marketing Archives - Page 7 of 41 by Mark Murnahan

Can You Value Each Blog Post at $10,000?

It takes less than a single minute to find somebody willing to write a blog for under $10 per article. There are thousands of writers begging for business. Not unlike the phenomena that anybody with a camera can be a photographer, it seems that anybody with a computer is an eloquent writer. That’s fine, but with such a low cost to have a blog, it is easy to confuse cost with value.

What is the value of a blog article? There are obviously some variables, right? Do you know the variables, and do you value them appropriately? Some important considerations are the time or money to produce the article, its usefulness to the public, the accuracy and experience of the writer, and the longevity of its circulation. These are easy factors for many people to overlook, and can inspire a lot of confusion about the value of a blog.

When you consider your business efforts, we can all surely agree it is important to stop doing things that do not benefit the company. Doing things that cost the company more than they benefit the company is popular, and we see it every day. When done in enough volume, that kind of math will break even the biggest bank account.

Whether the benefit you seek from a blog is improved customer relations, brand awareness, attracting investors, increased sales, or otherwise; if you spend more money on blogging than its potential benefit, then it is time to stop it! This means blogging is worth some evaluation and serious consideration of the downsides, weighed with the potential benefits. Many companies fail to consider the benefits, and so there should be little wonder why some companies still do not have a blog.

I have written about good reasons to blog, and it is not filled with a bunch of talk about making money, but it does address the importance of value. Many bloggers will agree that it is important to give more value than we take. That absolutely does not mean to imply we should give more value than we receive … and there is the confusing part.

Providing more value than you take is just as simple as providing value. If somebody receives benefit from it, and you have not taken anything from them, except perhaps an email address, you have met this value objective. You gave more than you took, as it should be. At the same time, you have added potential for your own benefit. At least it should happen that way.

Value of a Blog Article From a Longevity Perspective

Many of the best blog articles remain useful for years, and it is why smart bloggers keep them around in a blog archive. Some people like to assume the latest is the greatest, but this is very often not the case at all.

I spend a lot of time preparing each of my blog articles, but I also expect them to perform very well for a long time. It would be easier to just whip out my thought of the moment and keep my fingers crossed, but that would not be worth as much to others, or to me.

I value the average article on my blog at over $10,000. This may sound totally absurd to some people, but only on the surface. If you look a little closer, it makes sense. Of course, the exact amount is between me, some taxation fellas, and my wife. The exact dollar value I place on a blog post is irrelevant for this example, but I’ll explain.

I should add that this is about business blogs, and not blogs about where your family spent their holiday. This is also about blogs, like most, that do not charge a subscription fee.

This subscription is free, so feel welcome to subscribe before you forget.

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In my instance, the math is easier, because I have been here on this Internet a long time, but each of us must begin somewhere. On this particular blog, this is the 77th article I have written in 2011, and the 334th since I re-purposed it in 2008. If I did not believe what I have written in 2011 is worth a minimum return of $770,000 ($10,000 each), I would not have done it. It took a lot of effort, a lot of time, and a lot of experience.

Here’s the part where people often get confused: That’s not just to say these 77 articles of 2011 will yield an immediate return on investment of $770,000 … but they will.

Consider how I look at this. There is an article I wrote about H1 tags on another of my websites. H1 tags are in the programming code of a website, and they are a web page heading. The topic relates directly to my industry, and most people who search for and find that article have an actual need for my services. That particular article has been there for over 10 years, and still consistently receives over 2,000 unique visitors per month from search engines.

Another instance is a little piece I wrote about screen resolution. I wrote an article explaining screen resolution, and also a handy javascript to help users open their website in a browser at different sizes to see how it may look to others. That particular piece receives well over 3,000 visitors per month … every month … for over ten years!

In a more recent instance, I wrote an article titled “How Much Does SEO Cost?” is The Wrong Question. I wrote that one in February 2011, and in the past week alone, I have received enough telephone calls from people who found that article by searching “how much does SEO cost” that I wrote new business proposals totaling over $50,000. Yes, just as a direct result of that single article … this week alone.

These are just a tiny sample to consider, but what about the many other hundreds like them which support them? They are not so shabby either, and each one provides value to readers, and also returns a value to me. Looking at it like this, doesn’t it begin to make sense what the value of an article may become, over time?

