We have all been there. I hope this audio will encourage you and give you a possible perspective you haven’t considered before.

Let me know what you think.

Why Suffer

Bob H

For a long time there has been a deserved suspicion about the dulling affect that over-consumption of entertainment media can have on mental skills. Television addicts can become mind numbed couch potatoes, etc. and never again have an original thought. Similar concern arose from teachers and parents of children who seemed addicted to hand-held gaming devices.  So in turn one might judge too quickly that the tsunamic spread of social media across the face of social culture will quickly dull overall social awareness and weaken social skills to the admittedly shallow levels one typical reads in social media posts.  It is more likely that social media participants are merely enjoying greater opportunity to sharpen the social awareness and skills they have. Granted the content of a majority of social media postings are brief and often meaningless to all but a few intended readers.  Most of the connections made are shallower than the more romantic days of hand written letters. Tweets are never likely to compare in richness with Sonnets From the Portuguese. And perhaps the high and still growing dependence on communications technology makes familiarity with finer verse less likely. But rather than dulling users, social media is actually making users more socially sensitive. A different kind of social sophistication is emerging, which we must understand is the true source of social media’s power to influence buyers and sellers. What is becoming sharper is grassroots attentiveness to the minds and lives of others. Under the shear culture changing pressure of growing social media proficiency and the long nurtured hunger to connect we are beginning to relearn to let others into areas of our lives we closed off before. This most intimate aspect is happening more slowly. But I can say that now I know more about the daily lives, struggles, likes and dislikes, hopes, and health of people I haven’t seen in many years than I used to know about my immediate family. I frequently hear this same general sentiment expressed by others. This is happening because people are eager to share their lives. This impulse to share is the core energy of the Recommendation Age. Everything is personal now and people are loving it.

Without being particularly computer savvy or, for that matter, over the age of 10, we can today:

• Tell Pizza Hut how quickly our order got to the door – and how it tasted once it got there
• Tweet about that convertible we just rented, before the top is even down
• Review a movie, during the movie
• Tweet a picture of an actual fast food burger side-by-side with how the same meal looks in the ad
• Share hilarious photos of folks we just saw shopping at Wal-mart
• Become “friends” with our favorite author, TV or movie star, musician or sparkly vampire on Facebook

What started as a few simple comment, feedback or review forms on the Web’s most popular website soon grew into an online obsession. This culture of feedback has spawned the Recommendation Age, and it’s here to stay.

The information age and the Internet have overwhelmed people to the point that we are now more interested in connecting and making real interactions with peers, family, friends, and people with similar tastes and interests than we are in being “told” what’s hot, what’s not – and why. Where we used to search the Internet, now we listen to it; constantly seeking the advice, support and unvarnished – often unedited – views of others to help counsel our most basic decision-making processes.

This shift has also heavily influenced how people shop, research and find information about various topics. For the first time ever, Facebook now refers more traffic than Google. We are now most interested in what others are saying about the product, service, or place than we are what the source of those products are saying.

In other words, we don’t trust big corporations or, for that matter, their advertisements, product placement or paid testimonials to sway us one way or another. We’ll decide for ourselves if Domino’s crust is actually any better now than it was 10 years ago, thanks very much. We’ll go see your movie based on the recommendations of friends or our favorite bloggers, regardless of how many five-star reviews the movie poster features. And if we decide your latest bestseller isn’t up to snuff, it probably won’t remain a bestseller for very much longer.

We can read an excerpt of a book online – posted by a rabid fan – and download it instantly, without waiting for shipping or going to the store. We can pick and choose our own album tracks, downloading our favorite songs based on personal preference or the recommendation of a “dream playlist” from our favorite blog, versus the 10 that are prepackaged in album form.

In short, the days of the media’s power over unwary, unsuspecting and unsophisticated consumers are drawing to a close. Traditional media is fading fast, witnessed by the “death” of many print magazines and the decimation of hundreds of print newspaper positions, and the new “social” media is making “recommenders” of us all.

This is understandable. As businesspeople, we work hard to capture our message; it’s valuable work that can only be done by internal employees who know our culture, our co-workers and our CEO. But the very insider nature of our mission statements and corporate copy can sound exclusive and clique-y to our customers.
They often don’t get the inside jokes, the clever language, the puns, metaphors or similes that we worked so hard on – for so long. If customers don’t get your copy, if it doesn’t speak in their language, you might as well not write it. And copy that only works for you simply doesn’t work!

The trick is to seek comfort where you’re not comfortable, which is usually in your target audience’s shoes. Let’s say you’ve never knitted a day in your life, secretly make fun of knitters behind their backs, talk down to them in their presence and generally just “don’t get this whole knitting thing,” but are suddenly put in charge of producing a new line of do-it-yourself manuals for, of all things, knitters.

Well, unless you get out of your knitter-doubting comfort zone but quick, your future customers will pick up on your thin knitter knowledge – but quick. The best way to do this is to switch off the comfort and welcome the uncomfortable. Immerse yourself in the world of knitting to the point that you are absolutely obnoxious about it. But you can’t just fake it; you have to open yourself up to it.

This is literally the biggest step one can take in measuring the distance between you and your audience. This is your straight line to the audience you’re targeting – and if you can’t feel comfortable in this niche, they’ll never feel comfortable buying it.

Go here to learn more and sign up!!

http://buzzsquared.com/social-media-makeover-giveaway/

So I am doing my morning run and listening to Mute Math’s Typical on my ipod. I had heard the lyrics many times, but never really HEARD them, if you know what I mean. There is a line in the song where he says  ”Can I break the spell of the typical?” I found myself pondering that line for several minutes after the song was over. As I look around the world today and listen to the news (which is rarely), I can’t help but feel that most of us are under the spell of the typical. Typical attitudes, typical view on life, typical responses, typical fears, etc.

But maybe, just maybe, the sky isn’t falling. Maybe we are all going to be ok. Maybe there is another side to the story. And it might even be possible that ‘the economy’ is not to blame for your problems and concerns. Is it typical to believe so? Yep, sure is. Especially when you are hearing it screamed at you 24 hours a day. It’s easy to start believing it. 

Now I am not denying that there are some economic issues going on in the world today. That is a fact. But it is also true that there have always been some economic issues somewhere at some point. 

For me, I am making a commitment to try and break the spell of the typical. I am turning off the radio and television news, and filling my mind with positive news, and things that will help me grow my business, encourage my family, and make a difference in the world. Why not join me?

I leave you with this one last thought…

 Foxy Loxy:   “How do you know the sky is falling?”

Chicken Little:   “I saw it with  my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!”

Foxy Loxy:    “I see.  Well then, follow me, and I’ll show you the way to the king.”

Narrator:    So Foxy Loxy led Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, and Turkey Lurkey across a field and through the woods.  He led them straight to his den, and they never saw the king to tell him that  the sky is falling.