photo by ejhogbin

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don’t hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

(I’m typically not a fan of the small truths and folksy wisdom of people like Robert Fulghum, but I have to admit that there are worse things you could do in social media than follow his advice.)

Farra Trompeter at Big Duck has put together a pretty nifty, content-rich overview of how nonprofits can use social media to rethink the ways in which they communicate with their stakeholders and prospects. Check it out.

photo by creativecommoners

One of my favorite books on writing is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. In it, Anne Lamott writes:

Annie Dillard has said that day by day you have to give the work before you all the best stuff you have, not saving up for later projects. If you give freely, there will always be more. This is a radical proposition that runs so contrary to human nature, or at least to my nature, that I personally keep trying to find loopholes in it. But it is only when I go ahead and decide to shoot my literary, creative wad on a daily basis that I get any sense of full presence, of being Zorba the Greek at the keyboard. Otherwise I am a wired little rodent squirreling things away, hoarding and worrying about supply. Arthritis forms in my hands and in the hands my mind is using to shape things, in the hands of that creature in the cellar who wants and needs to use all of his favorite rags in the ragbag he works from.

You are going to have to give and give and give, or there’s no reason for you to be writing. You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and you are going to have to go on giving, and the giving is going to have to be its own reward. There is no cosmic importance to your getting something published, but there is in learning to be a giver.

Besides the fact that there really is no cosmic importance to getting something published when everyone is a publisher (certainly not the case when Lamott wrote those words 15 or so years ago), I’m struck by how aptly it describes what we experience every day in social media.

Giving is one of the great givens, a prerequisite for success in social media. Others expect you to give freely of your time, knowledge, expertise and advice, with no obvious expectation of return on your investment.

While Lamott may have been writing about the return one derives from investing oneself fully in her writing, she could just as easily have been talking about the investment you make in your social media efforts. We’ve seen time and again cases in which the investment of giving has paid rich dividends to the giver.

If there’s no reason to write other than to give and give and give, then I think much the same can be said for participating in social media. For many business folk this may be an alien concept, but for nonprofits it nicely complements our mission-driven, social-benefit, collaborative natures.

Learning to be a giver is one of the keys to social media success. Hoarding and worrying about supply simply lead to arthritis.

photo by vernalanemgmt

Sorry if that sounds like a cheap come-on, but I was intrigued by research I recently came across on how physical beauty involves more than good looks.

Three studies conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that people perceive physical beauty differently when looking at those they know versus strangers.

While there have been countless studies that focus on specific facial features, waist-to-hip ratios and other physical qualities that influence your perception of others’ beauty, these studies focused on how we might see physical beauty differently over time as we get to know a person’s other qualities.

In the first study, participants rated the physical attractiveness of people’s high school yearbook pictures (now there’s a scary thought). In the second, members of a college sports team and strangers rated team members. The last study asked students in a summer archaeological excavation course to rate one another both on the first day of class and again six weeks later.

“In each case, non-physical traits known only to familiars, such as how much the person was liked, respected and contributed to shared goals, had a large effect on the perception of physical attractiveness that was invisible to strangers,” said David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University and one of the researchers.

I think the implications for social media are pretty obvious. As researchers Wilson and Kevin Kniffin conclude in their paper on the studies, “If you want to enhance your physical attractiveness, become a valuable social partner.”

Personally, I’ve always preferred to be judged on the quality of my character rather than any physical traits. That’s why I use a profile shot that’s been deliberately uglified. For the curious, here’s what I really look like.

photo by lollyknit

I had planned to write about the importance of putting your best social media foot forward by being what I think of as your “true best self” when using online social networks. But apparently you are who you are, according to researchers at the University of Texas.

In a recent study of Facebook users, they found that profiles accurately represented users’ real-life personalities. In the New York Times article I read about the study, here’s the key takeaway for me:

Dr. Gosling said the findings suggested that online social networks could provide users with an opportunity for genuine social interactions.

“Is Facebook an opportunity to promote ourselves, a P.R. exercise? Or is it just another medium of social communication, like the telephone?” Dr. Gosling said. “This research suggests the latter. Young adults are using it as a way to communicate and leaving lots of clues about what they’re really like.”

Rather than looking to social media for its advertising potential (which I find one of the least interesting things about it), maybe we should focus more on captilizing on its amazing utility for linking, communicating, sharing, collaborating, etc. As for the marketeers among us, those “lots of clues” are a rich vein for data mining.

Seems to me that turning social media into just another megaphone is a criminal waste when you consider its potential.

photo by dvidshub

I usually don’t engage in the whole self-delusional New Year’s resolutions routine that we’re encouraged to torment ourselves with each year. If I see one more article on how I should lose weight/get in shape/find my dream date/dig out of debt/fix my finances/fix my relationships/get the job I’ve always dreamed of/score that promotion/start my own business/become the perfect person just dying to emerge from my current imperfect cocoon, all tied to the turning over of another year, I may just have to give up all forms of media, social and otherwise.

On the other hand …

This blog reaches its first anniversary in another month or two (I should probably figure that out), and I am reflecting on how to be a better person from a social media perspective.

Contrary to what you may have heard elsewhere, using social media to achieve your marketing or communication objectives is hard work. It may be relatively inexpensive, but it doesn’t come cheap. I’ve devoted much time and energy to this blog and Twitter in particular, less so to some of the other tools I use. I’ve received amazing encouragement and support from others whose own social media efforts continually astonish me. I’ve learned more about my craft and profession in the past year than at any other time I can remember. And I’m constantly reminded of all the things I don’t know. It’s exciting, intimidating and humbling, frequently at the same time. In case you haven’t figured it out, this is a friggin’ amazing time to be a marketing or communications professional.