I count on each and every article on my blog to return its cost in multiples, and they do. Sometimes the exact dollar value is not obvious at the time you publish something, but if you are doing it well, the value will become clear, in time.

To answer my opening question of “Can You Value Each Blog Post at $10,000?”, my answer is yes! I believe you can, too, if you give it the appropriate effort, usefulness, and longevity.

Blogs Provide Compounded Value

We surely all heard how popular the Internet has become. When it comes to blogging, there is value on top of value. Aside from the value to me as a blog owner, the value to any given subscriber is often far greater than $10,000 if they implement the experience I share freely … even if they don’t pay me a penny. I feel really good about that!

Although many businesses may think of blogs as a burden, or that they must only be for purely altruistic purposes, they are an excellent source of additional business. This holds true for nearly any type of industry. For example, in my job role, this blog is the primary way people get to know what I do, and to discover if they want to hire my services.

Some people who believe that blogs are only for giving away free information and that nobody ever actually receives any business benefit from them may hate me for valuing this article at over $10,000. Some may even think I am evil or conniving for seeking a profit from my hard work. In their mind, it should just be about providing information for free … you know, like it’s a hobby.

I believe in giving away a lot for free, but the fact is that most people cannot implement everything I know by themselves. After all, I do this professionally, day in and day out, and I have done so for many years. Some of those few who do not know everything there is to know about online marketing call me to help them. The value to me of that minuscule few who do become customers is more than $10,000 per instance. So, again … my answer is an emphatic “Yes!”

What about you? Do you think a blog is an altruistic burden? How do you value a blog article? Go ahead … add your thoughts to my blog.

Paradigm Shifting, Initial Perceptions, and Marketing Communication

Paradigms change when we look at things from a different perspective. We often sincerely believe something from one perspective, but when we view it from another angle, our beliefs can change. It changes how we think, and how we react to something.

What some people call “magic” is based on this same principle. Once you understand an illusionist’s “trick”, your paradigm shifts, and you will likely never see that trick the same way again.

A paradigm shift can be explained with many examples, and I want to share a deeply meaningful example which occurred this weekend with my family.

I do not enjoy negative drama, or sharing bad news. I like my life to be very peaceful, and with a positive and inspiring outlook. In fact, some have even expressed a sense of awe by just how seasoned I am to overcoming adversity and seeing the bright side of tragedy. From my perspective, delusion is a skill, and not a deficit.

With that said, I am still going to share this with you as an example of looking at things differently. On the other end of this story, I will try to share a positive outlook, but for a moment, I will sink to the dregs of my own emotion, and perhaps yours.

My Weekend Family Getaway is Teaching a Lesson

Last weekend was one that will have a haunting affect on my family, perhaps for a long time. It has caused a paradigm-shift in multiple ways.

My wife, Peggy, made plans for our family to have a great weekend. She is a fantastic planner, and we were all very excited to attend the Kansas City Air Expo. She planned this day-trip getaway long ago, and our excitement peaked as we saw the first precision aerobatics act soar into the heavens.

Our oldest son, Simon (8), is very interested in aeronautics, and has become like a youth encyclopedia of aircraft. Incidentally, his interest has been shared by his little sister, Madeline (6), and brother, Jack Walden (2). Of course, being doting parents, our interests have also been piqued by our children’s passions, and our knowledge has grown accordingly.

The air show was impressive. We got to see a lot of interesting aircraft, inside and out. One of our favorites is the A-10 Thunderbolt II, also known as “Warthog”. We got to hold a simulated version of the depleted uranium munitions that the Warthog fires at the astonishing rate of 4,200 per minute. We didn’t even mind the passing rain showers, because we got to eat lunch under the wing of a Warthog. That was the perspective we chose.

We were having a nice time, just being together, and out of our normal workday routines. It was a very welcome break.

Duck or Rabbit? It depends on how you look at it.

What Shifted Our Paradigm?

At approximately 1:45 in the afternoon, things changed. While watching an astonishing flight by pilot Bryan Jensen, our family was instantly shaken as Jensen’s plane became uncontrollable and he crashed into the ground.

This single moment changed many perceptions for us. We encountered a swift rush of emotions, and they continued to change throughout the day. Our immediate reaction was that of grave concern for the pilot. Although we now realize that any chance for Mr. Jensen’s survival was extraordinarily slim, we clung to fleeting hopes for his rescue.

