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Fear and Loathing in the Social Media Space: An Observation

by Dan Perez May 19, 2013

How many times have you read a blog post from some social media marketing consultant about how the industry has become overrun with false prophets and phonies? How the current fast track to social media success is more about creating perception than producing results? How the path of the righteous social media man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men?

A few times, yes?

Now, how many times has said post actually named a particular person? Identified by name the object of their scorn and/or frustration?

Not too often.

This past week, I came across yet another such post titled “Is it time to embrace the social media faker?” by Matt Ridings, a popular internet marketing consultant. In the post, he calls out the authenticity of “this guy” (and “others like him”) in the social media business scene whose garnered quite the online reputation but, in the opinion of Mr. Ridings, “tweets nothing unique”, “writes nothing original” and seems “more concerned about image than reality”. Fighting words for sure.

Unfortunately, at least for me, this nefarious person’s name is never mentioned in the post. Why?

Now, I don’t know Mr. Ridings personally but I’ll hazard a guess that he didn’t want to shit where he sleeps; divide the so-called “leadership” of the social media world and have people choose sides. Perhaps, he’s concerned that he’ll be excommunicated from the social media fraternity; cast out like the leper. Maybe he just feels it ain’t nice to call people out publicly.

Then why write the post?

Sure it’ll get you plenty of, “I totally agree with you!” comments but is it really effective in creating change? If there’s this level of frustration in the social media space with who’s a real expert, a perceived expert, or a poseur (and it has existed for quite some time now), how the heck is anything supposed to change if these frustrated people don’t start not only identifying those who frustrate them but, more importantly, explaining why?

Without the name, it’s merely sound and fury signifying nothing. Barking without the bite. Blog fodder.

It’s really not a matter of whether Mr. Ridings is right or wrong in his observations about “this guy” but at least it presents an opposing viewpoint; another perspective for folks to consider. I mean, a large percentage of people on the social media space are just sheep and/or stupid; you just have to show up with 100,000+ twitter followers and many of them will follow you like the rats enchanted by the sweet melody of the Pied Piper.

Most of them won’t bother checking your past history, real work experience or credentials anyway. Heck, if you’ve got that many twitter followers, you’ve gotta be pretty dang smart!

One-eyed Jacks is what they are – why not show the sheep the other side of the card?

We have no problem publicly expressing our views and engaging in healthy (and heated) debates on politics, religion, gun control, immigration, etc – but when it comes to social media, it appears it’s better to stay shut and keep your social media club membership than to speak out against the practices of an industry whose credibility has fallen just short of used car sales. And guess what? It’s the fault of its own “leadership” that it has become so.

Again, it ain’t about who’s right and who’s wrong – it’s about giving people something else to consider.

Maybe one of the sheep will say, “Gee, I never thought of that” or “Wow, why didn’t that guy ever disclose that?” or “Boy, I’m glad Mr. Ridings pointed that out about how that guy handles his business – I’m gonna go find someone else to follow and this time, I’m gonna do my homework!”

“Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” John 9:25

Ridings, when asked in the comments section of his post why he didn’t name a name, defended the point of his post as merely “that internal struggle with my dislike for something I find distasteful with the objective point of view that perhaps it can sometimes drive positive change.”

You wanna really drive positive change? Start naming names. It may make for an awkward situation if you and the person you call out are both attending the same social media conference but if you’re gonna take issue with how a person handles their business then give them a smile and a bro-hug at SXSW or Blogworld, then you’re a just a hypocrite anyway, right? Why not just draw a line in the sand and choose your side?

{But Dan, many of these social media “A-listers” are used to having their egos stroked by their following – they’re a bunch of thin-skinned cry-babies who take the slightest disagreement with their ideology as a personal attack and sic their zombies on you, call you a “hater”, say that you’re just “jealous”, “trying to make a name for yourself”, mock you to their followers (Guy Kawasaki, anyone?) or even ban you from ever commenting on their blog again!}

So what?

If these people are gonna proclaim themselves as experts by merely regurgitating the words of Dale Carnegie, Jim Rohn, and Stephen Covey; label themselves as “thought leaders” by introducing fantastic ideologies that are totally disconnected from reality, and write “How To” business books despite never having held an executive position in any company AND PUT IT OUT THERE FOR THE WHOLE DANG WORLD TO SEE – shouldn’t we be able to challenge its validity? Yes. Yes we should.

If not, then keep silent and simply repeat to yourself over and over again the words of Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone in “The Godfather II”, “This is the business we’ve chosen” – and then go write a post about Klout or something.

People love those, too.

Now, where’s my “Serpico” dvd?

[Photographs by George Christakis]

May 19, 2013

Featured

Panera Bread: A Social Media Customer Service Story

by Dan Perez January 13, 2013

written by Dan Perez

Having moved down to South Florida from New York over 10 years ago (has it really been that long?), I’ve come to realize a few things: Hot, humid with a chance of thunderstorms is pretty much the daily forecast for about 8 months of the year, wearing shorts in the winter is pretty cool, and the service industry down here is deplorable. You think New York is bad? It’s even worse down here. We might call ourselves the “Sunshine State” but there ain’t no sunshine to be had if you go to just about any supermarket, retail store, diner, hotel, or restaurant down here. Chances are good you’ll be treated with indifference or worse. I’ve given up on expecting anything less and have become comfortably numb – that’s how I deal with it.

Now, when I go to a local McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, etc, my only expectation is to receive my food. The cheaper the food down here, the cheaper the service. I’m not expecting a warm greeting or a “Have a nice day!” – just my food, please. But my wife and I really like going to Panera Bread for a couple of reasons. For starters, their nationally recognized community involvement (check out their revolutionary Panera Cares initiative). They also have a fancier sandwich menu, it’s a comfier environment, and they sell a wide array of fresh bread (it smells good in there). Now, the food costs a bit more than at your average fast food place so I expect just a little better service when I eat there.

Usually, the service there is quite good which makes me (and Mrs. Perez) feel quite good (they have a few cashiers there who are as friendly as any I’ve encountered down here). But during our last few visits, we’ve noticed somewhat of a decline in the above average service we’ve come to expect; most notably in the cleanliness of the place and the accuracy of our order. During our last visit there, however, things got real.

When we arrived (around 2:30pm, well after the lunch rush), there was an unusually long line of people and only one register working. There was a young lady who appeared to be a manager working the register (while two other employees appeared to be trying to figure out what was wrong with the other register) and she wasn’t in the best mood. We didn’t get much of a greeting when we got to the register (I was cool with that – this is South Florida) but in her hurry to move the line, she failed to listen to my wife’s order (we order the same dang thing every time) then snapped at my wife for having rung in the order incorrectly (“You didn’t tell me that!”). Not cool with that.

At Panera Bread, after placing your order, they give you this small buzzer that will light up and vibrate when your food is ready. So we place our order and go and look for a place to sit. We like sitting in the booths and there are four available. However, two of them still have dirty trays of food on them and the other two are just plain dirty. Not cool with that.

I get a few napkins, wet them with water and wipe down a table. After a few minutes, my “thingy” starts buzzing so I head to the pick up area to get our sandwiches. More issues…

Me: “My sandwich isn’t toasted.”

