general?
.-= Christa M. Miller´s last blog ..Does Google reflect who you are? =-.
One really good freebie is Google’s Cnversion University to learn Google Analytics. As for measuring social media more effectively as a whole, let us all know what you come up with on that one!
Amber. I do agree, but would further add that this is critical to our finding fulfillment and satisfaction in our personal lives. Less than 4 months ago, I quit a job that I was an expert in, one of the best in the country. I was comfortable and happy with what I was doing, but ultimately felt stagnant and couldn’t get over that. I quit and jumped into marketing, a field I had very very limited experience in, with a new social networking site startup, and social media was an area I had used for personal friends, but never thinking about it from a business perspective. And in addition to trying to learn about marketing as quickly as possible, I’ve had to learn so many other basics as a startup, legal, finanacial, etc. I’ve read so many blogs and books, as well as found and asked experts. And while I often feel overwhelmed, it has been an incredibly satisfying 4 months. I haven’t felt like this since I started college. It’s like being back in the classroom where things are new and excited. Every few months you literally have an entire new set of skills and facts in your head. I love it. I know there is so much more to learn and I can’t wait. The satisfaction of learning new stuff is so much better than being a stagnant expert. 🙂
Amber. I do agree, but would further add that this is critical to our finding fulfillment and satisfaction in our personal lives. Less than 4 months ago, I quit a job that I was an expert in, one of the best in the country. I was comfortable and happy with what I was doing, but ultimately felt stagnant and couldn’t get over that. I quit and jumped into marketing, a field I had very very limited experience in, with a new social networking site startup, and social media was an area I had used for personal friends, but never thinking about it from a business perspective. And in addition to trying to learn about marketing as quickly as possible, I’ve had to learn so many other basics as a startup, legal, finanacial, etc. I’ve read so many blogs and books, as well as found and asked experts. And while I often feel overwhelmed, it has been an incredibly satisfying 4 months. I haven’t felt like this since I started college. It’s like being back in the classroom where things are new and excited. Every few months you literally have an entire new set of skills and facts in your head. I love it. I know there is so much more to learn and I can’t wait. The satisfaction of learning new stuff is so much better than being a stagnant expert. 🙂
Many of us continue to be amused / infuriated by the fact that social media is one of those rare fields where anyone can claim to be an expert. And since anyone can, *everyone* can.
So let’s say we’re all experts (which isn’t true to begin with). Then, one of us admits that s/he actually *could* stand to improve in a certain area — say, finances (because most of us come to this field from the creative side, not the fiscal).
What happens?
Everyone else keeps their mouth shut, and the person who admitted s/he needs to improve now feels ostracized, or “outed” as a non-expert. Which explains why so few people want to publicly face the fact that they need to get better at EVERYTHING they do, including what they’re already “pretty good” at.
When we all have the ability to crown ourselves, honesty and humility become flaws.
.-= Justin Kownacki´s last blog ..This Just In: Old Media Still Doesn’t “Get” New Media =-.
Wow, really? Are we all that meek?
I don’t feel “outed” or “less than” because I publicly dictate that I have things to learn. Perhaps that’s because I’m confident in what I DO know, and have every confidence that I’m *able* to learn what I don’t, when I need to. Am I the exception to that? Why?
It’s an interesting point you raise, though it disappoints me if we’re really that unable to be realistic about our individual limitations. Maybe that’s the undercurrent of why talk is popular, but action isn’t. Much easier to earn a stage by proclaiming your vast stores of knowledge than actually going out and applying them?
Yes, much easier. Claiming to be an expert only requires a voicebox; actually being one requires work.
Want a good example of someone admitting they didn’t know how to do something, making a mistake at it and then fixing it? This guy got publicly called out for “doing it wrong” on Twitter helped improve this guy’s business AND gained him exposure in the process.
How many people can admit they’re doing *anything* wrong, much less turn their (potentially embarrassing) experience into a lesson for others? We need more of that, and less smiling and nodding on the road to mediocrity.
.-= Justin Kownacki´s last blog ..This Just In: Old Media Still Doesn’t “Get” New Media =-.