Later in the day, we discussed it from a perspective of my racing, and how Peggy would deal with this if it had been me at a race track. From that perspective, I explained how it feels to be in a high-adrenaline moment of danger, and that Bryan Jensen likely maintained exceptional control and a lack of panic to the very end. Time slows down in moments like this, and for trained professionals, there is a surprising reaction of calmness and ability to maintain control. Knowing what I know from high performance driving gave us each some peace of mind. Knowing that he also died doing something he was very passionate about made it easier to accept.

Yes, I Know Danger, Too. This is Me After Braking From 165 MPH.

Our opinions and points of view changed repeatedly, and were shifted from one extreme to another. One very difficult perspective beyond our feelings for Jensen’s friends, family, and others came as I read comments on the YouTube video I uploaded, which included the crash. The user comments inspired anger, compassion, sadness, and more. It became a very confusing mix of feelings. With over 10,000 views within the first 24 hours, there was sure to be many expressed perspectives from one end of the human spectrum to the other, with each having an impact on my own perspective.

There were vulgar comments including everything from teasing my son who immediately just wanted to go straight home where he could feel safe and cry, to saying that a crash is why people go to air shows. Others were frustrated, as I was, that the rescue crews were very slow to arrive on scene … too slow for a race track, a concert, a county fair, and certainly too slow for an air show at an airport.

I normally just moderate comments on YouTube and on my blog after they are made, but after more than a hundred crude and inhumane comments, I set it to require my approval. I didn’t take this lightly, but after some of them truly made my stomach hurt, I decided I had enough of that raw human experience. I was noticing a sense of really looking at humanity differently than I like to, and being reminded that most people simply are not like me … not like me at all.

Perceptions Depend on Perspective

Something that was striking about the comments to this video was their given perspectives. As I read through each comment on YouTube, and in my initial blog post, I found that many pilots, aeronautics fans, event promoters, and others agreed with my view, and were appalled by the response time of the fire crew. After all, there was an economy car, an SUV, a pickup, and an ATV at the crash site, each long before the first fire truck entered the runway. On the opposite side, I found that there were many emergency response personnel including a high number of EMT (emergency medical technicians) who were angry that I criticized the response time.

This showed a very strong two-sided view of the incident, with one side like mine who count on emergency workers, and the other side who took a defensive viewpoint.

In the end, some people may say that my initial reaction of horror was negative toward the emergency response. Others will see that my response was very positive, because even against all odds, it was my reaction to put out the fire and try to save a life. Following that, I knew that the next objective was to preserve evidence in order that a future life may be saved.

The reality of the whole thing is that it came down to perspective. My son, Simon, just wanted to go home and feel something different. I wanted to get somebody there to preserve any hope for life, and to not look back and wonder “what if?” Not just for me, and not just for my family, but for Jensen’s family, friends, onlookers, and anybody who may find themselves feeling less secure at an airport.

Sure, you can say that it was not a commercial flight, and that only one life was at risk, but would the response have been any faster if the plane had crashed into the crowd? Would it look differently if that flight had 200 people on board? These are the questions I pondered.

The Positive Side of Marketing Communications

A positive side to the topic of paradigm shifting is that we each have a chance to change our own perspective, and even that of others. Depending upon how we choose to view things, we can see it as a rainy day at a family outing, or a chance to eat lunch under the wing of a Warthog. In marketing, it is our objective to understand how to help others with a new view of something.

We can choose to see a criticism of the fire crew’s response time as being a negative view toward them, or as positive for the desire to save a life against all odds.

We each have many chances to change our perception each and every day. We also have the same opportunities to help mold others’ perception. This is a marketing blog that teaches people how to create positive results for their companies, and improve their consumers’ perceptions. Others will see marketing as an evil plot to deceive people and get them to spend more money on something they don’t really need or want.

I see marketing as the difference between a company laying off employees, or becoming successful. I see marketing as the reason I have been able to discover the many things I enjoy in my life. Others will see marketing as the reason they made bad decisions and spent more than they could afford.

Many matters in life change depending on perspective. The perspective you use to base your own decisions, and the perspective you deliver to help mold the perception of others will each be huge factors in your success or failure.

Now, I want to ask you for your perspective. Do you view things from multiple perspectives? Do you realize how your communications can change the views of others? Go ahead and add your comments.