If true expertise requires 10 years experience or 10,000 hours deliberate practice, then we all have a ways to go in our mastery of social media. Given the fluidity and moving-target nature of it, I suspect they may have to come up with a new measure for capturing true social media expertise, all the SM gurus, masters and other self-proclaimed prophets notwithstanding.

With all that said, here are my social media resolutions. I hope they spur some soul-searching in others who share my belief that self-improvement is good for the soul. Regardless, feel free to hold me to them.

1. Be more effective in my mission. Poke the Beehive’s stated mission is to provide effective writing and communication strategies for the communication-challenged. Looking back at a year’s worth of work, I think I’ve been uneven at best in achieving it. I need to either do a better job or rethink my mission. (Again, feel free to share your own thoughts on where you think I might take PtB.)
2. Be more conversational. I tend to focus on serving as a guide to what I consider to be great marketing and communications content out there, especially in my use of Twitter. But that can lead to a broadcasting model I have no wish to emulate. I’ve been extremely fortunate in connecting through this blog, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook in particular to an amazingly rich community of fellow marketing and nonprofit professionals. I need to take greater advantage of being part of that community and engage in more conversation.
3. Be more generous. The flip side of taking advantage is being more generous, of course. My social media generosity tends to be reactive. I need to actively seek out opportunities where I can share my expertise and knowledge with others without waiting for them to ask for it.
   
4. Be more original in what I share. Oooh, tough one. Let’s face it, there’s very little originality to be found out there. Much of the sage advice and brilliant insights you find through social media are nothing more than a rehash of something someone else said earlier (and better). Personally, I cringe at much of the writing advice I see being offered as fresh and new. There really isn’t anything out there that wasn’t said long ago by Strunk & White, Zinsser, Bly and a whole host of others.
5. Comment more elsewhere. Being conversational and a more active part of the community means offering feedback to others. I’ve been pretty inconsistent on this front, and need to comment more on the blogs and other websites I find so incredibly informative and useful.
6. Practice what I preach (and share). I actually do read pretty much everything I link to and share via Twitter. But I find myself falling into the same excuses we all have for not putting into practice what I learn and believe to be true: It’s hard, there are too many obstacles, too much resistance, I don’t have time right now, blah blah blah. We all need to have the courage of our convictions and practice what we preach. Anything less is a betrayal of our organizations, our clients and ourselves.
7. Don’t let up. If you’ve ever felt the urge to chuck this whole social media thing because it’s like being caught on a treadmill with no end in sight, you’re not alone. Why do you think there are so many lifeless husks of websites orbiting out there? Or dead Twitter handles? Or LinkedIn profiles with three connections? Don’t give up. The rewards are worth the effort.

Not to belabor the whole resolutions thing, but using social media feels to me like eating right, staying fit, meeting financial goals and all the other stuff that makes you a better you (whatever the hell that might mean). It’s a lifetime commitment that can enrich your life. As corny and preachy as it sounds, I do believe it. And that’s why I stick with it.

Now if I could just get a handle on the whole eating right/staying fit thing …

photo by ausiegall

As you might expect at the end of the year AND decade, lists were among the most popular tweets in December. No New Year’s resolution lists, though … guess everyone’s saving those for their January posts.

What the Hell Are You Waiting For?

50 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits

The 4 Cornerstones of Social Media Monitoring

Is Your Nonprofit’s Story a Call to Action?

Three Reasons Why Storytelling is the Key to Social Media Marketing Success

BNET’s 10 Worst Ads of 2009

The Best and Worst Identities of 2009

Measure the Impact, Not the Influence

What Matters Now, Seth Godin?

10 Things You Need to Stop Tweeting About

Why Print Isn’t Going Anywhere for a Long, Long Time

Storytelling Through Social Media

Website at a Loss as to Why It Disappeared From Google

The Best Business Books of 2009

When It Comes to Online Content, More Niche Usually Trumps More Masses

100 Social Media & Content Marketing Predictions for 2010

Social Isolation and New Technology

5 Qualities of a Good Social Media Manager

Volunteers Give 10 Times More Than Other Americans

10 Best and Worst Internet Company Names of the Decade

If every picture tells a story (don’t it?), imagine what you can accomplish through social media. The introduction of social media to traditional storytelling has huge implications for the effectiveness of your marketing and communication efforts, whether you’re selling a product or a cause.

Here’s a nice presentation that walks you through the various elements of storytelling and how you might use social media to tell your stories in a more compelling fashion.

photo by robert couse-baker

Going postal over the letters to Santa program. The secret behind a truly great brand. Chicken soup in the cold remedies aisle. A look at why Twitter followers without engagement is worthless.

These are just some of my most popular tweets during the month of November. No surprise in today’s jobs-challenged “recovery” that the top tweet was a post concerning my search for a communications manager (still under way, tell all your friends).

If you missed any of these when first we tweeted, be sure to check them out now. Lots of good stuff here for what ails you.

Now Hiring: a Communications Manager

The Secret to Making Your Brand Truly Great

The Case of the 4,000 Twitter Followers Who Don’t Care

Confused Stock Boy … or Brilliant Product Placement?

Let’s Play 20 Questions to a Solid Strategic Plan

Is Social Media a Marketing Thing?

Content-ment: Curation Vs. Aggregation

Postal Service Limits Letter to Santa Program

Top 20 Tweets in October

Why Facebook Continues to Suck

25 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in Social Media 2009

Why Nonprofits Should Be on YouTube

Five Things Brand Marketing Can’t Do

Writing Errors That Make You Look Stupid

Location is the Missing Link Between Social Media and the Real World

Email Campaigns That Work for Nonprofits

Beth Asked a Question

American Red Cross – Nonprofit Social Media Marketing Example

Top 50 Journalism Blogs

Ten Things Social Media Can’t Do