Many of us continue to be amused / infuriated by the fact that social media is one of those rare fields where anyone can claim to be an expert. And since anyone can, *everyone* can.
So let’s say we’re all experts (which isn’t true to begin with). Then, one of us admits that s/he actually *could* stand to improve in a certain area — say, finances (because most of us come to this field from the creative side, not the fiscal).
What happens?
Everyone else keeps their mouth shut, and the person who admitted s/he needs to improve now feels ostracized, or “outed” as a non-expert. Which explains why so few people want to publicly face the fact that they need to get better at EVERYTHING they do, including what they’re already “pretty good” at.
When we all have the ability to crown ourselves, honesty and humility become flaws.
.-= Justin Kownacki´s last blog ..This Just In: Old Media Still Doesn’t “Get” New Media =-.
Wow, really? Are we all that meek?
I don’t feel “outed” or “less than” because I publicly dictate that I have things to learn. Perhaps that’s because I’m confident in what I DO know, and have every confidence that I’m *able* to learn what I don’t, when I need to. Am I the exception to that? Why?
It’s an interesting point you raise, though it disappoints me if we’re really that unable to be realistic about our individual limitations. Maybe that’s the undercurrent of why talk is popular, but action isn’t. Much easier to earn a stage by proclaiming your vast stores of knowledge than actually going out and applying them?
Yes, much easier. Claiming to be an expert only requires a voicebox; actually being one requires work.
Want a good example of someone admitting they didn’t know how to do something, making a mistake at it and then fixing it? This guy got publicly called out for “doing it wrong” on Twitter helped improve this guy’s business AND gained him exposure in the process.
How many people can admit they’re doing *anything* wrong, much less turn their (potentially embarrassing) experience into a lesson for others? We need more of that, and less smiling and nodding on the road to mediocrity.
.-= Justin Kownacki´s last blog ..This Just In: Old Media Still Doesn’t “Get” New Media =-.
Yeah, I consider myself a social media novice at best. But I do know that trying to do real business with a mindset of being afraid of not knowing something, or being afraid of hiring those that know more than you is a path which will always lead to less growth as opposed to more.
It reminds of David Ogilvy:
“When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll from Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message: ‘If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.’ ” * Ogilvy on Advertising, p. 47
Yeah, I consider myself a social media novice at best. But I do know that trying to do real business with a mindset of being afraid of not knowing something, or being afraid of hiring those that know more than you is a path which will always lead to less growth as opposed to more.
It reminds of David Ogilvy:
“When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll from Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message: ‘If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.’ ” * Ogilvy on Advertising, p. 47
Amber,
Always interesting when the mirror is held up and people strain to see everything other than what’s right in the middle.
I had no clue about social media (something about websites right?) so I started a blog to write about my ineptness. The first hardest thing was getting started. Solution: ask someone who’s done it, are doing it, and ask if they wouldn’t mind telling you. I guarantee that people love talking about their expertise.
Next hardest thing was not getting sucked into the debates (social media is replacing old media; twitter is not the future etc). Solution: listen, observe, appreciate and then comment- don’t let the mouth drive.
As you will notice in hierarchal business structures admitting you don’t know something is tantamount to career suicide and not having an opinion on everything is very boring blogging.
So the hardest thing is to recognise the structures (physical, political, business, tech and cultural) that are driving you and accept or deny their power. Knowing your own flaws may be grand, can you actually do anything about it?
Amber,
Always interesting when the mirror is held up and people strain to see everything other than what’s right in the middle.
I had no clue about social media (something about websites right?) so I started a blog to write about my ineptness. The first hardest thing was getting started. Solution: ask someone who’s done it, are doing it, and ask if they wouldn’t mind telling you. I guarantee that people love talking about their expertise.
Next hardest thing was not getting sucked into the debates (social media is replacing old media; twitter is not the future etc). Solution: listen, observe, appreciate and then comment- don’t let the mouth drive.
As you will notice in hierarchal business structures admitting you don’t know something is tantamount to career suicide and not having an opinion on everything is very boring blogging.
