… you can’t make it drink.

Wrong.

You can, by putting salt in it’s oats!

The question is should I let the horse work it out for itself that it’s thirsty?

I think I should.

This has a lot do with Social Media, for some people they’re thirsty and others are not, and as Seth said yesterday in his blog “Being certain about how someone else feels or what motivates them is foolish.” and he’s right.

Evangelism. Works both ways – but as much as we need a dialogue and not a monologue “sh*tting” on people because they post something that you don’t agree with is terrible.

Penny’s (ecademy) blog yesterday was wonderful and exactly how she felt, and IMHO was exactly right. However, one line out of it was poignant “When I became Humane”.

To me being humane is being human, and humans like to talk and share (sadly they seem to enjoy killing as well, but I’m not interested in that.) Talking and sharing is social media.

Of old we did it via cave painting, chalk, books, radio, television,pens, sign language, signs even! Nowadays some of us have moved that need to interact onto the web, and it’s my view that the web world will dominate – this is obvious by the nature of the exponential rise in web use.

Therefore, I would put it to you that the reason that some people are frightened, don’t see the value or just want to dig their heels in when it comes to the web is not down to the lack of ability to converse, but down to: Fear of computing? Fear of time wasting? Fear of lack of control? Fear of change? For the most part there seems to be something stopping the use and to date no one has told me what that is.

Fear of computing: Firstly computers are stupid, they have bad design, unwieldy, and in the main too overpowered for what most users want or need. In the on-line social media world we work in the cloud not off a hard drive – so don’t be afraid of computers, if you can use a phone you can use social media.

Fear of time wasting: This is a excerpt from my blog the other day “R.I.P R.O.I in social media” – “I was once talking to a bunch of salesmen at an event, and I asked them “how many times do you speak to someone before you get the sale?” – “seven times” was the average answer. “So what were the other six visits for?” I asked, “so they could get to know you” was the reply.

So in essence the first six visits were there to form a social bond, which is no different to using the “on-line” methods. Interesting. Moreover, I would argue that the on-line method is cheaper both in time and finance – AND can be measured more easily.”

It would seem that time wasting already exists and quite a few humans are guilty of it – if we did a “time and motion” on all of us I’m sure it would throw up some surprise – but hey we’re human.

More people are communicating via on-line methods than are communicating via e-mail and yet we all use e-mail and no one complains. And we can measure this, we know this as fact – but we can only measure it because so many people are doing it already – so we should be able to take a crumb of comfort from that.

Fear of lack of control: You never had any in the first place, and even if you believe you did you don’t now, but then why would you want to control people – you should need to control yourself.

I believe that by first controlling yourself means that the need to control the outside world ceases. If someone “attacks” you for a bad product or service then it only raises one question: Did you do anything wrong? And the answer to that is either yes or no.

If the answer is yes then you have only yourself to blame BUT you can learn from it – and thats not a bad thing.

If the answer is no then you have a perfect opportunity to “defend” yourself thus making me, the reader, understand your side. This, in turn, helps me make better decisions and for that I could be thankful to you.

But to try and control the situation, so it gets covered up will not work. It may have worked in the past but no longer.

The web is transparent.

Fear of change: Alas no can get out of this one. We are in a world that is full of change and most of it is very needed. Forget social media for a second, The Web is as big a change now as much as the Industrial Revolution was back then. We can see it but we can only measure it with hindsight, but we have no choice but to embrace it.

So with this blog I have tried to point out where the water is from my opinion and I’ve not put salt in the oats. However, I’m thirsty. Is someone going to show me where to drink?

We’re all human and we all have “like minds” we’re not that different, lets start a conversation – no salt.

… and another thing I would add, to put salt in a horses oats would indicate a pre-meditated input via measuring. Therefore, bringing into question the morality of doing such – hhmm.

Original post can be found on socialmediagraffiti.com

Regards
N

   socialmediagraffiti.com
 

 

As I write this I’m cruising at an altitude 23K feet and at a speed of 427 mph, so you’ll forgive me if I say that I’m glad this machine does not turn off – well not right now anyway .

But the internet does not and, therefore, neither does the web – I would argue that the internet is the only machine man has ever built that has never broken down and never will because it can’t – and this is fundamental.

So based on that a few things have been whizzing through my mind whilst being horizontal in the sun with a few Mojito’s.

I’m on my way back from Malta after a good few days off and a few things have triggered some thought’s whilst I have been away.

Firstly I was getting told off for twittering and that I was on holiday and that I shouldn’t be engaged in work – I’m not sure what this means? "Twitter will still be there when you get back" they said, "I take it you have a floating lap-top" they concluded. I can understand that, when on holiday, you should refrain from work-orientated stuff, after all you are on holiday – but when has twitter ever been about work?