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Strategic Marketing Failure: Are You Giving it Up Too Easy?

Good sense tells us to not give it all away upfront. If you kiss on the first date, anticipation often fades, and there may never be a second date. It may get you into their fantasies, or even into their bed, but this will seldom get you into their hearts, where trust and loyalty thrive. I find it easy to apply this to concepts of marketing.

I really believe in giving away a lot of great ideas for free. Sharing useful thought is one of the best reasons to blog. In fact, there should be little wonder why some of the most popular blogs are popular. It is because they are giving away great information that people want.

A free sample is great, but can it go too far? I believe it can, and I think it is likely why there are so many people like my example of “Pete and The Amazing Pee-Pants Pizza Parlor” in my recent article titled “Marketing Clients vs. Crybaby Sissy Bed-Wetters“ who think marketing should be cheap … or free … and easy.

The concern of giving away too much information for free is not limited to my field of marketing. There are a good number of idea-based and information-focused industries where there is a legitimate need to balance enough information to show credibility without inspiring people to do it themselves or shop for a “cheaper” option. Of course, there is always somebody to do it cheaper, but shoppers often forget there is a difference between good and bad in any industry.

There is a line to be drawn between sharing concepts, and giving away the things which should and must be paid for. It is a blurry line for some people. Of course it is very blurry from the client side, but I also find it to be blurry for people on the selling side.

People Understand Value of Items … But Ignore the Value of Information

Information is one of the most valued assets to a company. So how can it be so easy for people to neglect this fact from a buyer’s perspective?

I think of it along the lines of a recent freebie I received from Subway. Subway sent me a $10 gift card to try out their new pulled pork sub. When I used that freebie, I bought more than $10 from them. I’ll go back, too. It was a freebie associated with a promotion through Klout, a company I wrote about recently, and it gave me incentive to walk through Subway’s door, become a more active customer, and potentially bring others.

Since they are giving away tangible goods with a defined cost, people understand they cannot just give away the whole restaurant. When the freebie is something that comes right out of somebody’s thoughts or research, there is a common perception that it does not still have a cost. I guess you could think that way, but when my three kids get hungry because Daddy gave away the whole restaurant, I am inclined to disagree. There is a cost, and there is a point when you have to stop giving everything away. I know that point, and I intend to illustrate it.

Try Asking Somebody Close Enough to Know

When I recently asked my wife for her opinion of a project I am strongly interested in, she said something I guess I should have expected. Her chilling words were “You know the routine, Mark. You give people enough information that they think they know all they need to go shopping for somebody to do it cheaper.”

Of course, I stammer to inject the notion “but they cannot implement it like I can, and they can’t make a meal from a free sample of caviar.” Yes, and I can make that argument until I am blue in the face and holding my breath for the next soul-sucking chance to send another great marketing client to the wolves for a price comparison. It does not change the facts.

You see, I am literally the guy rocket scientists ask when they need a better strategy. They are in an industry that sells flights for over 200 million dollars per seat, and mistakes in their industry are expensive. These are bright people, but social media strategy is not their area of expertise. If I give them a big hunk of brain candy to munch on, it is easy for them to imagine that mister “SuperheroUnderpants” marketing guru in his mom’s basement can do the same job by promoting them on his MySpaceyTwitterBook.

The reality is that far too many of the people I share my brain-samples with use what I give them and go shopping for price. Sure, I can resent that, but it is my own fault. I kiss on the first date, like a sophomore girl hoping to be loved. Actually, I think I do worse than that … I get naked for the whole football team to come and enjoy. I do it all the time, but I am a lot better about it than I used to be. These days, I at least get them to buy me dinner and a movie before I strip myself naked.

I Hate Marketing Marketing!

I love marketing, but I hate selling the services of marketing. I am over-the-top, and almost autistically good at marketing “something else”. I can prove it, and I have earned millions of dollars because of it, but asking me to sell it is like asking to borrow a couple of my teeth.

Yes, marketing is awesome fun, but it feels like a daily trip to the dentist for a colonoscopy to promote and sell it. This is why I have often explained that When I Go to Hell, They Will Have Me Selling SEO.