So the hardest thing is to recognise the structures (physical, political, business, tech and cultural) that are driving you and accept or deny their power. Knowing your own flaws may be grand, can you actually do anything about it?
Amber, although I wasn’t one of the commenters on the original post. I was a tweeter with a ‘hear hear’ comment. So let me elaborate … as has been requested (the picture of the whip kinda made it hard not to).
I’m a psychologist and marketer. I’ve been ‘doing’ marketing and pr for the last 10 years over here in the UK and a year ago I set up my agency. I’ve never run a business before. The first thing I did was get a business mentor who had ‘been there done it’, well why second guess the things I had no clue about. I learnt a great deal (and still do, she’s a great ‘sanity checker’ on the operational side of the business).
I soon realised that for my agency to be successful I needed to integrate social media into the offer. So once again I found who I needed to learn from. This time it came from the web (the likes of chris brogan, olivier blanchard and later you were very much part of that, as well as some key people this side of the pond). Again, Im still learning (as we all are), but now have a solid offer for my clients and feel confident I can deliver the results they need.
I tend to work with UK based b2b clients but recently pitched for a social media program for a global business. They wanted to integrate it throughout the organisation, so not simply as a marketing/pr/business development tool (my speciality) but as a customer service and HR tool also. Yes I can easily come up with a strategy to allow them to use it as a comms tool, but the operational side of customer service and all that entails is not in my skill set. Neither is developing a strategy that works across a number of offices spread around the globe, or developing guidelines/training that is relevant to each of those offices (and the many things associated with that). So instead of second guessing, I’ve identified someone here in the UK with those proven skills (lots of them) to work with me on the project. The great thing there is that I get to work with and learn from her, which will help with future projects.
I’m sure there will be countless times my skill set isn’t matched to something I need to do. Quite frankly I hope so as I love learning. But I guess my message here is, it’s ok. In fact it’s healthy and necessary to grow, otherwise we’ll just stagnate.
Amber, although I wasn’t one of the commenters on the original post. I was a tweeter with a ‘hear hear’ comment. So let me elaborate … as has been requested (the picture of the whip kinda made it hard not to).
I’m a psychologist and marketer. I’ve been ‘doing’ marketing and pr for the last 10 years over here in the UK and a year ago I set up my agency. I’ve never run a business before. The first thing I did was get a business mentor who had ‘been there done it’, well why second guess the things I had no clue about. I learnt a great deal (and still do, she’s a great ‘sanity checker’ on the operational side of the business).
I soon realised that for my agency to be successful I needed to integrate social media into the offer. So once again I found who I needed to learn from. This time it came from the web (the likes of chris brogan, olivier blanchard and later you were very much part of that, as well as some key people this side of the pond). Again, Im still learning (as we all are), but now have a solid offer for my clients and feel confident I can deliver the results they need.
I tend to work with UK based b2b clients but recently pitched for a social media program for a global business. They wanted to integrate it throughout the organisation, so not simply as a marketing/pr/business development tool (my speciality) but as a customer service and HR tool also. Yes I can easily come up with a strategy to allow them to use it as a comms tool, but the operational side of customer service and all that entails is not in my skill set. Neither is developing a strategy that works across a number of offices spread around the globe, or developing guidelines/training that is relevant to each of those offices (and the many things associated with that). So instead of second guessing, I’ve identified someone here in the UK with those proven skills (lots of them) to work with me on the project. The great thing there is that I get to work with and learn from her, which will help with future projects.
I’m sure there will be countless times my skill set isn’t matched to something I need to do. Quite frankly I hope so as I love learning. But I guess my message here is, it’s ok. In fact it’s healthy and necessary to grow, otherwise we’ll just stagnate.
There are some fantastic comments on this post, and I have to agree with one of the prior commenters, the meat really is in the comments. But kudos are in order for writing the type of post that inspires such quality discussion.
I wrote a post not too long ago about how the future in Internet marketing is the generalist, and not necessarily the specialist. The thinking there was that in today’s web, to market successfully you have to engage in a variety of tactics. SEO alone won’t cut it. Social media alone won’t cut it. But when you combine them – that’s when it gets powerful. In order to do that, it requires people who have experience and knowledge about many different forms of online marketing.