Surely twitter and/or social media/networks on the web are a means of having conversations: really it’s no different to a phone. When you’re on holiday do you stop using a phone? And yet a phone can be used for work and social activities, therefore, why not the web and it’s various tools?

I know that to some people that it is work, but in my mind that goes against the reason why we use it in the first place – as a means of conversation. To just think of it as work means that, by default, you are wanting to create solely work-related conversation, and I’m not convinced that that is the right reason. In my mind the dialogue should be a social one, hence social media, not work conversation media – bearing that in mind why wouldn’t I twitter whilst sitting on the beach?

… and before anyone say’s "you’re just trying to convince yourself Nick" ask yourself this "why would I need to?" – after all it’s my holiday.

… and that’s another thing.

Last week Google announced that it’s search engine will now include forum topics and answers in its search database – click here -. This is interesting, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, and this could have a lot to do with the advent of "real time", Google appears to be including the minutea. What I mean by this is "Forum data" – a huge data-bank of information/discussion/opinion and reasoning. Just think about all the topics of information there are hidden in the data-banks of forums – a real treasure chest of "stuff".

(Moreover, I think they are planning to start searching in the invaluable database of "real time" : real time meaning that enormous, and growing, pile of stuff from Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed. As we speak, Google offers up 31 billion searches per month from blogs and Websites in the main – how many more can we add to that if you include searches via "real time"? Also how much better would the results be?

My reason for bringing this up, after reading what Google was up to, was that, as some of you know we (Vanessa and I) run one of the busiest property forums in the UK at the moment Property Tribes and as forum owner’s we have had very strict guideline to how our forum is "led".

At this point I must say that the forum was started by me but I don’t own it, it’s the community that owns it, but as the "starter of the forum" I have to "moderate the forum" – on that note, I lead it with the web in mind and it’s future and how we should harness it.

On that subject, some "issues" have cropped up. In the main, and this is why I like forums, Google never forgets – and now it forgets less and less, so forums are great places to "show case" your ability both in method and product.

In the world of property, it’s fair to say that there are a number of, how shall we say, undesirables "schysters" maybe (I’m sure all industries have them). It is also true that they appear on forums, mainly to broadcast their product in a monologue diatribe, certainly not to engage in a dialogue. However, of late, we have seen increasing "angst" against these companies – and the noise level is increasing both in calm conversation as well as heated – it would seem, therefore, that the model they use is defunct (and in my mind always has been).

My point is this: on a number of occasions I have been threatened, by legal action, as the forum owner to remove such threads (this would be a great debate as another blog topic: Who do you go after the forum owner, the poster or the hosting company?)

Here’s the rub: Why would these companies want the thread removed – if they believe in their product, they should not need to.

By removing the thread you are forcing me (as the forum owner) to explain why I did it. Therefore, if I write "thread removed due to legal threats from blah blah blah" this is not sending a good message out about "blah blah blah". If the jungle drums are stating that "blah blah blah" is an untrustworthy company, and they are appearing on many forums and being commented on by many bitter people, then by forcibly removing the thread/s is/are causing even more havoc for them – and from what I can gather, it is.

Google never forgets and neither does its cache, so even removing the content does not rub it clean.

So it would seem that the web in it’s latest evolution can give us the ability to comment on "stuff" – in this instance someones product/service. Don’t you think that this is great for us all?

For the consumer it’s because we can make informed decisions on products and services that will not let us down. But also the companies that are on the receiving end of a "kicking" as it gives them the ability to "put things right" if they have nothing to hide from – and if they can’t it’s because their product was sh*te, so then there’s a lesson to all of us – don’t have sh*te products.

The web dictates transparency and no lawyer can over turn that one.

Most companies have a "bottom line" and so if they want their "bottom line" to improve then what they need to do is "get their ducks in a line" and "run this one up the flag pole" – don’t sell sh*ite (products or services).

By doing this you will improve you bottom line by not spending out on defending yourself as you won’t need to (you will be selling people what they need not what you want them to have). Also you will be able to embrace the web as you won’t need to control that either. The end result is you make more money, the customer gets satisfaction, no one needs to get threatened and I can advocate your product as a forum owner.

Quite simple really, the only ones that lose are the lawyers, so please forgive me if I don’t lose any sleep over that – the rest of us win.

As it happens, I advised the said company/s above to "get on the threads and tell engage with the community to resolve issues",  but it fell on deaf ears – or rather they fully understood what I was saying and thought they could control the situation by issuing threats but could not see the long term damage that they were causing for themselves.   I question who would buy a product from someone who has a history of legal threats, poor customer relations, and terrible word of mouth, backed up by a whole litany of on-line evidence.

You can’t turn off the internet.

Regards N

 

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