I can man-up enough to admit that it actually made my chest hurt as I internalized my wife’s insight, but not because it was insulting or untrue. It was very true, and she went on to remind me about other stunning examples when giving too much killed my hopes. It has not just happened once or twice, either. Somebody attempts to brain-rob me every day, but I stick up for myself these days. It is because I have learned the hard way, and forgone great projects and sent them to SuperheroUnderpants who will work for a case of Red Bull and a pirated copy of the next Nintendo game.

A True Story of Giving Too Much for Free

One such project was with a company where I really felt I belonged. I already felt an emotional attachment to the brand and the people. In fact, I was prepared to uproot my family and move to a different city for them. We were already shopping for schools and homes. I wrote about it in the article titled “99 Percent of Marketing Fails, But Eleanor Can Fly!“ and a follow-up titled “How Good SEO Becomes Great SEO: Feed the Gorillas!” It was the perfect scenario … or so it seemed.

Where the ugly part came in was after I returned from our meeting in Chicago where they had wanted me to bring my vision and build a new marketing crew for them. As I look back, I suspect that even before my plane landed, they were seeking somebody who would try and implement my ideas for a fraction of the salary. They found one, too … but wait for the real kicker!

That “somebody” totally destroyed the campaign, and in fact, destroyed it so badly that it is hard to even describe. Let me give you the quick version. They sent a $70,000 motorcycle and a $5,000 guitar on tour with a Grammy award winning band to promote a giveaway. It was to have a significant social media marketing push behind it, and the company said they were very dedicated to my ideas. They already had a significant investment leading up to it. How significant? They bought the company that made the motorcycle, because they thought it fit well with their brand … the brand that I was to build.

Now get this: By the time they gave away that $75,000 in prizes, their Twitter account had under 350 followers, their Facebook account had about the same, and their YouTube account did not have a single upload. Not one video of the band, the motorcycle, the fans, the guitar … nothing!

They failed, and I know, with mathematics and two decades of very successful experience on my side, that they caused their own demise. Although you could call me guilty for not explaining that great plans fail without implementation and the right crew, I don’t feel guilty. I just feel bad for giving too much for free.

Defining Free vs. Paid Knowledge

Each of us will have ways to define giving away “too much”, but here are a few of mine. I hope they will inspire you to think about yours.

First and foremost … a client only needs to know enough about me to realize that I have sufficient marketing creativity, experience, and talent to make them more successful. Period! If they are unwilling to consume enough of my freebies to realize these things, they will not be the kind of client I can work with, because they will second-guess my advice. That is a true recipe for failure, the likes of which I refuse to be a part of.

Another key is anybody indicating they are still shopping around for price. When that is the case, there are no freebies beyond my blog. If they are looking for price above value, they are not the paying type. Even if they pay, they will stand in their own way. They simply are not ready. They are the ones who search Google for “How much does SEO cost?” (where I am listed on the top), and then email me because they were too rushed to get numbers to actually read the correct answer. If they don’t hire me today, they will come back in a year or two, jaded by the failure I tried to warn them about. Both scenarios are like a bad case of herpes … I don’t put my love there!

If they say they are interested in meeting in person, that is not going to happen without their dollars. I don’t pack bags for free. If somebody needs to shake my hand, they need to pay me for it. They are a buyer, and I am not about to turn them into a looker. There is always a reason to ask me to meet with them, and it always involves custom brain-work. The custom stuff is never free.

I have a long list of things which define what is free versus paid, but I want to know what you think.

Should We Give Away Less Brainflow?

It really isn’t so different from the restaurant or sporting goods store giving away a freebie. It cannot all be free, or the company is not sustainable.

I will never stop giving away free ideas, but those are the ones like the $10 Subway gift card to bring buyers through the door. I give enough that people understand my knowledge, creativity, and credibility. I also do it for the people who need help, but cannot afford to hire my services, and I feel good about that, too. I believe in altruism, but I also recognize that even Mother Teresa, Ghandi, and others do things for well-intentioned but calculated reasons, and that altruism in its purest sense, is not what people told you.

I have learned the hard way. If you are giving away something better than the stuff other people are selling for money, you will damn yourself to lackluster clients if you cannot bring them to understand that there is a lot more where the freebies came from … and it’s for sale!

I know that I’m not alone in this battle. I’ve heard it from many respected others in my line of work. If you can relate to this, I want to hear your stories. I would also love to hear from you about where you draw the line between free ideas and the ideas you count on to buy your lunch.