Him: “It didn’t say it was supposed to be toasted.”

Me: “Check the ticket.” (Did I mention we order the same dang thing every time?)

Him (after looking at the ticket): “Oh, OK. Let me toast that for you and I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Me: “You do that.” (I’m still kind of cool with it – people make mistakes, right?).

So I take Mrs. Perez’s sandwich over to her while I wait for mine to be toasted. After a few minutes, I peek my head up over the booth and see my sandwich (now toasted) sitting on the pick up station counter. I go over to the counter: “Is this me?” Him: “Oh yeah, that’s yours.” Not cool with that.

Mrs. Perez and I are now sitting at our booth eating our sandwiches (she got a head start but I quickly catch up with her). I’m a little more displeased than I should be at Panera Bread – like I said, I expect a little more here and lately things ain’t been up to snuff. Then I hear the folks at the pick up station getting into a somewhat heated argument with the folks at the register. You know I’m not cool with that. I’ve just about had enough.

I’m not happy. So after eating, I reach for my phone and do the only thing a rational man of sound mind should do at that point – I tweet about it…

Done. Catharsis. Maybe someone over at Panera Bread will see the tweet, maybe not. I don’t care. I’m moving on. To my surprise, I get a tweet about 10 minutes later from Panera Bread…

I DM them my info. Then I get this…

Somebody from Panera Bread actually heard my cry from the wilderness AND they said they’re gonna follow up with me? Yeah, I’m feeling important. I mean, isn’t that what social media is all about? Being followed, being liked, being friended, being listened to? Sigmund Freud said, “The desire for a feeling of importance is one of the chief distinguishing differences between mankind and the animals.” He was right.

I’m feeling good. Mrs. Perez thinks I’m some sort of internet big shot. I sleep well that night.

The following morning, I see two voice messages on my cell phone (I’m not an early riser). One is from Shannon from the Panera Bread location Mrs. Perez
and I frequent and the other is from Tricia Penn, Director of Operations for Panera Bread South Florida. They received my information and wanted to discuss my experience. Wasn’t expecting this at all. Things just got serious.

I start at the top with Tricia Penn. I get right through to her and tell her exactly what went down. She apologizes for my less than acceptable experience, promises to look into the matter and offers to send me some coupons for free sandwiches. I like when my “customer voice” is heard and I like coupons for free sandwiches. Hopefully, the management at Panera Bread will take the steps to improve the customer experience at that location. My job here was done.

I’ve been back to Panera Bread twice since my conversation with Ms. Penn (I’m also two coupons down). Have I noticed a whole new environment since my tweet? Not particularly. I mean, the service has been good, our orders have come out right, there’s been no bickering behind the counters – we’ve had a pleasant experience. An exceptional experience would be ideal but for now, I’ll take pleasant. This is, after all, South Florida.

Now, If you listen to the “experts”, they’ll tell you that social media gives us, the people of the free world, a voice. Most of the time, that voice gets lost in the raging torrent of white noise that is our twitter and facebook streams. I’ve expressed my displeasure with a company’s product/service several other times without an answer; companies who have a presence on social media. In the case of Panera Bread, my voice was heard and action was taken. Oh, and did I mention the coupons?

Yeah, I’m real cool with that.

NOTE:
Mrs. Perez is a 1/2 Frontega Chicken sandwich and cup of New England Clam Chowder kind of gal while I’m a Bacon Turkey Bravo (smoked Gouda cheese!) kind of guy. Just in case you were curious…

January 13, 2013

Featured

Why We Can’t All Just Get Along (And Why It’s OK)

by Dan Perez October 14, 2012

written by Dan Perez

Can’t we all just get along? That would be nice, yes? Everybody just smiling and waving at each other with nary an ill word spoken. Everybody having civil discussions about politics, abortion, and immigration. Yankees and Red Sox fans shaking hands as they leave Fenway Park after a game, “Nice game. Better luck next time!” Unfortunately, we’ll never know how nice (or how totally lame) that would actually be. Why? Because it just isn’t the way human beings are wired, that’s why.

Wasn’t the essence of human nature made abundantly clear from the very beginning of creation? Eve throwing Adam under the bus before God, Cain killing his brother Abel in a fit of jealousy, and God telling Noah to build an ark because he was gonna “make it rain up in here” and flush the whole of humanity down his almighty toilet bowl? And this is just book one of the Old Testament(!). Yet the blog posts wanting everyone to just shut up and play nice keep coming. Why?

Allow me to introduce into evidence a recent post by marketing strategist Geoff Livingston, “It’s Not OK“, an apparent lamentation on the state of “nice” on the social space. Livingston includes in his post a link to an observation in the Wall Street Journal called “Why We Are So Rude Online” which is based on a study of 541 facebook users by professors at Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh. 541. The soon-to-be-published study shows that browsing facebook lowers your self-control AND makes you more likely to choose a chocolate-chip cookie than a granola bar as a snack. Seriously.

Based on the aforementioned study, Livingston writes: “So now we know the medium is toxic. Does that give us license to behave poorly?”

Now, one man’s “poorly” is another man’s “awesome” but I get what his interpretation is here – not being nice. Now, on this point I actually disagree AND agree somewhat. I’ll explain…

Sigmund Freud, known as the founding father of psychoanalysis, elaborating on his observations on the essence of human nature, concluded that, “the deepest essence of human nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at the satisfaction of certain needs [are] self-preservation, aggression, need for love, and the impulse to attain pleasure and avoid pain.” It’s hard to argue with Freud’s conclusion. These needs drive our behavior in the “real world” AND online.

Growing up in the Bronx, I witnessed the good, the bad, and the ugly in people; from those who just wanted to buy the world a Coke to those who wanted to smash your face in with the very same Coke bottle and laugh while you bled. Unfortunately, for many inner-city kids going to public schools in my era, the “Anti-Bullying” movement wasn’t the big sensation it is today. I saw a lot of kids pay for that, even myself at times.

People aren’t always nice. But when I consider why, I recall Stephen Covey’s story from his best-selling book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” about the man who became irritated on a subway train by another passenger’s indifference to his kids as they ran amok in the car. “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?” The indifferent father replied, ‘Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.’

Human nature can be a bitch sometimes, yes? Accept it or get off the train.

We never know which of Freud’s human needs are at play when we encounter “toxic” engagement, online or off. Many of the bullies in my playground were abused themselves at home; were treated with indifference and scorn; came from households where drugs and/or alcohol dictated behavior. As I grew older, my hatred for those that bullied me was replaced with sympathy for the cause of their rage and frustration.

Similarly, we should allow a measure of understanding for those who’s online behavior can be described as adverse. Perhaps, the source of their online “venom” comes from their inability to forgive past offenses or abuse directed at them or their loved ones. Maybe their parents raised them to despise Hispanics, gays, or Republicans. Perhaps they’ve seen their wife lose a painful battle with cancer, or had their brother taken away by a drunk driver, or lost their home to foreclosure, or had to endure their newborn child never making it out of the NICU.