So, if you’re great at Social Media, but your skills are lacking in pay per click management, you better start learning pay per click.
If you aren’t challenging yourself to learn skills where weakness may exist, then you’re missing out on some of the best opportunities to grow professionally and personaly. Not to mention that some of the best marketing inspiration can come from sources not directly related to the marketing field.
If you’re choosing complacency over challenge, the Internet will surely pass you by.
.-= Colin Alsheimer´s last blog ..[Whoever Buys Us Pizza]‘s January Tweetup — (It’s for @agardina’s Birthday) =-.
There are some fantastic comments on this post, and I have to agree with one of the prior commenters, the meat really is in the comments. But kudos are in order for writing the type of post that inspires such quality discussion.
I wrote a post not too long ago about how the future in Internet marketing is the generalist, and not necessarily the specialist. The thinking there was that in today’s web, to market successfully you have to engage in a variety of tactics. SEO alone won’t cut it. Social media alone won’t cut it. But when you combine them – that’s when it gets powerful. In order to do that, it requires people who have experience and knowledge about many different forms of online marketing.
So, if you’re great at Social Media, but your skills are lacking in pay per click management, you better start learning pay per click.
If you aren’t challenging yourself to learn skills where weakness may exist, then you’re missing out on some of the best opportunities to grow professionally and personaly. Not to mention that some of the best marketing inspiration can come from sources not directly related to the marketing field.
If you’re choosing complacency over challenge, the Internet will surely pass you by.
.-= Colin Alsheimer´s last blog ..[Whoever Buys Us Pizza]‘s January Tweetup — (It’s for @agardina’s Birthday) =-.
I absolutely couldn’t agree more. That’s why I’m challenging myself in all kinds of new ways this year. I’m a young professional, so I already feel the urge to learn, grow, and stretch myself, but I am also not afraid to challenge those I work with/for. I’m lucky in that I have a boss who takes my opinions into consideration and even will ask for my opinion, but I think it comes down to pushing the envelope a little every day.
Given a little time to reflect and prepare my accomplishments of 2009 and goals for 2010 for my boss recently, I came to see that in the last year, I have grown in leaps and bounds professionally and personally. It’s a gradual process, but something I definitely work at every day by listening to the people I work with in my office, observing the office environment, soaking up as much information as I possibly can in everything we do in the organization as a whole. Granted, I work for a small non-profit and we have weekly staff meetings that catch us up on what each department and appendage is working on, but even if we didn’t, I would seek out that knowledge through our website and in talking with coworkers. Seeing the big picture, as well as the minute details helps me a great deal when thinking about how to approach a problem or challenge.
I embrace change and love a challenge because it forces me to grow both personally and professionally. However, I’m unsure of how to challenge others to do the same (especially since I am so young both relatively in age within my organization and in the amount of time I’ve served here). Do you have any suggestions on how to share this challenge you’ve extended to us with our coworkers without looking like someone wanting to stir up trouble or incite drama? I would love to get my coworkers to think beyond the daily grind.
.-= SaraKate´s last blog ..058. Wired for Success in 2010 =-.
I absolutely couldn’t agree more. That’s why I’m challenging myself in all kinds of new ways this year. I’m a young professional, so I already feel the urge to learn, grow, and stretch myself, but I am also not afraid to challenge those I work with/for. I’m lucky in that I have a boss who takes my opinions into consideration and even will ask for my opinion, but I think it comes down to pushing the envelope a little every day.
Given a little time to reflect and prepare my accomplishments of 2009 and goals for 2010 for my boss recently, I came to see that in the last year, I have grown in leaps and bounds professionally and personally. It’s a gradual process, but something I definitely work at every day by listening to the people I work with in my office, observing the office environment, soaking up as much information as I possibly can in everything we do in the organization as a whole. Granted, I work for a small non-profit and we have weekly staff meetings that catch us up on what each department and appendage is working on, but even if we didn’t, I would seek out that knowledge through our website and in talking with coworkers. Seeing the big picture, as well as the minute details helps me a great deal when thinking about how to approach a problem or challenge.
