For those out there writing Social Media and New Media “Strategy” for clients…AND…for those who are looking for help with finding your way through this Social/New Media madness, I do not do the following:
1) Manage YOUR social media and new media accounts for you or your organization. 2) Update or communicate your message via Social Media outlets for you.
I believe in empowering the community within the organization with the tools and technology, and help you use these tools to become the true brand ambassadors. It does not make sense for me to deliver YOUR message, you know your message best. Now, I am not a full service agency with tons of AE’s, a big creative department, and tons of interns…I am a small business. The logistics of this business model does not make sense for me.
What makes sense, help organizations understand the the technology, how it works, where the audiences are interacting, and help/let you build your community around your message. I work with people that know their message best. I just help organizations look through a different lens and see how these technologies can benefit your current strategy and help create and measure the social strategy.
It does not make sense to me to convince a large organization that I can and want to Tweet, Update, Check-In, Message, and Blog on your behalf. I want to be a part of your team and work with your community to create best practices and communicate your message. I want to work with people who want to build a community of people around a message…OR…build the message around the community.
These technologies are only technologies…that is it. I makes no sense for me to take over your message…I just want to empower you with the right tools and knowledge to utilize these tools. It is about building a community, connecting with people. How are you going to connect with people when I am the one doing the connecting. OH…YEAH, that gives me control and allows me hold the purse strings of the client. No! I work with my clients as colleagues.
Now…it may seem I am bit of an idealist, but how can I…and outsider of an organization…really speak on your behalf. Maybe this post is a bit brash or sometimes screaming…but I seeing more and more noise. I can work with you to create messages, deliver these messages, but not speak in real time via these channels for you. It just does not make sense to me.
The reason I wrote this…I am noticing more and more agencies/representatives speaking on behalf of organizations without being transparent via social/new media channels.
Final Disclaimer…the only time I do speak on behalf of the organization is only when it is absolutely necessary because of staffing or an “emergent” situation.
The creative zone can sometimes be so hard to find. It does not matter when we need to create, but if inspiration has not eclipsed to the point of transferring the epiphany to our actionable finger tips, then we have not crossed the creative chasm.
The other day, I was speaking to my class about writing passionately. It is hard to grasp this idea…to write passionately. To sit down and bring theatre to the fingertips…orchestrating what is singing in our heads as true articulation. We have a hard time jumping over that creative chasm…finding the happy place, the place where we call the zone. That is why so many creatives have writer’s block or dead periods. We sometimes take days to begin a project…mainly because it has not come to full understanding in our heads…in our hearts. We have to believe passionately about the message, the project. We have to feel it to articulate it verbally, contextually, visually, audibly .
How do we find the passion…well we have to look within ourselves and decide what makes us tick. What makes us peek up from the normal hustle and bustle of life? We have to focus in on the things that take us away from the status-quo and invigorate the juices in our heart, the passion inside us. What makes us smell the breathe of life?
How do we communicate our passion? We have to find a way to focus the energy…and be able to articualte it so others can see it through our eyes. Some of us write, some of us take pictures, some of us draw. What ever the medium may be…we have to allow it to connect with our inner thoughts as an instrument to translate, so others can see our point-of-view. The other day I watched a very successful entrepreneur articulate a vision, not through words, not through a powerpoint, but by drawing a graph, his medium…he crossed the creative chasm. No other way made sense, until he found a piece of white paper and a Sharpe.
What is the one place where you can go…the one place you know you can find the zone. You know, when you are fully in-touch with your passion? Athletes have it when they get on a hot streak, hit the next 5 three pointers back, to back, to back…without even hesitating. That is the zone…the happy place. The place where we are fully in-touch with our abilities to articulate our passion for others to see. Mine is when I am driving with the windows down and the music blasting. I go to my creative place, the place where I am in-touch with my ability to see things clearly.
Where is this place for you? Where is the zone? How do you find it to release your inner passion for others to clearly see the world through your senses…that is when we tell our story. It helps us lead!
It is my humble opinion that there are two types of use of Social Media outlets, those who use it to connect with a community and those who use it as a distribution mechanism.