If you are giving away too much, I’d also be curious to hear how your back feels after sleeping on the couch because you bought into the myth that information is “free”. I’m sleeping in the big bed tonight. Later sucker!

Photo Credit:
Birthday Present by Christopher Matson via Flickr

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Is Social Media Like Space Exploration?

Social Media and Space Exploration are Both Fascinating

Space has captivated mankind since our earliest days. We wonder what is up there beyond our reach, and it fascinates us. I have recently been thinking about how social media is a lot like space exploration. It holds a lot of mystery, and it inspires us to learn what is out there beyond our geographical confines.

Why do we constantly strive to understand the things we do not know? Can any of us adequately answer that question? I sincerely ask for your ideas and opinions on this. I think the simple answers are at our fingertips. It excites us to get our brain cells working, and to make something new and useful happen, but it goes much deeper than this.

Just think of all the great possibilities for us as we discover new things. When we stretch our imagination, we reach beyond our own current capabilities and it keeps us moving forward. The desire to learn about the things which are just beyond our grasp has inspired countless innovations to bring us closer. Those innovations include boats, trains, airplanes, cars, telephones, the Internet, and many more … even space ships.

Knowledge is Keeping Us Alive

It is easy to argue that striving to know more is what keeps us alive. As our planet’s population doubled from three billion in 1960 to over six billion just forty years later, our knowledge has grown with it. The knowledge did not just grow because we had more people, but because the ability to communicate and build upon their ideas grew.

With mankind’s growing knowledge came innovation, and it was based on necessity. Just between 1987 when the five billionth baby was born and their 12th birthday in 1999 when the six billionth was born, the need to keep up with growing demand for food, water, shelter, and distribution of goods created a huge burden.

It would be easy to look at a simpler time and say that we didn’t need all of this technology. Things used to look easier in some ways, and time seemed to move slower. Some will imagine it as an “easier” time, before modern technology, but when we look out across a crowd of over six billion people breeding faster and dying slower than ever before, we realize that it is too late to turn back now.

We may not all see it the same way, but one thing is clear … if we are to maintain what we have today, we must keep learning and progressing … we must innovate.

Learning, creating, and imagining new things has made it possible for us to sustain our planet at its current highest population ever. In another forty years, our population is expected to reach nine billion people … a full nine times Earth’s population 200 years ago.

Commitment to innovation is how we discovered even the most basic things which serve us every day, like fire, hammers, scissors, and that little clip on a bread bag that keeps the bread fresh. The human imagination and potential for innovation is amazing, but it holds little value if we don’t use it, and if we don’t maintain its momentum. Innovation is greatly improved when we involve others, and that is why we have “think tanks” and “incubators” for our best ideas, and our best thinkers.

I believe that the greatest think tank of all is social media. With social media, we can share our ideas with others, and allow them to help us mold them into something better.

Space Shuttle Atlantis at NASA Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A

How is Social Media Like Space Exploration?

The reason I’m thinking of space exploration today is because I was recently approached to define a social media strategy to help people understand the need for space exploration, and its benefits to innovation.

A remarkable parallel between social media and space exploration is that most people will agree that they both hold great value, but yet, lack the confidence to invest properly, and patience to maximize their respective benefits.

Creating confidence to invest is a big challenge. Times are tough, and people are afraid of their government defaulting, their money losing value, and their jobs dissolving into thin air. Why would taxpayers and business leaders spend money on such progressive research?

A similar argument came along with “The Human Genome Project“. That $800 billion project came with an answer for the people when studies showed a 141:1 ratio return on investment. That’s $141 dollars in additional economic activity for every government dollar invested. Try that with your mutual fund.

Many governments spend horribly. In fact, I think my own is among the very worst, in USA. I am not for big government in the least little way. Our government’s job is not to do our thinking and our bidding for us. It is our government’s job to foster a safe and organized society and get out of our way. At the same time, the decisions which affect our continued scientific exploration are often relegated to our governments. That is because it is often a part of providing that safety and organization which is their duty.

Knowledge Creates Economic Stability … Yes, Jobs!

Science serves to remind us that we don’t know how much we don’t know. Social media does the same.