I embrace change and love a challenge because it forces me to grow both personally and professionally. However, I’m unsure of how to challenge others to do the same (especially since I am so young both relatively in age within my organization and in the amount of time I’ve served here). Do you have any suggestions on how to share this challenge you’ve extended to us with our coworkers without looking like someone wanting to stir up trouble or incite drama? I would love to get my coworkers to think beyond the daily grind.
.-= SaraKate´s last blog ..058. Wired for Success in 2010 =-.
recently, a colleague referred to me as a social media guru…i kindly corrected later with “there are no experts” …so the next day in another meeting he corrected himself by calling me a social media gorilla…
that being said…we need to stop bragging about ourselves and our wanna-micro-celebrity status, put our heads down and practice what we preach.
i see several elements that will be key to the next cycle:
-teach
-train
-mentor
-write
recently, a colleague referred to me as a social media guru…i kindly corrected later with “there are no experts” …so the next day in another meeting he corrected himself by calling me a social media gorilla…
that being said…we need to stop bragging about ourselves and our wanna-micro-celebrity status, put our heads down and practice what we preach.
i see several elements that will be key to the next cycle:
-teach
-train
-mentor
-write
Since I’m one of 3 folks named specifically in the post, along with Meg and Kellye, I thought I’d best chime it and answer Amber’s challenge.
While it’s true I’m an experienced educator, I’m also an experienced PR professional who sat at a fair number of C-suite tables before coming to the classroom. I’m well versed in business processes, but I don’t believe it’s my job to become an expert in accounting, finance, HR or operations. I studied enough about each area to understand the client’s challenges and hold my own on the teams. But I leaned heavily on the experts around me, just as they leaned on me.
In my gig at Kent State, we try to prepare PR professionals who get the business proposition. I discussed some of what we’re doing in a post I wrote yesterday, a post triggered by Amber’s. http://bit.ly/5GnJjE
In answer to Amber’s challenge, we’re doing a good bit to instill business knowledge and perspective in students. But yeah, we could do more. You always can. At the graduate level we are doing more, with a course dedicated entirely to the Financial Issue for PR, another focusing on Values & Ethics Management and one more in the works that focuses on monitoring and measurement. (We could use your thoughts on that one, Amber!)
But I’ll close this comment by taking the discussion on yet another detour for anyone so inclined.
Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to step away from the C-suite, take OFF your business hat, and do what I call “think outside the table.” In fact, I believe it’s one of the great values that public relations must bring to the business mix — a perspective from external publics.
If you’ve read this far and you’re intrigued, I’ll offer one more link. http://bit.ly/ofu5E
Amber, thanks for hosting an interesting discussion.
.-= Bill Sledzik´s last blog ..Stating the obvious? Professional communicators need business skills =-.
Since I’m one of 3 folks named specifically in the post, along with Meg and Kellye, I thought I’d best chime it and answer Amber’s challenge.
While it’s true I’m an experienced educator, I’m also an experienced PR professional who sat at a fair number of C-suite tables before coming to the classroom. I’m well versed in business processes, but I don’t believe it’s my job to become an expert in accounting, finance, HR or operations. I studied enough about each area to understand the client’s challenges and hold my own on the teams. But I leaned heavily on the experts around me, just as they leaned on me.
In my gig at Kent State, we try to prepare PR professionals who get the business proposition. I discussed some of what we’re doing in a post I wrote yesterday, a post triggered by Amber’s. http://bit.ly/5GnJjE
In answer to Amber’s challenge, we’re doing a good bit to instill business knowledge and perspective in students. But yeah, we could do more. You always can. At the graduate level we are doing more, with a course dedicated entirely to the Financial Issue for PR, another focusing on Values & Ethics Management and one more in the works that focuses on monitoring and measurement. (We could use your thoughts on that one, Amber!)
But I’ll close this comment by taking the discussion on yet another detour for anyone so inclined.
Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to step away from the C-suite, take OFF your business hat, and do what I call “think outside the table.” In fact, I believe it’s one of the great values that public relations must bring to the business mix — a perspective from external publics.
If you’ve read this far and you’re intrigued, I’ll offer one more link. http://bit.ly/ofu5E
Amber, thanks for hosting an interesting discussion.
.-= Bill Sledzik´s last blog ..Stating the obvious? Professional communicators need business skills =-.
The conversation seems to have digressed from Amber’s original point. It seems to now be about the value of learning and whether we ought to learn more about more things. But the original gist – that those of us who do social media have to get closer to the business – is sooo true. It’s true about all of us who work in the business world and support, drive, enable, nourish, facilitate but don’t necessarily participate directly in the revenue-generating profit-turning moments of that business. Lose site of this – and fail to understand the business it at some level and especially where your efforts fit into the big picture – and you risk being ignored or becoming irrelevant. In my experience, humility is the key.
The conversation seems to have digressed from Amber’s original point. It seems to now be about the value of learning and whether we ought to learn more about more things. But the original gist – that those of us who do social media have to get closer to the business – is sooo true. It’s true about all of us who work in the business world and support, drive, enable, nourish, facilitate but don’t necessarily participate directly in the revenue-generating profit-turning moments of that business. Lose site of this – and fail to understand the business it at some level and especially where your efforts fit into the big picture – and you risk being ignored or becoming irrelevant. In my experience, humility is the key.
Amber,
i have a few confessions.
first, I dont usually have time to keep updated on your blog, and often i skip most of the comments so Please forgive me if this point has already been addressed.
I agree about examining the business skills.
I just have a hard time believing the large enterprise model of business you most frequently address here is that great a model of effeciency.
If an enterprise has 1/2 dozen staffers and 5 or six figures $ a year to “invest in social media” then in my book, they are more “corporate media” than ” social media”.
They may have similar intentions, similar tools but they probably dont usually share the stealthy, frugal, truly ROI driven mindset that a smaller , hungrier, entrepreneur operates from. I personally think a streamlined, agile approach can be more effective and simpler to profit.
I wonder how many of the self proclaimed social media managers ever had to justify their time and expense to a crew of employees (and their families) waiting on a weekly payroll, a landlord demanding shop rent, or to a crowd of customers waiting for the job to be completely done for a contract to be paid and closed.
In regards to your your point and challenge that we examine and improve our own business skills,I’ll admit i have a lot of work to do improving my own time management, delegation and team management skills to really optimize my business.
Hiring, focus and leadership are where I’m disciplined to constantly improve.
p.s. maybe I could use some work on being more concise, and not being so repetitious or repeating myself too. 😉
thanks and take care
bry
.-= Bryan´s last blog ..“Simple formula” how to make More Money PPC split testing =-.
Amber,
i have a few confessions.
first, I dont usually have time to keep updated on your blog, and often i skip most of the comments so Please forgive me if this point has already been addressed.
I agree about examining the business skills.
I just have a hard time believing the large enterprise model of business you most frequently address here is that great a model of effeciency.
If an enterprise has 1/2 dozen staffers and 5 or six figures $ a year to “invest in social media” then in my book, they are more “corporate media” than ” social media”.
They may have similar intentions, similar tools but they probably dont usually share the stealthy, frugal, truly ROI driven mindset that a smaller , hungrier, entrepreneur operates from. I personally think a streamlined, agile approach can be more effective and simpler to profit.
I wonder how many of the self proclaimed social media managers ever had to justify their time and expense to a crew of employees (and their families) waiting on a weekly payroll, a landlord demanding shop rent, or to a crowd of customers waiting for the job to be completely done for a contract to be paid and closed.
In regards to your your point and challenge that we examine and improve our own business skills,I’ll admit i have a lot of work to do improving my own time management, delegation and team management skills to really optimize my business.
Hiring, focus and leadership are where I’m disciplined to constantly improve.
p.s. maybe I could use some work on being more concise, and not being so repetitious or repeating myself too. 😉
thanks and take care
bry
.-= Bryan´s last blog ..“Simple formula” how to make More Money PPC split testing =-.