Building a Community
Wiki defines: “The word “community” is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, “with/together” + munus, “gift”), a broad term for fellowship or organized society.” We are human creatures and we feel the need to connect with other like minded individuals. We use technology as a means to connect with this community. This technology to socialize with a community is what I define as Social Media. They use these technologies as facilitators to exchange language, common discourse.
Distribution Mechanism
Using “Social” Media outlets to only push information as mass communication. No interactivity, just one direction flow of information. Open an account, and broadcast…no reciprocation. This can be on a global basis where a account is used specifically to broadcast information, or even on a very local situation where a campaign only delivers information over Social Media accounts, information one way for a finite period of time.
Can you do both and still be social…and it still be considered Social Media. Why should we define this? Well, because we are users of this media…we should think about how we use it when interacting with a community. Think about it, do you get annoyed when someone continually updates their “Status” yet when you try to communicate…there is no response? Some even consider that Spam?
Wiki defines: “Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.” Do we spam the community each time we send out links, content, etc. without engaging in conversation within the community. Or is it when we broadcast over and over again, in bulk?
Marketers each day are beginning to include “Social Media(s)” as a distribution mechanism, another place to increase the SEO for their sites…is it all about SEO? Is it all about the massive homogenous linkage system we call the web to make Google happy on our behalf. Noise?
Now, I realize (that if anything) this is a self reflection to better understand an rationalize this medium. To better understand how we can use it more for the community engagement and less for the marketing, one-way pushing of information.
Social Networking Spam
Wiki also defines: “Social Networking Spam is spam directed at users of internet social networking services such as MySpace, FaceBook or LinkedIn. Users of social networking services can send notes, that may include embedded links to other social network locations or even outside sites, to one another. This is where the social network spammer comes in. Utilizing the social network’s search tools, he/she can target a certain demographic segment of the users, or use common fan pages or groups to send notes to them from an account disguised as that of a real person. Such notes may include embedded links to pornographic or other product sites designed to sell something.”
Do we Spam our friends everyday with our latest blog posts, our marketing links, our causes, our clients messages? It really does not feel like a conversation. I do it…write a blog post like this, and update my status so that I can share it with the world. I do it in bulk…because I update my status(s) multiple times in a week with a link. Do I create the noise that I am trying to resist?
Do we encourage our clients to use it as a distribution mechanism? Or do we eloquently phrase it so they feel like it is another touch point. Is this community really opting in to conversations when they freely click “Follow” or “Like”?
Sometimes I think we have to define and self examine our practices so that we better serve our clients and our community we so generously cherish. We are humans you know.
Blogging…what an interesting topic to write about. There are so many people out there who have better things to say about this platform…but I cannot hold back anymore. I am hearing and reading so many people struggling with this idea. I have so many clients who want to blog, or have tackled the idea…and they are struggling. So what is blogging? Well, if I could define it in one post…then something is wrong. Blogging is a personal experience. Blogging is about community. Blogging is about writing with passion. Blogging is about letting the technology give us a platform to articulate our thoughts for public consumption, then connecting with those who share in that passion. Yes…passion.
Over four years ago, my wife started a blog as a journal. She kept it semi-private without sharing her full name and her location. It was her journal. It was her place to write about her mother fighting breast cancer and loosing that battle. Her writing was candid and raw. Her blog was also about infertility. You see, we have experienced three miscarriages. This was her tool to write and greave. She has pissed people off by writing candidly about family and personal experiences during this time of grief. She has thought about moving the blog and going completely anonymous. But, she has stuck to her guns, wrote with passion, and built a community of people who share the same thoughts. We could not have paid for a better therapist than WordPress.
She writes with passion and she writes with focus. She shares her inner most thoughts, experiences, and ideas. She did not spend money designing some beautiful blog. She did not spend time paying someone optimizing for the SEO. She writes with passion. She also reads with passion. She seeks out other bloggers to learn about them. When she sees someone new commenting, she goes to their blog to learn more about them. She uses her blog as her social space to build friendships all over the country…and she knows more about them than some of our friends right around the corner. She does all of this for free on WordPress.
We marketers spend so much time thinking about the number of clicks, whether this logo should be bigger or smaller, the right web URL, commenting system, etc. What we forget…write with passion. Find a focus for your blog and write with passion. Then, go out and find similar people and read what they are writing. Use commenting as an opportunity to take a genuine interest in people. If we are business bloggers, find that business focus and write with passion. Show something personal about you so people have something to connect.