There are many reasons why people want to piss on the rest of the world. These reasons aren’t always clear to us; nor, in many cases, are they even justifiable. But they have to be accepted. Moreover, people can also be very passionate about their beliefs (“Stand up for what you believe in!”, right?) and are often unable to taper their fiery passion for what they believe in when confronted with another person with contrary views (Obama vs Romney, anyone?).

To wish impossible things (that we can actually all just get along with each other) is foolish; the world will never live as one (sorry, John). But what we can do is accept that there are many different human needs that drive human beings to behave like they do; and all the blog posts and twitter chats and folk songs sung around a big ol’ bonfire ain’t gonna change that.

Accept it or get off the train.

Now, I don’t know Mr. Livingston personally but it appears he’s also publicly confronting his own past history of “toxic” online engagement and its consequences: “Leaving a trail of human wreckage behind me, all because of an inflated sense of self online doesn’t cut the mustard. I can’t live with that. It’s not OK.”

Consequences. The great equalizer.

Growing up in the Bronx, I also learned that there are sometimes consequences for those that run their mouths too much; for those that happen to talk smack about the wrong person; get in the wrong person’s face. Consequences. Beware of whom you speak of lest that person find you and put their foot up your ass. You go from running your mouth one day to having your jaw wired shut the next. Sometimes you take a busted jaw and consider yourself lucky. Lesson learned. Others weren’t so lucky.

Now, back to Mr. Livingston’s conclusion on the medium: Is it really toxic? It certainly can be. Does it give us license to behave poorly? License, no. The means, yes. In the online world, it’s easy to run your little fingers over the keyboard and say whatever you want to whomever you want in whatever way you want. It’s unlikely that somebody living in New Mexico is gonna hop a plane to London with the intention of tracking down the person who left a nasty comment on his blog post and whupping his ass.

Consequences are a reality on the street. Unfortunately, not so much online. That’s a shame. Especially in the case of those who refuse to identify themselves online; who run their hateful social mouths behind the anonymity of a fake name and profile pic. These people are cowards and not only should they be ignored but felt sorry for.

Ultimately, the fact that social media brings together all types of people with all types of personalities, views and opinions from all over the world should be celebrated – not lamented. If you don’t like the shit someone’s shoveling, ignore them or give it back as good as you’re getting it. If you wanna talk smack online, be ready to deal with whatever consequences may come.

I mean, if everybody was supposed to just get along, there would never have been any wars, any bloodshed in the name of religion, politics, or even sports. One peek into the history books should offer a sobering reminder that human beings tend to not always agree with each other. That doesn’t mean the world is a bad place; heck, even I believe that most people are generally good. It just makes it all the more sweeter when you find people with like minds.

Accept it or get off the train.

“This is a choice, and everyone is free to have the conversations they want.” writes Livingston. Indeed they do.

It would do us all good to remember that.

[Photographs by Sofia Ajram]

October 14, 2012

Blog The Written Word

The ONLY Social Media Book You’ll Ever Need. Really.

by Dan Perez June 3, 2012

written by Dan Perez

Has anyone else noticed the insane amount of social media books being published lately? It seems like every week there’s some social media/marketing “professional” (and I use the term loosely) promoting a new book. What I’ve found unusual, however, is that a large percentage of the books appear to cover just about the same thing: social media engagement, the social media revolution, relationship marketing using social media, enchanting others with social media, the ABCs of social media, thinking and/or acting like a rock star using social media, and, well, you get the point, yes?

In some cases, the release of these books is preceded by a “book tour” in which the “author” (again, I use the term loosely) will select several strategic locations across the country to visit to promote the book and hopefully amass considerable pre-orders or actual sales of the book. Sometimes, the “author” will allow you to pay him/her a fee (discounted, of course) to come visit your business or organization to discuss (promote) his/her book (yeah, I know).

Of course, to the “author”, pre-sales are important; very important. Those pre-sales count when the book is finally published and the “authors” really, really, really want you to help them crack those Top 10 lists on Barnes and Noble and amazon.com. That way, they can add “Best Selling Author” to their resume and have a better chance at landing a juicy speaking gig at one of the many social media/marketing conferences that seem to take place every week.

They (people) want to feel important (more on that later) and they want you to help them.

So, please allow me to save you some time and money. I’m gonna share with you the only book you’ll ever need on social media. That’s right, the only book on successful social media engagement you’ll ever need. I mean, it’s the book that most of these social media “authors” borrow a great deal of their content from anyway (paraphrased, of course). Oh, and it’s already a best-seller, having sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

“What book is this, Dan?”

Hold up, let’s first take a look at what the book claims it will help you achieve:

1. Get out of a mental rut, think new thoughts, acquire new visions, discover new ambitions (Any bloggers out there? This one’s for you!)

2. Make friends quickly and easily (you can’t become a social media “rock star” without making friends quickly and easily, yes?)

3. Increase your popularity (Empire Avenue, anyone?).

4. Win people to your way of thinking (gotta master this one if you plan on becoming a “thought leader”)

5. Increase your influence, your prestige, your ability to get things done (the author had Klout figured out long before Joe Fernandez did)

6. Handle complaints, avoid arguments, keep your human contacts smooth and pleasant (Ok, I’m not all that great at these but I’m on the fence about this one anyway)

7. Become a better speaker, a more entertaining conversationalist (you won’t be asked to speak at Blogworld if you suck as a speaker…right? Hello?)

8. Arouse enthusiasm among your associates (who doesn’t love arousing and/or being aroused?)

Oh, did I forget to mention that it was written back in 1936? Several decades before social media and ipads even existed? My bad.

“Dan, how can a book written in 1936 be relevant in today’s high-tech social media world? How?!!!

Because human beings haven’t changed a heck of a lot since 1936. They still want the same things, have the same needs, want to be communicated to the same way. And isn’t successful social media engagement based on human interaction? Real people communicating with other real people?

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

________________________

Sigmund Freud said that everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great.

John Dewey, one of America’s most profound philosophers, phrased it a bit differently. Dr. Dewey said that the deepest urge in human nature is “the desire to be important.”

Here is a gnawing and unfaltering human hunger, and the rare individual who honestly satisfies this heart hunger will hold people in the palm of his or her hand and “even the undertaker will be sorry when he dies.”

The desire for a feeling of importance is one of the chief distinguishing differences between mankind and the animals.

________________________

You really think people have changed that much since 1936? With our craving for twitter followers and facebook friends, all the Klout whores desperately trying to game the system and the circle jerk going on over at Empire Avenue? Can I get an “Amen”?

“Ok Dan, I see your point but who the heck wrote the book and why should anyone give two shits about what he has to say?”

The author was born in Maryville, Missouri, the son of poor farmers. In between milking his parents’ cows every morning, he managed to earn a college education while riding to and from school daily on horseback(!).