Hey Amber,
apologies in advance if this has already been mentioned (I would lose what little eye sight I have left if I tried to read them all on my phone.
So I have another hypothesis. I too have a bit of a pet peeve as well about the “great post” comments. It hits me in the same way the “thank you” return email does. The only difference is that those emails don’t influence google rankings and other SEO algorthms. Comments, especially early ones do. So, I’m wondering how many of your “Amen” posters know exactly what they’re doing.
No offense or to anyone. Just another possible take.
.-= Barry Dalton´s last blog ..Want to Improve Customer Service? Your Staff Wants to Help – Really. =-.
Hey Amber,
apologies in advance if this has already been mentioned (I would lose what little eye sight I have left if I tried to read them all on my phone.
So I have another hypothesis. I too have a bit of a pet peeve as well about the “great post” comments. It hits me in the same way the “thank you” return email does. The only difference is that those emails don’t influence google rankings and other SEO algorthms. Comments, especially early ones do. So, I’m wondering how many of your “Amen” posters know exactly what they’re doing.
No offense or to anyone. Just another possible take.
.-= Barry Dalton´s last blog ..Want to Improve Customer Service? Your Staff Wants to Help – Really. =-.
Wow, I’m late to this, but wanted to chime in on this interesting discussion. First, a thanks for the shoutout and — in the spirit of this post — I’d like to point out that in addition to the financial modeling you mentioned, I know next to nothing about Internet marketing and email marketing. But I’m trying to learn.
Regarding the “yes, yes” nature of the comments, I understand the annoyance but I believe certain posts elicit that kind of response. For example, if someone wrote a post that said “dogs are cute,” lots of people would respond and say “yes they are!” People who don’t think dogs are cute would probably avoid the post/comments all together. I mean, is anyone actually going to come on this blog and argue that business skills are *not* important?
I also respectfully disagree with Justin’s comment — most people I encounter are participating in social media primarily to learn. Many of us are driven by the fun and camaraderie of finding and sharing info, and I think inherent in that is an admission that we don’t know everything. And thank goodness! Wouldn’t life be boring if there was nothing left to learn?
.-= Kellye Crane´s last blog ..Is a Business Coach for You? =-.
Wow, I’m late to this, but wanted to chime in on this interesting discussion. First, a thanks for the shoutout and — in the spirit of this post — I’d like to point out that in addition to the financial modeling you mentioned, I know next to nothing about Internet marketing and email marketing. But I’m trying to learn.
Regarding the “yes, yes” nature of the comments, I understand the annoyance but I believe certain posts elicit that kind of response. For example, if someone wrote a post that said “dogs are cute,” lots of people would respond and say “yes they are!” People who don’t think dogs are cute would probably avoid the post/comments all together. I mean, is anyone actually going to come on this blog and argue that business skills are *not* important?
I also respectfully disagree with Justin’s comment — most people I encounter are participating in social media primarily to learn. Many of us are driven by the fun and camaraderie of finding and sharing info, and I think inherent in that is an admission that we don’t know everything. And thank goodness! Wouldn’t life be boring if there was nothing left to learn?
.-= Kellye Crane´s last blog ..Is a Business Coach for You? =-.
OK, so you asked not to just say “Yeah” or “Nay”…so I’ve blogged about it. I agree with you on the entire article. We try and look every day at what we can do to work smarter, not harder. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. I admittedly am a control freak and have issues giving up control of things I know I do well. We work through it and sometimes the solution is right in front of us. It’s usually a person who brings a whole new facet to the company.
Here’s the link to my blog post: http://graphxevolution.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/just-admit-it/
OK, so you asked not to just say “Yeah” or “Nay”…so I’ve blogged about it. I agree with you on the entire article. We try and look every day at what we can do to work smarter, not harder. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. I admittedly am a control freak and have issues giving up control of things I know I do well. We work through it and sometimes the solution is right in front of us. It’s usually a person who brings a whole new facet to the company.
Here’s the link to my blog post: http://graphxevolution.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/just-admit-it/