Sarah also does something very interesting. She password protects certain posts, only allowing certain people to read certain posts. Talk about generating interest…she has more people asking for the password than I have hits in a day for my business blog.
We think way to much. We also think if we just set-up a blog on WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous, etc…that people will just come and money will start flowing. UHH…HELL NO. Blogging is about writing…articulating thoughts, your thoughts. Blogging is that editorial place to share opinions, facts, information….through our eyes. What is your passion…write about it! Write about it consistently! Then, go out and find others that interest you…read their blog. Comment with passion and be authentic. Do not worry about technology, let the technology be the provide the platform to allow your writing flow freely.
Today…it was a day of cleaning. After a good weekend of social gatherings, thanks givings, and reflection…I spent time with family and less time with my online, social relationships. So, after the Christmas tree was picked…it was time to go outside and tidy up the yard for the winter season. I have three big oak trees around my house and a beautiful Japanese Cherry in my front year…boy do they shed some leaves. Time to pull out the rake and find the beautiful centipede underneath all those leaves. Thinking, raking, comtemplating…time to clean-up other areas as I move into the winter months, preparing for the New Year.
Social Media is just plain out getting noisy. It is about as noisy and overwhelming as those layers of leaves that needed to be raked. It is starting, well has become like a corporate minefield of noise. As more and more people, business, and applications dive into this new competitive playing field…it is becoming just as much like a machine as that corporate job I used to have.
Piles of leaves and a lots of raking to go…
Logging onto TweetDeck used to be fun. You could reach out to any person, anyone and more than likely get a response. Now, so many celebrities, corporate brands, big name CEO’s and people thinking they are celebrities have created noise and created the silos that these Social Media platforms were built to break down.
Now…the beating of the “man-chest” is about how many followers you have. These followers are not really followers, just people that have the opportunity to listen but not necessarily engage. They are like those piles of leaves just hanging out and covering what is green, what is fruitful.
The past year has experienced a tremendous amount of discussion on measurement and ROI…whatever the hell that means. We have lost the social…and yet implemented the business aspect of Social Media(s). Those who argue for the social, community aspect have sold out and are just as guilty as those they criticize…they are making a premium off speaking engagements and hefty social media retainers.
Disclaimer: Yes…I have a retainer with an organization to help with management of Social Media platforms. Yes, I get paid monthly. No, I do not Tweet and update Facebook on their behalf. It is their community and I just advise them on the best approaches and platforms to use to connect their communities. So, do I add to the problem…maybe, but trying to stay as pure as possible (whatever that means).
I need some water…and a new set of gloves.
I have totally locked down my personal Facebook account to people that I consider personal friends. I have un-followed one-third of the people I follow on Twitter a few weeks ago. I will do a cut list again. I am getting back to community. I am searching for a core community of people that want to grow both socially and professionally.
There are people on these platforms that used to answer questions, reply to mentions, and even carry a conversation…now they will not even answer a thought even when I ask with overly-nice tones. I used to tell my students that these Social Media platforms were a place that at anytime, you could have a conversation with a big corporate CEO…I barely believe that anymore. Reaching out in this space has turned into the same blackhole as trying to call them on the phone and getting an assistant or even talking to multiple customer service representatives at AT&T.
Social Media platforms are turning into true marketing platforms, another place to push information and less engagement. This is a rant, but I also think it is a sign in my mind that it is time to re-define why I use these platforms and who that I really want to connect with daily.
I DO NOT BELIEVE WE SHOULD DELETE OUR ACCOUNTS.
A few months ago, I found tons of merit in Spike Jones approach to get rid of the noise; close his Twitter account for two weeks, then re-open and start over. I like this so much…this was his way of getting through the noise. There is a lot of it. A lot of leaves. See…these leaves used to be green. On some of the trees that had beautiful blooms. Now, after they have changed so many colors…they pile up in my yard. They have piled up in my Facebook account, my Twitter account, my LinkedIn account, and even in my contact lists. Raking is a good thing, pushing them to the street for the city to pick-up.