After college, he took a traveling sales job for Armour & Company (a slaughterhouse and meatpacking company) selling bacon(!), soap and lard(!). The author made his sales territory of South Omaha, Nebraska, the national leader for the company. So, unlike many of these social media business “authors”, this particular author actually worked and attained success in a corporate environment; in sales no less. But you’re probably thinking, “But Dan, how hard is it to sell bacon?” I’ll give you that one. So, let’s move on…

By 1911, the author saved up enough money to quit his job and move to New York to pursue an ill-fated acting career. He soon found himself broke and living at the YMCA on 125th Street. The author, realizing that his past sales success was due primarily to his great ability to communicate with others, then came up with the idea to teach public speaking classes for adults. He successfully pitched the idea to the Y.M.C.A, who allowed him to begin night classes in return for a cut of the profits.

I’ll make a long story short and just state that by 1914, the author was earning $500 (the equivalent of nearly $10,000 today!) every week(!). By 1916, he was able to rent out Carnegie Hall and lecture to a SRO crowd. Most of today’s so-called social media “thought leaders” would barely be able to fill New York’s Carnegie Deli much less Carnegie Hall. The rest, as they say, is history.

If you haven’t guessed it already, the author is Dale Carnegie. The book is “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

Carnegie came from poverty, gave himself an education, realized he could sell the shit out of bacon and lard, shifted his career path to chase after his passion (becoming an actor), realized that a career as an actor sucked balls, then found himself broke and at the proverbial crossroads of life. Carnegie then identified what he was good at (speaking/communicating), realized what people wanted and were willing to pay for (to become better speakers/communicators), and took action.

Oh, and Dale Carnegie Training, which Dale Carnegie himself founded back in 1912 (that’s right, a hundred years ago) is still going strong; currently represented in 50 of the United States and in 80 countries worldwide. Think these social media “experts”, many of whom are just trying to boost their own importance and hustling for speaking gigs by getting you to buy their books, will leave that type of legacy?

Moreover, if you happen to have a real job where you interact daily with real people and you happen to work in sales, marketing, PR, or if your goal is to move up in your company or if you already hold a management position, or if you happen to be the type of person that likes to network face-to-face with other real people at events hosted by your local Chamber of Commerce to grow your business or even to land a new job – then this book will also give you the skills you need to succeed in the “real world”. That’s what really gives this book the edge over the other, online-focused, books.

People want to feel important. Your staff, your co-workers, your customers, your prospects, your facebook friends and twitter followers. This book will tell you how to accomplish that in a way that produces positive results. We may have many more methods of communicating with people today but what people want hasn’t changed. It brings out the best and the worst in all of us.

Don’t just take my word for it, read the book. You can even view a pdf of the book here. And if you still wanna make the latest “Social Media Author of the Week” feel important by coughing up $10-20 bucks to buy his/her book, go ahead. But what you’ll probably soon realize is that you’re really just buying a cheap imitation camouflaged with social media hyperbole and technospeak.

And then I’ll have to tell you, “I told you so”…

and I hate doing that.

Really.

[Artwork by Ben Giles]

June 3, 2012

Blog The Written Word

6 Blogging Tips for Dummies…by a Dummy

by Dan Perez March 4, 2012

written by Dan Perez

This post originally appeared as a guest post over at DIY Blogger

I’m a blogging dummy. And I’m glad to be one. You see, when it comes to blogging, ignorance can be bliss. Sometimes, we listen to too many “experts” tell us how we should blog that we forget that blogging (writing) is an art form; and art has no rules. Right?

I never went to film school, or worked at a film or video production company. Perhaps, if I had, I would have thought that one person couldn’t possibly direct, produce, shoot, or edit their own film. My very first film (which I directed, shot, and edited), won an award at its very first film festival. My second film (which I produced, directed, shot and edited) won ‘Best Florida Film’ at the 2010 Sunscreen Film Festival, beating out films helmed by film school graduates with a full crew.

Bragging? No (OK, maybe just a little). But had I listened to a bunch of filmmaking pros tell me what I needed to make a film (I’ve read many articles since then that would have totally discouraged me), I might not have even tried. Or maybe I would never had realized my own budding abilities. I was a dummy. The same way Orson Welles was a dummy when he directed “Citizen Kane”. Blogging (writing) is no different.

Now, let me preface the following points by excluding those people who are paid to blog (people that have to produce content on a regular schedule for their company or employer) and those people whose income is dependent on traffic generated by their blog posts (regardless of how original they are). You all get a pass because when you have to do something, it ceases from being an art form and becomes a job. For the rest of us dummies, here’s my take:

1) Forget Your “Audience”

One thing I hardly ever consider when writing a post is my “audience”. You’ll often hear, “Write for your audience!” proclaimed from the social media pulpits. This will eventually create a dilemma: “I really wanna write about (X) but is that what my audience wants?” Don’t let your “audience” stifle your creativity. Your readers may actually appreciate a fresh perspective, another side of you they didn’t know existed, something different than the norm. Do you think the people that visit your blog regularly are gonna stop coming because you published a blog post that’s different from your usual posts? The only thing that will make people stop coming are consistently crappy blog posts. If you’re not writing for YOU first, you’re just a pretender (and we’ve got way too many of those already, yes?)

2) Don’t Be An Ass-kisser

Oftentimes, I’ll come across a blog post that appears to have no other objective than kissing major ass. “50 Amazing Bloggers That Will Make You Feel All Tingly Inside” or “117 Awesome People On Twitter That You Should Be Following”. Upon further review of these posts, you’ll find nothing less than the who’s who of the A-List social media community (many of which, in my opinion, produce some of the stalest content on the web). I guess if you kiss the ass of 50 people on your blog, you should expect nothing less than 30/40 “Thank you!” comments and when you throw in your own 30/40 “You’re welcome!” replies, you’ve got 60/80 SEO boosting comments on your blog. Lame. Very lame.

If you’re gonna shout out some bloggers, why not highlight a few flying under the social radar? You just might find a few new loyal readers of your blog instead of taking a number and hopping on the A-Lister ass-kissing line so many bloggers are already on.

3) Don’t Blog Every Day

Again, unless it is your job to do so or your income is somehow dependent on it, there is absolutely no need for you to blog every single day. Some of the blogging “experts” will tell you differently but pay them no mind. Most of the really good blogs I read post every 3-4 days, some even weekly. Not surprisingly, the content is always fresh and original. Moreover, many of these blogs generate 30-50 comments on average. Who can possibly post something fresh and original every day? Whilst working a day job, running a business, taking care of a family, spending time with friends, and watching “American Idol”? Like a great painter, songwriter, or composer, great works come via inspiration; and inspiration doesn’t always make a daily visit.

Don’t cheat your readers from your best work by rushing up a post because some blogging genius said you have to blog every day. Moreover, don’t emulate the über-lame bloggers who stick up an insipid, double-spaced, single paragraph disguised as a blog post (with the infamous generic stock image) just to keep their self-imposed daily blog quota intact OR the other desperate bloggers who are at least smart enough to realize that they most certainly cannot come up with a fresh blog post every day so they allow any Tom, Dick, and Harry to guest post on their blog just to keep google happy. When you allow quantity to supersede quality, your blog will start to suck eggs and your readers will look elsewhere for fresh content.

