Being of “that age”, the imminent arrival, and prospective announcement rates by new expectant mothers (and fathers) seems to happen more and more frequently. So you would understand my amusement at a recent conversation amongst a group of friends where the topic of a recently-discovered pregnancy quickly turned from the usual “ooh’s, aah’s and when’s and how’s…. ” (well.. not exactly the “how’s”.. but you know what I mean), to one which started to brainstorm a few ideas as to HOW the announcement would be made.
It was only after sitting at my desk one day, that I noticed an ever impending phenomenon that is raising its head above the social media horizons… that I had to jump in and take note.
We all know how social media has, “changed our lives”, “made the world smaller”, “reduced our privacy”…. “changed our lives”… but now we take one step in another direction where, instead of being the medium to make an announcement, social media has become so intrinsically involved in our lives that we need to make a decision and almost create a plan, as to how we use that medium, in order to broadcast probably one of the biggest announcements of our lives.
We have adapted to this social media tool in such a way that our lives are becoming dress rehearsals for our Facebook Profiles. Our innermost thoughts (and dinner menus) become our Twitter Voice.
I look at a few individual recent announcements: 
Make no mistake, I encourage innovation, I celebrate excitement and I revel in the unusual. I am a social media fanatic. I know how it works and I recognise its power. But I do wonder: When that day comes, and someone flicks the switch and all Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit, StumbleUpon, YouTube, Vibe, Keek, Instagram servers, and our lunch breaks go back to being 5 minutes on the park bench outside, or a conversation with that person in accounting who just never seems to talk…. when we suddenly discover that the blood that pumps through our veins is haemoglobin and not our Relationship Status – will we be able to cope?
Probably.
It would just hurt for a while.
We are officially 1 year old. 1 whole year.
We are so proud to have hit this milestone and more so, thankful to those who have walked this journey with us. Those of you, who have spent late nights on the phone with us, those who have had to fix things we’ve broken, those who have had to give up their Saturday an urgent Press Release creation… Thank you!
We look forward to a fantastic year 2 and to develop ourselves even more, as we walk this journey with you.
Been working with a new start-up recently. The customer, who is a well put-together, determined and super-duper good guy, has decided, like many of us, to give his own abilities and skills an opportunity to flourish, after an unfortunate (but perhaps pre-destined) redundancy at a large corporate.
In my own experience … starting a new business in this big scary world is a heck of a scary process for many of us. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed thinking of names, and colour schemes, and ideas for logos and designs… I enjoyed looking at potential customers, and dreamed huge dreams of where I’d love to be one day. Those dreams never stop. But there had to be a time where I learnt how to balance dream and reality in order to:
The only thing I was able to relate starting a new business to, was planning our wedding.
It was a fantastic day, our wedding day. Filled with sunshine, and bunting, fancy little tea cakes, and the best South African bubbly that we could afford. Filled with special friends and family and a DJ that played every whimsical song we loved, including the Airwolf TV Theme song. (Don’t ask).
Getting to that point, though, was not as idyllic. At the very early beginning of my planning phase, the very mention of the word “WEDDING”, seemed to automatically add an extra £100 to the quote, an extra “procedural legality”, an additional “OH! You should see what THESE people did with THEIR flower arrangements”. So much so that the process that I’d dreamed of for many years, moved away from being an idyllic fairy-like dream-phase, and turned into a horrible overwhelming struggle to absorb and remember everything that I could and still try add our own personal flavour to all that we did.
Starting a new business has been no different. Being new to the business world, one thinks that all the advice received is critical – with equal weight – that we need to absorb, remember and implement. Ultimately, our dream of starting our own home bakery, or corner art gallery turns into an impersonal, run-of-the-mill business where we sit at the end of the day and question our reason for starting it in the first place.
The best advice that I received as a novice in the business world, was to identify the “Must-Do” stuff from the “Better-than-the-Jones’ ” stuff. I was told to make a list of all the critical things that my new business needed, in order to get started. Basic things like:
What made you start your business in the first place?
Go back to those questions – re-discover the things that drive you. You will soon see that things fall into place and that these “gurus” that are pushing you to sprint, also had to start at the VERY beginning. So take a moment, relax, and start with a To-Do list.
And that still, to this day, continues to work for me.
So as I continue to work with this new start-up client of mine, taking things one step at a time and bringing focus back to the key list of things that need to be done – is how he will overcome the nerves, the competition, and most of all, become the business that he is destined to be.
Armchair politicians: those who believe they can put things right in the world – from the comfort the anonymous dim haze of a computer monitor.
Also defined as: Social Media Rant-Mongers (and admit it… we’ve all done it!)
We rant… and more often than not, we keep it “not really aimed at anyone in particular” but laden it with a huge spoonful of “you know who you are”…. (even if they are not your Facebook friend / Twitter follower / LinkedIn contact.
We moan, because
So inevitably, we rant at those who DO want to be our friends, who DO want to hear what we have to say, who DO already support us (generally). What good is that at all?
I received an email a little while back, which made me chuckle. The intention of the email was to have a moan about a situation that has become quite a hot topic for one of our customers. The email was not constructive, nor was it unbiased. It was simply a good-old-fashioned-I’ll-stand-up-for-what-I-believe-in-but-not-too-much-in-case-someone-objects moan. The subject of the email was in a question format, however, it was delivered as rhetorical, and ending with a sentence that starts with the words, “I just don’t see…”. (We all love those).
What made me chuckle is that the sender did not, by any means, want to be associated with the content of the mail, nor did they want their name to be mentioned anywhere.
I have to ask – what good is an objection if you are not willing to:
Does the fact that you portray yourself as a moaner MAKE me want to get involved with your cause and join you in your fight, or does it merely just make me roll my eyes, and hit the big red X in the top right hand corner of my screen?
The reality is, many of us (and I include myself) have become experts at tv-watching, armchair-straddling, political council-ling. When the going gets tough, there are VERY few of us who will actually have the courage to stand up for our convictions, and roll our sleeves up to get involved with that which will help to improve the apparent dire situation. We appear to choose our moan-audience so well – as they are always there with an ear, and an equal moan.
How about you flip the situation. Next time, when you catch yourself with a moan and a grumble on the tip of your tongue, why not ask yourself the very simple, and succinct question, “What can I (or my business) do to help the situation?”. Strangely enough, when you ask THAT question, you’ll be pleased to discover that there are a whole bunch of us who (surprisingly) share your positive take – and are willing to be your action-audience.