So how do we get through the noise? How do we rake-up for the winter and get ready for new relationships?
1 – Write a mission statement for each Social Media account. What do I mean, write out how you want to use each account. How you will communicate with each account; who you want to allow or engage with using these accounts; if you will use it for business, personal, passion, cause, or all the above; and how often you want to use these accounts.
2 – Apply this mission statement to the people you follow and who follow you. Seriously, who do want to connect with daily? Use this as a barometer when you follow and also when you clean out your account.
3 – Clean-up your followers and who you follow. Go through an CLICK DELETE, UNFOLLOW, or BLOCK. Have that mission statement beside you when you clean-up, clean-out, block, and add back in.
4 – Clean-out all those many applications that connect through your social media accounts. We have so many different applications that connect and re-connect through out platforms from TweetDeck, Hootsuite, TwitPic, Seesmic, TwitVite, Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc., etc. Clean out those you do not use…these are platforms you have granted access to your accounts. This is the same as allowing tons of different people and companies having access to your email and bank accounts.
5 – Pick the right platform for you. It is not necessary to use all the platforms if it brings noise to your life. By us creating and starting an account, barley use this account, and leave it live without closing and not using it…we bring noise.
6 – Find and engage like minded people. Treat this online, social experience the same as an in-person social experience.
To be quite honest, I wrote this for myself. I needed to articulate for myself what was necessary for me to continue using and engaging with these platforms.
Sometimes we just want to tell too much! We do…we want to cram so much into one little story. If we have to create a 30 second video/tv spot, we cram as many words into the voice over as possible. Why…because we do not know how to keep it simple and put in terms of the audience. We are so worried we are not going to say everything we need to say, and our audience is going to miss the point. Oh yeah…maybe we are missing the point?
Storytelling is a craft…it is an art…it is stepping inside of the audience’s mind and seeing their perceptions and realities.
Let’s take a resume for just a quick second. How long is your resume? Is it one, two…three, five pages? We cram every little accolade, honor, and simple nothings that do not mean a hill of beans…except we can beat our chest and feel a little more closer to our ego. What is a resume? I think it is just a guide, and reference tool. I have yet to get a job based on my resume…seriously! You know why, because every resume looks just a like. Hell, there are people inflating that resume just a bit….pushing the limits to make ourselves seem special.
That resume is really a document that allows us to organize our thoughts and prepare us for an interview. It is a conversation piece, a study guide for the interview. Heck, it really is just a reference document when filling out a job application. But, why do we cram it full of stuff that means nothing.
We have a chance to tell a story…a real story.
Let’s take this little video from Apple. The new MacBook Air. By the way, my wife is dying to get one!
After watching this tv spot just one time, she understood everything she needed to know to make a purchasing decision. It is thin, sleek, and powerful. Did you see Apple craming a bunch of information about this little computer into 30 seconds? NO! They could have told you the dimensions, the processing power, the fact it has a solid state hard drive, or even abut that Intel processor inside. Nope…just a happy little tune and these two fingers pinching it and holding it up in the air. Enough said. Apple told a story…well actually a teaser. They told us enough to make the wife and I to get into the car, drive 40 miles to the Apple store so we could see if it was real.
It is not about cramming all the information into one piece of communication…it is about telling a story that engages the audience to see the message through your eyes. My students always ask me…how long should my paper be for this assignment? I tell them…it is not about length, it is about you telling me your story in way that I can see the whole argument (beginning, middle, and end) through your eyes. Whether it is one paragraph or a hundred paragraphs, as long as you tell the story.
Blogging is just a place to really express thoughts, ideas, passions…it is editorial and can be a place of free flowing ideas and thought streams. But monetizing a blog is very entrepreneurial. During a Sunday night #BlogChat on Twitter, Mack Collier’s (@MackCollier) weekly discussion group around blogging on Twitter, Daren Rowse (@problogger) moderated the topic focused on monetizing your blog. As I was sitting back and watching the discussion, I posed the question to Daren…”At what point did you begin monetizing your blog, what was your tipping point?” Daren posed this response:
At first I took as a simple smart ass response to avoid a longer discussion amidst this fast past, Sunday night chat. Pfft. But, I sat back and thought for a few minutes. I realized his quick response had merit…spoken from a true entrepreneur. Now, he knew there was a big need out there for great content, but he knew that he needed to pay for his passion instead of letting the expense of the blog not provide a return.