4) Share Your Stuff

If you spend any amount of time on the social space, you’ve heard that “content is king” when it comes to blogging. Good, fresh content, of course. But how do you know if your blog posts are worthy of a thumbs up or a thumbs down? You gotta get your posts in front of readers, no? Otherwise, your great post is just a giant redwood tree crashing down in the forest that nobody hears. Thanks to various social media platforms, we have no shortage of outlets to share our stuff.

Share a link to your blog post a few times a week on facebook. Post it on Linkedin (and don’t forget to share it on any groups you belong to where the content may be relevant). Share a link to your post on twitter…not just once or twice but 4-5 times a day, several hours apart…for several days. You heard right. But let me add this: if all you do on twitter (or any social media platform) is promote your links, you’re just pissing in the social media wind. Keep your timeline busy with other activity throughout the day: comments, replies, and especially links from all the other cool blog posts you’ve read. People aren’t online 24/7. They have jobs and families, and a social life outside of social media. They may only check their timelines a few times a day. You wanna give your post the best chance to get discovered. Oh, and anyone who tells you you’re breaking some social media “rule”, tell them to go fly a kite.

If you stay active on social media platforms, several good things will happen: more people will connect with you (just like in the “real world”, people like people who talk/listen to them), you’ll find birds of a similar feather who will dig your blog content (and you’ll dig theirs, giving you additional good content to share), and you’ll also be putting the Law of Reciprocity to work by sharing the creative content of others. It’s win-win all the way.

5) Disregard 73% Of What You Read On #Blogchat

Are you familiar with #Blogchat? (a twitter chat every Sunday night at 9pm ET). When I started blogging, I spent many a Sunday evening studying the fast-moving stream. During that time, I’ve picked up some good blogging tips on plugins, site maintenance and best practices. I’ve also learned to disregard a good percentage of what I read there. Why? Too many voices shouting too many “rules”. How long your blog post should be, how often you should post, who you should write for, what keywords you should use in your post, what you should write about, when you should write about it, yada yada yada. ‘Blog like this, not like that’ makes blogs lame. Blogging ain’t hard…just write.

6) Just Write

Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re gonna make a six-figure income (or even a meager living) by blogging. For the vast majority of bloggers (even many of the so-called “experts”), this just isn’t the reality. So if you’re gonna write, do it for yourself first…and enjoy it. Make it the best you can before hitting “Publish” (what’s the rush?). If you’re gonna put several hours (or days) into writing it, make sure you’re proud of it before sharing it with the world.

At the end of the day, whether a few thousand people view/share your post or just one, if you enjoyed writing it; if it helped you relieve an emotional burden you’ve been carrying around; if it served as an outlet for your anger/frustration; if it made your wife/kids smile; if it allowed you to express that which only the written word allows us to express…then you’ve done well. You’ve written.

So let the pro bloggers blog as they will. Since writing my first blog post a couple of years ago, I’ve come to enjoy the process of writing; of expressing myself, my views. And the fact that I can write about whatever the heck I want to write about makes the process even more enjoyable. I follow no writing schedule, only opening up a Word document when I get a bug up my ass to write something. And before I hit “Publish”, I’ve always been pleased with what I’ve written. And guess what? My work has been read, enjoyed, hated, and shared by thousands of people. That’s gravy. So for me, I plan to remain a dummy…

Because when it comes to blogging, ignorance is indeed bliss.

[Photographs by Les Goodman]

Like us on facebook and you’ll make us really happy; we’re not sure why, though, but studies have shown that people who like our facebook page are 37% cooler than people who don’t…

March 4, 2012

Blog The Written Word

Twitter Chats, Leadership, and Fantastic Ideologies: A Rant

by Dan Perez December 7, 2011

written by Dan Perez

Yesterday, I came across a blog post from business blogger Ted Coine titled “Is It Too Late For Today’s CEOs?” It was an observation on the current state of today’s CEOs compared with those of the past century. The general theme of the post can be summed up as “20th Century CEOs and their tired philosophies are out and the 21st Century CEOs are gonna be better, stronger, faster” (kind of like “The Six Million Dollar Man“). A blog post based on ideology with the sole intention of getting an “Amen” from the social media “evangelists”, nothing more. But that’s how you get to be a “thought leader” these days, yes?

Turns out that the same Mr. Coine also happened to be the guest moderator of last night’s #LeadershipChat on twitter (which takes place Tuesday nights at 8pm ET). The chat, which focuses on leadership principles and best practices, is the brainchild of Lisa Petrilli and Steve Woodruff, two of the really, really, really good people on the social space. I hope they don’t hate me after this.

If you spend any amount of time on the chat, you’ll quickly realize that its common theme is usually something along the lines of how in a perfect world, today’s leaders and their teams would all be gathered around a giant bonfire, holding hands and singing Kumbaya while passing the social media bong pipe. Leaders are made of sugar and spice and everything nice on #Ledershipchat. Not usually my cup of tea but I guess it’s OK to dream about a kinder, gentler leader, right? Moreover, it offers a wonderful outlet for my pent up snark. But back to Mr. Coine…

The theme of this week’s chat was The Future of Leadership. And, again, it was the usual banter about how “21st-Century leaders understand power of enlightened self-interest” and how “in the new social world, employees follow their leaders because they want to” and the infamous “leaders think of their team first and themselves second” (it just ain’t #Leadershipchat until that one shows up). But as the chat was nearing the end, this brief exchange between Mr. Coine and myself took place:

Wow. Needless to say, I was rather surprised that Mr. Coine would really think that being ethical and putting people first had been egregiously omitted from the leadership practices of the past century. I mean, everybody’s entitled to their opinions, yes? But seriously, to throw such a huge blanket of indifference over all the leaders of the 20th century? But then I remembered that this was a chat on twitter. I mentally kicked myself for failing to realize that those types of statements are common in twitter chats. Silly me.

You see, most twitter chats are rife with fantastic ideology; how social media is gonna lead us, hand-in-hand to a better world. A world where our leaders listen more and talk less; a world where each and every member of the team really care about one another, a world where no team member is left behind (mission be damned!). A brave new world where the likes of Steve Jobs, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, Walt Disney, Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, Bill Gates, former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, Warren Buffet, George Merck, former Boeing president and Chairman William Allen, Richard Branson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Walmart CEO Sam Walton, Henry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi, former Johnson & Johnson CEO James Burke, and the rest of the unethical leaders of the 20th century, would surely fail.

I’m sure that Ted Coine is a really nice guy. His profile pic emits warmth and friendliness, and he’s quite the handsome devil. But dear Mr. Coine, before you start calling out the leaders of the 20th century in favor of a generation of still unproven leaders, remember this: the great leaders are focused on results [duh?] and it will always be about results. And to think that the aforementioned leaders achieved theirs via surreptitious methods and/or by dumping on people is…well, pretty dang foolish. So why don’t you first wait and see what your 21st century leaders pull off before “dissing” a generation of leaders who have already built and rebuilt fortune 500 companies, fought for their country’s independence, and led 250,000 people on a march to Washington D.C.; all without the aid of facebook or twitter.

But then it wouldn’t be a twitter chat, would it? No, no it wouldn’t.

