The Social Organization

Help Others, Help Others Help You... But Don't Help Yourself

I sometimes wonder what parents teach their children - or not. Why? Recently I've seen a lot of people promote qualitative assessments of themselves.   People seem un-abashed at calling themselves talented, great thinkers, gurus, experts, pretty, funny, charming, etc.  I am a bit baffled by it because aren't all of those qualitative assessments in the eye of the beholder? I was told often as a child that it's not polite to brag or talk about yourself. It's also contextual - one person may think you are hysterically funny and to someone else you are just rude.... so those qualities are not fixed. But then I've always had a problem with the term self-promotion and the Me 2.0 meme so maybe I'm the odd one out.

However, what I've found is that regardless of whether it is OK to publicly self-assess... it is far, far more powerful to have others do it.  So the real question is - if you really want to be recognized in a particular way or for having a particular trait - who is the best person you know to validate and promote that in a way that will turn heads?

If I were running for a federal office as a Democrat, I would want President Obama supporting and promoting me.

If I wanted to be known for my fashion, Anna Wintour is the one I would want proclaiming it to the world.

Those are extreme examples but there are influencers of opinion all around us, some more influential in certain areas than others.  There is also a network from which those very influential people get their opinions... often people who are relatively quiet or unknown. Demonstrate to them why and how you are smart, fashionable, knowledgeable - whatever it is for which you wish to be known. They will do a much, much better job of making that perspective generally understood than you ever can. And - if you let them do it instead of trying to do it yourself - you look a lot less like a schmuck.  Leading enterprise software vendors... I'm thinking of you here. Adding unnecessary qualitative adjectives is also poor writing (of which I am often to blame). The analog advice is that all that time that you might otherwise spend talking about yourself... spend that time promoting others.  If they feel the same way about you, they are likely to return the favor. This is pretty well understood by a lot of taste-makers at an individual level but what I haven't seen much of is companies who spend time and resources to promote others that are not directly affiliated with their business.

You want to know who I think is interesting?  Check my blogroll, my Twitter Lists, or my People category.  For me, it's all about the company I keep and I trust that company to represent me much better than I can myself.  So if you want to know what I'm good at... don't ask me, ask them.

Content Bonanza... Just Not Here

I've been busy lately... but just not on this blog. But if you are interested, here are some of the things I've been thinking about and doing:

• Measure, But Measure Wisely
• Consistency & Translation in Community Management
• Community Is A Management Approach, Not Just A Role

I was also asked recently to contribute on Radian6's, Helpstream's & Adam Cohen's blog

• Helpstream Interview
• Radian6: Online Communities Are Like Dinner Parties
• Radian6: It's Not All Mindless Chatter
• A Thousand Cuts: Marketing Hot Seat

I was thrilled to be asked to participate in Valeria Maltoni's annual eBook project, particularly since she pulled together such a fascinating group of people - Jason Baer, Olivier Blanchard, Danny Brown, Mark Earls, Rachel Happe, Gavin Heaton, Jackie Huba, Jonathan MacDonald, Amber Naslund, Shannon Paul. While I know of or have met many of them, this is my first time collaborating with them. The result was a great combination of perspectives on Marketing in 2010 (post & eBook).

Lastly, there have been a couple of webinars that I've participated in:

• Awareness - The Community Maturity Model with Adam Zawel of The Palladium Group
• Social Media Today - Adding Value with Online Community panel discussion with Maggie Fox, Francois Gossieaux, and Neil Beam. (Recording coming...)

Plenty of things to peruse, or not, over the holidays.  I believe I'll be eating gingerbread :)

5 Ways to Orchestrate Serendipity

I've been using the term 'orchestrated serendipity' for a while and that may make no sense.  Serendipity is supposed to be a happy accident so trying to orchestrate it is a bit of an oxymoron.  What I mean by it however, is that although you cannot define precisely what kind of serendipity you will get in the future, you can set up an environment and processes by which you are more likely to discover happy accidents and in a zone that would be useful to you.  I ran across this post by Christopher Penn this morning that perhaps explained in better than I can.  A few weeks ago I also tripped over this article in Fast Company called How to Make Your Own Luck (ht to @pistachio) which gets at a similar principal.

The real point is that you or an entire organization can create an environment where serendipity and luck are likely to occur, where you will notice it, and where you can effectively take advantage of it. How to orchestrate your environment?

1. Include room in your time and budget for cultivating topics, people, and events that will not have a direct correlated return but fall into your general range of business
2. Understand what type of happy accidents you would be able to take advantage of and gear your cultivation in that general direction - whether it is topical, geographic, or specific types of people
3. Listen, probe, and listen some more
4. Be useful to people in your 'zone', they will return the favor in unexpected, serendipitous ways
5. Assume you will achieve your goals in a slightly different way than you might think and leave room in your planning for it

Serendipity does not happen if you are so busy that you don't recognize the opportunity or worse, if you actively dismiss it because you are too busy or too focused. Obviously there are some people better suited to recognizing opportunity than others - don't misplace them either.

How do you encourage serendipity?