Scientific study such as genomes and space exploration produce the information and engineering we need to maintain and improve our lives, and they also create huge numbers of jobs. Those jobs include engineers, laborers, office workers, teachers, builders, and so many others. Think of “The Butterfly Effect” to imagine the diversity of jobs and other related benefits to the scientific study of space.

I have asked a few friends how they believe the aerospace industry has changed their lives and careers. Each of them could name at least a few ways it has made their lives better. It affects medicine, farming, fishing, alternative energy production, navigation, weather forecasting, and so much more … not the least of which is the transfer of information from one side of the world to the other, via satellite. Cardiac pacemakers, breast cancer screening, smoke detectors, cordless drills, and many other great things came from space exploration and related research. It reminds me that we are good at seeing the dots, but until we use systemic thinking we often cannot connect the dots between space and our daily lives.

Of the friends I have asked so far, not a single one was opposed to learning more about the real-world ways that the aerospace industry is helping to keep us safer, happier, and more economically stable. Fortunately, each of them also recognized that the matter of funding space programs is not a partisan effort with democrats against republicans. Both major political parties in America are largely in favor of continuing space exploration, but the people making policies and determining funding want to hear it from the people.

The space program in the United States used to be a matter of national pride, and as we sent men to the moon, the world cheered. Many people never realized the scientific and engineering leaps forward we made in the process. As the novelty of a moon landing wore off, a lot of people stopped following the progress of space exploration.

As I have asked around, I found that many people do not realize we have had successful landings on Mars since 1976 (Viking 1 and Viking 2) or that we have had humans manning a space station every night and day for over a decade, and why. Even fewer will realize the benefits of the 2012 launch of the most sophisticated Mars rover ever, or how close we are to sending a manned mission to Mars. Due to such a public loss of interest, only a very small group recognize the enormous technology, engineering, and economic impacts this science has right here on the ground.

The challenge I find most profound, as I consider how to present the benefits of social media to this organization, is to help them understand that like their own world of space exploration, without a commitment to research and testing, they will not know the answers. Until they know how to effectively define and present the benefits, those benefits do not exist in the minds of the people.

I feel like my job of explaining the benefits and complexities of social media are much like their challenges to explain space exploration. Many people are afraid of making an investment in what they do not understand. Tragically, they have a much easier time embracing that fear than recognizing the more logical concern of what happens if they do not.

In this particular case, thousands of jobs may be affected. NASA’s failure to abide by federal mandates to define and announce plans for future projects threatens to put thousands of people working for private industry out of work. If that happens and we scatter the most talented industry leaders to the wind, the loss of progress will be tragic. The social media effort to help people understand the risks at hand and force NASA to comply will not be easy. Inspiring 50,000 of them to write a letter to their representative in U.S. Congress within the next six months will be even harder.

I guess an old cliche that comes to mind with such a challenge can apply here. If we can put a man on the moon, we can do almost anything. Yes, we can put a man on the moon, but can we save the U.S. space program from continued downsizing? My challenge will be to explain the unknown benefits of social media to my prospective client, and then to help explain the unseen benefits of space exploration to the public.

Until recently, I never realized how similar the challenge would really be, or how similar social media is to space exploration. I look forward to that challenge.

My overriding concern is that if we fail to think big and act accordingly, we lose all hope of being excellent, and risk being mediocre. Once we become mediocre, the cost to regain our lost excellence is far greater than the foresight to become excellent in the first place.

What Do You Think?

I want to know what you think. Is space exploration and its related technology advancement still important? Can you see how it is kind of like social media in the sense of both being very useful if you can uncover their mysteries? Please share your thoughts with me. If you have any ideas on how I can better present the benefits of my role to educating more people on behalf of my prospective client, please share that, too.

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Social Media Self-Analysis: How Are You Being Influenced?

I think it is safe to say that some people are self-conscious when it comes to social media. After all, as an audience builds, it kind of takes on something not so different from public speaking. Many people are terrified of public speaking, and being on a stage where others can pick apart every nuance.

Scarier yet, social media is kind of like public speaking where everything you say is recorded so people can go back later and catch all of your screwups, point them out to others, and make a mockery of you.

Those public perceptions, especially the criticism, can change how you think, how you communicate, and how others will treat you. In fact, I believe that strong peer influences like this can create a profound impact for many people. Sometimes this is good, and sometimes it is bad.