December 7, 2011

Blog It Is Written The Written Word

Captain Smack, Red Pills, Rabbit Holes, and the Blogging Matrix

by Dan Perez July 16, 2011

written by Dan Perez

One of the benefits of social media platforms is that it allows us to discover the over 100 million blogs in existence; blogs that we’d never have come across only a handful of years earlier. That’s the good news. That’s also the bad news because it seems that for every decent blog I come across, I also come across about 117 crappy ones. Recently, however, I stumbled upon a blog called This Is Your Captain Speaking. The blog’s author, Captain Smack (who is described as a “guy who drops acid, sees UFOs, and jerks off with toothpaste”), penned a number of wickedly funny posts on numerous different topics such as religion, serial killers, depression, toilet technology, and many others. The language is rather explicit as is the subject matter but the posts are hilarious, several of them brilliant (if you don’t mind hating yourself for finding something funny that you really shouldn’t be finding funny). It was, by far, the best blog I had ever read…but in 2009 it was mysteriously abandoned.

The blog launched in March of 2007 and in April of 2009, it suddenly stopped publishing new posts. I found this rather odd considering the success of the blog. Each post generated numerous comments (many over 100) and responses from Captain Smack himself. The very last post, Let’s Go Crazy, was among the best of the blog and left no hint that there would be no further posts. So what happened? Did Captain Smack suddenly die? Flee the country to avoid paying fines for unpaid parking tickets? Was he abducted by aliens, perhaps? Hard to imagine that with such a gift for creative writing, he would suddenly just give it up.

Upon further investigation, I realized that the blog kept no regular schedule. Some posts were published just a few days apart and other times, several weeks would separate posts. The posts also varied in length. Some were almost 5000 words long while others were under 1000. Lastly, I realized that the blog had no Retweet or Like buttons. Obviously, this was the time right before before facebook and twitter would go on to dominate the online social space. What really resonated with me, however, was the fact that despite the lack of what many people consider to be the two greatest platforms to generate traffic to one’s blog, an erratic blogging schedule, not to mention the varying lengths and subject matter of the posts, This Is Your Captain Speaking had a highly engaged and dedicated audience.

In an effort to uncover clues that might shed light on the Captain’s sudden disappearance, I started to investigate his blogroll as well as the profiles of those who commented on his blog. I soon started to feel like I had taken the red pill and jumped head-first down the rabbit hole. My search for truth led me to other blogs that were also fresh, witty, clever, original. Blogs that weren’t afraid to color outside the lines; that were personal; that weren’t about the same dang thing that I see clouding my twitter stream every day. Blogs that had a highly engaged audience; that didn’t obey the “rules”.

I suddenly realized that I had been living in a simulated blog universe without even knowing it: the “Blogging Matrix”.

What is the Blogging Matrix?

The Blogging Matrix is a system. A system of rules. What you should write, who you should write it for, how long you should write it, what words you should put in it, how frequently you should publish it, and how often you should share a link to it on your social networks. Rules. Rules that have killed creativity in favor of SEO. Rules that have made bloggers predictable – rushing to publish poorly written posts that capitalize on the “hot topics” of the day (remember all the Osama bin Laden posts? Oh, and how many lame Google+ posts have you come across lately?). Rules that have made new bloggers forget that when it comes to “writing”, there are no rules.

The Blogging Matrix is Everywhere

If I may paraphrase the words of Morpheus from the 1999 film “The Matrix”: “The [Blogging] Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window [facebook] or when you turn on your television [twitter]. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your [the blogger’s] eyes to blind you from the truth.”

We’ve become slaves; slaves to the system. And no, I’m not talking about those people who blog for their company. Those bloggers have a specific agenda and certain limitations when they “write” and that’s OK (and if you’re one of those people, please don’t tell me that you’re free to write about whatever you want to because I’m not gonna believe it). I’m talking about the person who decides they are going to start a blog to express themselves; to share their ideas, causes, passions and observations with the world. Until, of course, they happen to stumble upon a certain twitter chat with the topic “How to Monetize Your Blog” and suddenly they stop focusing on “why” they wanted to blog and start focusing on “how” they should blog. The system claims another victim.

Beware of the Gatekeepers

The system is our enemy. The system has made us slaves to banner ads, feedburner subscriptions, monetization, and golden calfs. The system has told us we must worship and pay tithes to so-called “A-List” bloggers and faux “thought leaders”, most of whom only recycle the ideas of the past century or befuddle us with multi-colored infographics. They are the “gatekeepers” of the system and will fight to protect it because their livelihood depends on it. Sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them.

Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?
Morpheus: You’ve never used them before.

Free Your Mind

“I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin.” ~Neo [from “The Matrix”]

Are you living in the Blogging Matrix? If so, then pop a red pill and join me on a journey to find Captain Smack in a world way down the rabbit hole where there are no rules.

The answer is out there…are you ready to take the red pill?

July 16, 2011

Blog The Written Word

Authenticity, Transparency, & Hypocrisy: An Observation

by Dan Perez May 5, 2011

written by Dan Perez

Authenticity and Transparency. Two grossly overused words that have been buzzing around the social media stratosphere a heck of a lot lately. People blog about it, chat about it, speak about it, then they blog about it, chat about it, and speak about it some more. They write books about it; they clamor for it like a newborn baby crying for its bottle. They demand it from every company, every organization, from their followers, from those they engage with. But can authenticity or transparency even be realized in social media? From a twitter bio? A tweet? A blog post? A facebook page? Looking for “authenticity” and “transparency” in social media is akin to looking to buy a loaf of bread and a carton of eggs in a hardware store. You’re in the wrong place.

THE REAL WORLD SUCKS EGGS

Perhaps the fascination with those two words stems from a desire to want the online world to be different than the “real world”. After all, the “real world” is full of hypocrites, false prophets, scoundrels, sorcerers, and used car salesmen. In the “real world” people smile to your face then stick a knife in your back as you turn away. In the “real world”, companies don’t care about the customer, they only care about making a buck. In the “real world”, nefarious salespeople will say and do anything to get you to buy their products. Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh my!

So they begin to wish for impossible things. They write about CEOs being more like the Dalai Lama; an economy based on exchanging gifts instead of cash for goods and services; they want every company that sets up a facebook page to be there simply to engage with them and be their “friend”, and they want the world to hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” as they gleefully watch all the wicked salespeople get thrown into a lake of fire. They want life to be easier; the world to be friendlier, safer. After all, social media is about sugar and spice and everything nice, right? Hmmm…

YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Ultimately, the evangelists for authenticity and transparency are just looking for the truth, yes? “Be yourself!” they cry from the virtual rooftops. But the funny thing is that when some of these people are actually confronted with authenticity, they’re made uncomfortable by it. When they encounter transparency, they don’t like what they see. It’s not the “truth” they were seeking. This truth differs from their own, disagrees with their beliefs, challenges their opinions. So they flee from it, block it, unfollow it. They retract back into their shells like the snail whose tender horns have been hit. They want authenticity alright, they just want it on their terms. The world would be a better place if everybody believed what they believe; thought like they thought, engaged like they engage. How’s that for authenticity?

So for everyone out there who preaches authenticity and transparency, ask yourselves these three questions:

“Is it reasonable to expect everyone I encounter online to actually be who they appear to be?”