Monetizing a blog is VERY entrepreneurial and *can* have a very small return on investment, maybe??? But let’s think about that for a second, how do you measure return? What is the basic business question…what need is out there that we/you can provide a solution and bring it to market and bear a “profit”? What do you deem as a profit? Monetary profit, web traffic, PR, exposure to services, expressions of thought/ideas???
Think about this for a second: Did You Know…
According to WordPress, “There are over 27 million WordPress publishers as of September 2010: 13.9 million blogs hosted on WordPress.com plus 13.8 million active installations of the WordPress.org software.”
According to The Future Buzz in January 2009, ” The number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002 are 133,000,000 and the number of people who globally read blogs are 346,000,000.”
According to Technorati on November 3, 2010, “After Hobbyists, Self-Employeds make up the largest cohort, representing 21% of bloggers. Such bloggers say they ‘blog full time or occasionally for their own company or organization.’ 57% say they own a company and have a blog related to their business, while 19% report that their blog is their company. 65% say they manage their blog by themselves. Reflecting their professional nature, Self-Employeds are the most likely to blog about business, with 62% saying they have much greater visibility in their industry because of their blog.”
Point being…there are a lot of people blogging and a lot of people reading. Lots of competition, you better have a tremendous business plan behind your blog if you intend to “monetize” those very words you so carefully craft. Yep…monetize your thoughts, your passion, your eloquence. You think you can just sit down and write and expect they will come…sounds like the pipe-dream of a business that cannot make it past year two with an SBA loan. The ole “Field of Dreams,” if you build it…they will come!
In the movie…it nearly bankrupt the family. They were not waiting for the players to come out of the corn fields, they were waiting for those people with $20.00 bills to see those ghostly players take the diamond, to enjoy America’s past time. Risk…lots of risk.
But what do we really risk by putting a blog out there. I mean, you probably are only spending a monthly hosting fee, design time, maybe paying someone to build it for you? Maybe the most hard costs incurred is at most $600 in a year. Then you are talking about that creative time, that creative tension…that passion that you so eloquently craft with each word in the hopes you will connect with your audience. But at some point, after the confidence has been built and your realize your investment…it is time to make some cash! Yes, you are an entrepreneur…take that little bit of hard costs and lots of that sweat equity and turn into a monthly little bonus. And, if you can work hard…you begin focusing your writing (according to audiences), take part in some adwords and other paid ad campaigns, and you really generate traffic, clicks, and cash. But did you set out to make cash or did you set out to be heard? Or did you set-out to generate interest for your business as a small business owner?
In 2006, my wife set-out to write a journal. Overtime it turned into a full scale blog that tackled topics like breast cancer and infertility. Slowly over time, she gained an audience and built some online relationships. It became her support group…her place to release her thoughts and connect with like minded individuals. She shared her joys, pains, laughs, and cries as she wrote openly and honestly about loosing her best friend, her mother to breast cancer. She revealed to all her struggles with infertility. She had not built a community…she found her voice. But wait…she was not looking to generate any money. She did not set-up those pay for click campaigns…but how is she monetizing her blog? Her value came from the community…her place to share open discourse. Is she any less of an entrepreneur? No…she is more of a social entrepreneur.
I think it is up to us to find what we want to monetize in a blog. With so many audiences and so many spaces to fill with the free flowing words that come from our hearts…we must have a focus in our writing. We put ourselves out there, and for the first time in this world of publishing, we have a platform to feel somewhat equal to those journalists and accomplish authors who make money from their published/broadcasted voices. It is still about community and we as entrepreneurs still have to find a need, a reason to write…because ultimately we want someone to read. Thanks Daren for making me think a bit! Monetize this!
I am coming up on the one year anniversary of officially being out on my own. Yes…it is going to be a big day for me. Little context, in January 2007, I entered the world of start-ups joining a technology company. Great group of people, but it ended up being an evolution of previous technology companies rolling over debt from one to the next. They closed the doors the day after I closed on our house. Me and few of my co-workers decided to negotiate the purchase of that business (client list and assets), and off I was jumping into another start-up with new partners. What a learning experience.