I think it is also safe to say that there is another opposite end of this self-awareness spectrum where people have little or no consciousness at all. They really don’t care what others say, and they take little benefit from criticism or good advice. These are the people begging for you to follow them on Twitter, sending Facebook friend requests to everybody … from a business profile instead of a Facebook Page, and have an urgency to achieve over 500 connections on LinkedIn because if the profile says “500+” it will make them feel more important. They are the ones using tactics without a strategy, and may never understand the greater value of social media.

They don’t let criticism from others affect their actions, and they think it is all done in the name of marketing … which really irritates me. These are the people who will send you automated messages promoting their website that you have absolutely no interest in, and use their favorite keywords instead of a real name when they comment on your blog. It is almost creepy to even glorify it with a mention, but it has become a huge part of our online world.

Here are some examples of utter absurdities in social media that I have discussed, and I think each of them are worth a read. Other people thought so, too, and the reader comments are definitely worth attention.

Does Bad Influence Become More Acceptable En Masse?

We should question whether bad influence becomes more acceptable in large groups, or if it is just more tolerated. What we should be really clear about, though, is that it does not become more effective or useful.

Spam and other ineffective thinking is here to stay. As society has adopted social media as a preferred communication medium, we have each encountered even more spammers and atrocious thinkers than before. As social media begins to reflect an even more accurate cross-section of our world as a whole, the smaller thinkers and late thinkers come in greater abundance. A few will develop excellence, while the majority will try to slide by on the least possible effort. This is very well defined and quantified in the long-standing Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule.

This tends to affect us all, as we become more skeptical and we scrutinize things just a bit closer. Otherwise, in many cases, people just begin to believe whatever the masses (that 80 percent) tell them as they give up any “common sense” filter. After all, if the masses are saying that you need more Twitter followers, and you don’t already know any better … you must need more Twitter followers, right? It created a Twitter follower frenzy, and a similar frenzy is in place across other networks. It is absurd, but it is a strong reflection of where these people receive their influence.

As my father would sometimes question, “If everybody was jumping off a cliff without a parachute, would you jump, too?”

People Adapt to Their Surroundings

There is a whole lot of truth to judging people by the company they keep. I don’t care how hard you argue against this, it is a fact of life. If you spend enough time around people with a regional accent, you will likely develop an accent over time. If you consume bad information from small thinking people, you will begin to adapt to that, as well. People don’t even need to know the company you keep, because it is written all over you.

Fortunately, a similar type of influence occurs when you surround yourself with bigger thinkers, with better ideas. It is why some people try hard to leave a ghetto, while others settle in and join the gang.

I hesitate to imagine that the bad influences of social media are actually more influential than the more beneficial influences. However, what I can say for certain is that they are in much greater abundance, and can create a whole lot of noise.

The more tragic part yet is when the ones making the noise are the same ones I mentioned earlier that do not learn from criticism or good advice, because they don’t even hear it. It becomes a case of the blind leading the blind, and even helping to take away others’ vision.

Avoid Becoming a Schmuck!

Yes, I could rant on this kind of thing, but the question at hand is whether you give enough self-analysis to your online communications efforts. I think it is something valuable to consider, because it is what sets the tone of who you are, either as a person, or as a company.

Watching where you pick up your influence, and asking others’ opinions can be important to helping you avoid schmuckdom … or is it schmucknaciousness? It can also help you to avoid influencing others in a bad direction.

I was reminded of it today as I went through a list of new people following me on Twitter. I found myself making fast judgments about them, to decide if I should follow them back and get to know them. It all got me to wondering how I might look, on the surface, and before people get to know me. I was giving myself a cursory audit of sorts.

We often only have a brief moment to make an impression. I think it is important to be aware of those things we do which can tarnish that moment. It should not be so surprising that a lot of it can come from who we listen to and interact with.

I hope I have encouraged you to step back for a self-analysis. Try to imagine how others see you, and how much it is influenced by others. You may find that you are not making the best connections, or that you are accidentally imitating some of the wrong elements.

What do you think? Do you notice how the people around you affect how you think, and how you communicate?

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How is Social Media Like Space Exploration?

Knowledge Creates Economic Stability … Yes, Jobs!

What Do You Think?

Does Bad Influence Become More Acceptable En Masse?

People Adapt to Their Surroundings

Avoid Becoming a Schmuck!