“Is transparency all that necessary if I personally am not willing to share all my dirty little secrets with the whole friggin’ world?”

“Am I ready to accept authenticity and transparency if the views and beliefs expressed by others differs from my own or should I be careful what I ask for (because it just might slap me upside the head)?”

If you answered “No.” to anyone of these questions, please cease and desist from blogging, chatting, speaking, or writing any books on the importance in social media of those two beaten and bloodied words ever again. Thank you.

REALITY CHECK

So can authenticity exist in social media? Does it even matter? Authenticity is what you believe it to be – whether it actually is or isn’t shouldn’t matter as long as you’re enjoying the “engagement”, right? Can relationships be formed online that end up as lifelong friendships? Of course. But then you gotta take it to the “real world”, don’t you? And sometimes you end up pulling a few knives out of your back; dusting yourself off after getting thrown under the bus; wiping away a tear or two. But great rewards sometimes require great risk, yes? Fellow blogger Angel Magaña put it best in a recent blog post when he described social media relationship building as “trying to build a relationship with someone by limiting your interactions with them to casual glances through their living room window”.

“Authenticity” and “transparency” make for great blog fodder but they’re not a reality of social media and more importantly, they don’t need to be. When I want the real thing, I look to my wife, my family, my close friends. We’ve already invested the time (years) “checking each other out”; we’ve seen the best and worst of each other; been there to support each other during the tough times life throws at us; we’ve laughed and cried together. And the good news is you only need a few trusted souls to offset all the lies, hypocrisy, ego, hatred and indifference in the world. Can I get an “Amen”?

Your turn…

*Photographs by NuageDeNuit*

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May 5, 2011

Blog The Written Word

The Klout Myth and Living Above The Influence

by Dan Perez January 2, 2011

written by Dan Perez

If you spend any amount of time on twitter, you’re probably already familiar with Klout, a service which claims to measure your overall online influence. Much has already been written on the pros and cons of Klout (you can find several excellent observations here). To many, however, there is a big difference between real influence and online influence. When I see unemployed, 20-something year-old social media enthusiasts with Klout scores in the 70s, it makes me ask myself: “Who are they really influencing?”. Besides, what exactly does having a high Klout score really mean when Lady Gaga’s score is 90 and Bill Gates’ is “only” 77?

But surprisingly, there is quite an obsession with Klout on social media platforms. I believe for many, Klout is the main reason they “engage” on twitter. The basis of one’s Klout score is correlated to clicks, comments and retweets, so it makes all the sense in the world that the more you tweet, the better the likelihood of a higher Klout score and the “perception” of influence. In contrast, should you happen to take a hiatus from the twitterverse, you just might find your Klout score has dipped a bit (which for some is the equivalent of the sky falling). Such an obsession with something of such little value as one’s Klout score has got to pull time away from more important endeavors, no? Aesop, in one of his many fables, warned: “Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.”

THE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

This past New Year’s Eve, I asked my wife and my 13-year-old daughter to suggest three resolutions I should adopt for the new year. #1 on both lists was: “Stop spending so much time on the computer.” Translation? Start spending some more time with us. Now, a good portion of how I make a living is done editing my various video productions on a computer. But it made me take a look at where I’m spending the rest of the time when I’m not editing. I realized that I have indeed spent quite a bit of time frolicking on twitter, reading and commenting on blog posts, “engaging” in twitter chats…and not as much time with my family as I used to.

But has it been all for naught? My time on twitter has produced some pretty interesting results. Other than meeting several terrific people and reading many great blog posts, I’ve gained several thousand twitter followers, realized that my own Klout score rivaled that of some pretty well-established social media “gurus”, and was even asked to be one of the speakers at the UnGeeked Elite conference in Orlando this past Spring (unfortunately, event was cancelled. Totally not my fault. Really.). Not a bad year for my online influence, yes? But is it coming at the expense of my influence in the offline world? With my family? Maybe even my business? Perhaps it’s time to shift my focus back to the things that really matter.

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE

So, allow me to introduce five considerably more important “Influence Metrics” to monitor in 2011:

What’s your Klout score with your spouse? Are you “generating a high level of engagement” with him/her? We tend to take our spouses for granted as we seek the titles of “Thought Leader” and online “Influencer”. We spend hours perusing the web for new content for our blogs and new subscribers so we can finally be comfortable enough to post our feedburner subscription counts on our sites.

Still others (myself included) are consumed with growing their businesses – planning, strategizing, networking. We lead the charge in one direction only to find ourselves alienating our biggest supporter. We end up with a spouse who wonders why you don’t go out to dinner together anymore; why you can’t pull yourself away from the computer for just one night so that you can watch “Charlie St. Cloud” together. A spouse who has tuned you out because a “conversation” now consists of you talking about you. When your spouse starts asking you: “Remember when we used to…”, it’s time to start remembering.

What’s your Klout score with your kids? Are you generating “actions and discussions with nearly every message”? Are they “ambassadors” for your family’s “brand” and values? It’s great when @chrisbrogan retweets your blog post but is your child “retweeting” your message to their “followers” (friends)? You might have a Klout score in the 70s online but your “true reach” with your children might well be in the 30s. Is your quest for online influence taking up the time you could be playing catch with your kid? Having lunch together on a Saturday afternoon? Helping them with their homework? Sitting in the stands watching their soccer game (without staring at your smartphone the whole time)?

Your online Klout score features an “Influence Matrix” with numerous different classifications such as: Celebrity, Specialist, Socializer, Networker, and others. But how about just being #1 Dad to your child? Think I’ll choose that one.

THE “OTHER” COMMUNITY

What’s your Klout score with your clients? Is your product/service generating discussion with your clients? Generating “action” in the form of referrals? The potential of a social media community makes for great blog fodder but a job well done and referrals from your satisfied customers – that’s real. That’s a phone call from a prospect that goes something like this: “Hi, Dan. I’m looking to do a video for my company and the folks over at XYZ Company said you do a terrific job and are great to work with. Can we set up a time to meet up and discuss this project?” That’s measurable. How much time are you investing in making your product and service one that is worthy of being “amplified” by your clients?

What’s your Klout score in your community? What’s the “word on the street” on YOU? Does your community even know who you are? Oh, I’m sorry – I didn’t mean your “online” community (a large percentage of which you’ll never meet or even “engage” with), I’m talking about the community outside your window. Depending on your twitter following, you may find it’s a much smaller community but who ever said quantity mattered over quality? With the onset of social media, most people have forgotten that there’s a living, breathing community right outside their front door. A community where we can volunteer at a local non-profit agency, join a business networking group, be part of the ministry at our church, or simply join a bowling league. A community where people still look into each others eyes and shake hands.

Why? In a recent article from Entrepreneur.com called “What’s Important When You Refer People?“, not surprisingly, “knowing a person’s character” ranked No. 1. So can you really determine a person’s character by their tweets? Their twitter bio? In the 1997 film “Suicide Kings”, Charlie Barret, an ex-mob boss (played by Christopher Walken) tells a bunch of yuppies who have kidnapped him in an attempt to get out of debt: “But I come from out there, and everybody out there knows, everybody lies: cops lie, newspapers lie, parent’s lyin’. The one thing you can count on – word on the street… yeah, that’s solid.” Believe it.

