people in the fog

Fog

A few weeks ago, my Personal Brand Manager Hajj Flemings ( http://twitter.com/hajjflemings ) asked a very profound question. Well at least TO ME it was profound, he asked...

"If you did not have Twitter, or Facebook, OR any social network for that matter, would you still have a solid personal brand?"

AT the exact same time, I was dealing with a personal "refinement" issue that I was weeding through and so with out a moment delay, I put this question to the test... I wanted to know what would happen if I stopped delivering content to the Social Networks that I belong to and concentrated more on the research and discovery side of what I do. WOULD my "followers" stop following me? WOULD my Facebook "friends" stop being my "friend"? Would people stop listening to me? 

What I discovered was indeed eye opening to ME. Key word here ... "Me". 

The first question that I had to tackle was this big "me" idea. If you noticed, the concerns I had about my social engagement, they all revolved around the sustainability of ME, and this is absolutely counter intuitive. Social Networking, and as it pertains to your brand, has nothing to do with YOU, BUT it does have everything to do with THEM - your friends, your followers. Social Media is a vehicle for exchange. It gives you, the Brand Champion, the ability to serve your audience in a very unique and profound way. AND this service should not be limited to the confines of the networks that you belong or contribute to, you should be producing some sort of tangible experience that fuels or "bolsters" your online engagement. May it be a book, a product, service, or brand that extends OUTSIDE of the online space, what you do off-line should be just as powerful and bold as your online experience... AND this leads me to the meat of what I want to share with you....

People in the fog...

When I was a kid, I can vividly remember going outside with my friend Kenny in the fog. Kenny and I were and ARE the best of friends, he is like a brother to me. When we would play in the fog, and Kenny would run off into it (the fog), I would be compelled to call his name, for the assurance that he was okay, that he was well, that he was there. The fog, played as a barrier between he and I, and at all cost I would not let the fog be a barrier to our play... Our engagement. AND when I would vanish into the fog Kenny would call my name, and he would instantly gain the assurance of me being there... In the fog, with him. This is social. This is connection.

Over the past two weeks I quickly realized that without continual engagement with my online audience, I am easily forgotten, I fall into the fog, out of site, out of mind. I contribute this idea to the fact that as a Designer, I am designing artifacts that in effect have a very limited reach. I need to be designing bigger, but that's a totally different idea all together. Fact is I have not built sustainable social connections...

Gulp.

I have not given enough, cared enough, NOR have I done enough to win a "yell" in the fog. The stark realization - IF I can go back to Hajj's original question... I would have to say...

No.

Right now, with the grace of a few, for the most part, my social network is "people in the fog". AND I am willing to bet that a bunch of your followers and "friends" are people in the fog too! Seth Godin says it this way...

"A lot of these fans followers are faux. Sunny day friends. In one experiment I did, 200,000 followers led to 25 clickthroughs. Ouch." ~Seth Godin ( http://sethgodin.com )

People in the fog...

Thought to take with you...

Give more "tangible stuff", write a book, a compelling essay, design something BIG, that has a little legacy tied to it. Care more, learn your followers, "friends", cause 100 to sound like 10,000, just takes a little yelling in the fog. Do more, go out of your way to let your followers, and "friends" KNOW they care, DO MORE!!