THE MAN IN THE MIRROR

What’s the Klout score of the man in the mirror? Are you happy with the person looking back at you? If not, then here’s a better question: Can you influence the person looking back at you? In the end, if we can’t influence that person, what does all the online influence in the world really matter?

I took a look at the man in the mirror today and told him he needs to change. “Why?” he asked. “Because I’m not as proud of you as I used to be”, I replied. He asked “Why?” again. I told him to just shut up and do as he’s told. He stopped asking questions.

What new “Influence Metrics” are you going to start monitoring?

Photography by: http://www.bogacerguvenc.com

January 2, 2011

Blog The Written Word

Social Media, Space Aliens, and The End Of The World

by Dan Perez December 13, 2010

written by Dan Perez

As we near 2012 (December 21, 2012 to be exact), we’re certainly going to be hearing more and more about the end of the world drawing near (remember the Y2K madness?). There exist many different theories on how the world will actually end. Many believe the prophecies by the ancient Mayans whose “astronomically precise” calendar supposedly terminates on that date. Others believe the end will come in the form of deadly radiation from sun storms, while still others believe it will be the Armageddon predicted in the book of Revelations that will do us in.

Recently, I came across the great song “Pets” by Porno for Pyros on my ipod. The song makes the claim that: “we’re like the dinosaurs, only we are doing ourselves in much faster than they ever did.” The song goes on to ask: “Will there be another race to come along and take over for us? Maybe martians could do better than we’ve done?” And at that moment, a thought occurred to me: What if that’s how the world ends? Space aliens with superior intelligence alight on Earth, numb our brains and make us their slaves (pets)?

I then recalled the 1996 film, “Independence Day” – same premise, right? Evil space aliens try to take over Earth but we devise a strategy, fight back and take back the planet (thank you, Will Smith!). So why would aliens suddenly think they could come back and successfully take over Earth in 2012? Surely, the end result would be the same…right? But then I started to think about the world today and a shiver ran down my spine. I slowly began to realize that the world as we know it has been considerably dumbed down since 1996; before Lil Wayne, Jersey Shore, & social media. I came to the chilling conclusion that we are, indeed, ripe for an alien takeover! Here are my top reasons:

POPULAR MUSIC

Have you listened to the songs on the radio lately? My 13-year-old daughter (who controls the car radio) tortures me every time we ride in the car together. Whatever happened to the great hit songwriters/bands of decades past? Billy Joel, Phil Collins, Simple Minds, Sting, R.E.M., Lionel Ritchie, Smashing Pumpkins, Prince – can’t anybody write a decent song anymore? Today’s popular music makes the output of bands like The Bangles, Flock Of Seagulls, & Hall & Oates seem like slivers of genius. Rap music has been the biggest offender. The lyrically-clever, socially conscious hip-hop of Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy, KRS-One, Ice Cube, and many others of a generation ago has given way to the dumbed down lyrics of Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, & Drake. Why? The aliens are controlling the radio waves!

TELEVISION

Need much be said here? Sure, there are still plenty of good shows on TV but if you spend enough time flicking through the many cable channels, your brain might go numb with the stream of self-absorbed, shallow, and shameless characters running rampant on reality TV shows (checked out the offerings from Bravo recently?). The message? Party, have fun, get laid, get paid, be stupid…very stupid. What’s happening? Aliens have already taken human form and are masquerading amongst us in the forms of Snooki, Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, & the Real Housewives!

THE ENVIRONMENT

With reports of a looming global oil shortage, warnings of rapidly diminishing drinking water supplies, rising air pollution levels, global warming causing a potentially catastrophic rise in our sea levels, the still unknown environmental impact to our oceans by the dumping of chemical waste and oil spills – is it any wonder that Mother Nature is pissed off? She’s returned fire with an arsenal of deadly earthquakes, tsunamis, & cyclones leaving hundreds of thousands dead in her wake. It appears that over the past few decades, her patience has grown short; she’s grown tired of our repeated violations of her. I’m certain that the aliens are aware that if they don’t act soon, there may not be much of a planet left for them to inhabit.

THE ECONOMY

Unemployment rates are at record highs and close to two million people face the prospect of running out of benefits in the coming months. A recent study by John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc., estimates that a staggering five million houses and condominiums will go through foreclosure over the next few years. One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government. And we’re not alone. Most of Europe is also in the middle of a debt crisis; having fallen victim to their own credit-driven housing boom. We’re bruised and beaten; morale is low; our fighting spirit is waning. In Sun-Tzu’s “The Art of War” he states that, “The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord”. If there ever was a time for an alien takeover, this is it!

SOCIAL MEDIA

How could one of the greatest cultural phenomenons in the history of the world be making us stupid? When Lady Gaga has more than three times the following of Bill Gates on twitter, you really have to ask? Social media has created the perfect medium for distraction. It’s noisy – and the more people who get on twitter & facebook – the more noisier it gets. Information flashes by our timelines in the blink of an eye; links to blog posts that promise to show us “How To Monetize Your Blog”, idiotic proclamations such as “Marketing is dead!”, FarmVille, Mafia Wars, TEDx (ideas worth spreading?), graphs showing dramatic shifts in traditional business paradigms, online “influence” (who has it and how to get it!), SEO, ROI, klout, thought leaders, Tribes…lions, tigers, & bears, oh my!

In Orrin Edgar Klapp’s 1986 book, “Overload and Boredom: Essays on the Quality of Life in the Information Society”, Klapp contends that “constant inundation with information has led to nothing less than the attrition of meaning.” Redundancy and noise, Klapp asserts, have replaced resonance and variety in the modern world (Pssst! This was in 1986!). Moreover, the pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, who in the 1970s and 1980s, conducted a famous series of experiments on primate brains, believes that our brains are being “massively remodeled” by the constant distractions and interruptions the internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be “deadly”! Ouch.

The endless stream of information has made us believe we know more than we really do (“How to Become a Thought Leader in Six Steps”) and that we’re better than we really are (klout score). I fear that when the space aliens finally do arrive, many in our society will undoubtedly think the aliens have come to “engage” with us; to begin a “conversation”. They’ll baffle us with their über-advanced communication tools (oh, what amazing apps they must have!); they’ll begin to “build trust” with a pimped-out facebook fan page, their following on twitter will render obsolete the likes of Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher & Britney Spears; self-proclaimed “thought leaders” will flee the internet and burn their books – shamed by the superior intelligence of the aliens. The tabloids will be abuzz with reports of aliens partying with the cast of “Jersey Shore” at The Beachcomber in Seaside Heights, NJ. And before we know what hit us…well, let’s just say our fate will be decided in less time than it took the British to subdue the army of Zanzibar in 1896.

Maybe martians can do better than we’ve done. Perhaps, they’ll come to show us the error of our ways, to warn us of our own impending doom if we don’t smarten up. Then, after a while, return to their planet and leave us a better, smarter people. Whatever happens, one thing’s for sure – we’d make great pets.

Don’t you think?

December 13, 2010