What did I learn? Well, choose partners wisely and have a good agreement in-place. I also learned that I had the personality and the drive to venture out on my own…and do what I am passionate about, telling stories. My former partners are now running a successful business and pushing forward with their vision and I am excited for their success. So here I am, less than a month from starting Bobby Rettew, llc.
So now as I am in planning stages for year two…I am putting together my strategic plan for the next few years. I am excited about the opportunities, some cool projects on the horizon, and thinking through how I want to grow my business. This is the fun part…planning the dream and putting a plan in place to make it happen.
I am also excited about my teaching career and growing academically. It is my humble opinion that teaching at a major university has given me credibility and opened doors that normally would take years to open. I began teaching at Clemson University with the Advanced Writing Program, teaching Business Writing in the Department of English. I was able to leverage that opportunity to create a student led networking event called NetworkBash. These events have been great over the last two years. Now I am joining the Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurship to begin teaching Hybrid Entrepreneurship this coming spring. This growth academically has taught me how to manage my business, my clients, my classes, and serve my passion…to tell stories.
So how do we meet our goals, how do we push forward? How? Well, I am not perfect but this is what I am thinking.
1. Have a focus! Yes, know who you are and where you are going. What is the mission statement for your business? Seriously think about what problem(s) are you trying to solve and can you generate revenue by servicing this need? Balance your passion with how you can generate revenue. We are in business to make money…right?
2. Have a plan! Not only a simple business plan…but a short term and long term business plan that maps out goals; covers all aspects of your business. What happens if you hit a recession, what happens during a time of growth, where do you want to grow and how will you get there? This plan should be re-evaluated on a quarterly basis for goal setting, then yearly for revisions and re-focus.
3. Have a mentor! Find someone that you can talk to outside of your business. This person should be someone you can trust and provide perspective while building and growing your business.
4. Grow professionally! Have a place to step outside of the business, a place to stretch the brain and grow. This could be conferences, continuing education, workshops, etc. Plan to take time off for this growth, and plan financially for this expense. I just joined WOMMA and this is a huge investment for me and my business. Not only financially but also when it comes to time commitment. I want to leverage this knowledge for my business growth.
5. Grow your network! Continue to grow your sphere and be willing to remove people from your sphere if they are not helping you grow. Continually evaluate and re-evaluate where you spend your time networking and where you can find like-minded people.
6. Retain professional help! Have a good accountant and attorney. They will not only provide professional advice but will help you grow your business and protect your interests. I have both and THEY ROCK! TJ Way of Nason Way Accounting, LLC and Andy Arnold of W. Andrew Law Firm make my life easy!
7. Make time for family! Work hard and play hard. I take three vacations a year with a minimum of a week each. This lets me get away from business and re-energize. Also…know when to turn off business when you are home with the ones you love. I am always learning to make this distinction…it can be tough!
8. Have the desire to grow! Seek ways to become a better person and know that you have faults. Be willing to grow from each decision you make!
9. Treat your customers/clients like family! It is all about relationships. You want to be on the speed dial so that you can be their expert.
10. Love your business! Keep the passion alive so people can feel that passion when you walk in the door.
Where am I taking this business, well that is for me to know and you to find out. No big secrets…just working on my year two plan. But I do know this…my failures over the last 20 plus years have taught me so much. From starting as a broadcast journalist, through graduate school, multiple start-ups…and now my own deal. I am so fortunate to be where I am today. I just want to have some fun! Year two…here I come! Also…my CFO (my wife) has given the ultimate support needed to be successful, thanks beautiful!
So I have been asked to join the Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurship at Clemson University as a lecturer. I have been teaching Business Writing in the Department of English for the past two years…so this is going to be a fun challenge. It is funny how things happen, people you meet, and how planets align. After meeting with Dave Wyman this morning, he is the Interim Director of the Spiro Institute…we have a great plan for this class.
If you are interested in the curriculim of the Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurship, CLICK HERE and you will see the class I am teaching: ELE 499 – Executive Leadership and Entrepreneurship III provides an opportunity for high-potential students to participate in an entrepreneurial field experience such as starting their own businesses or participating in a special project.
So what is Hybrid Entrepreneurship? Hmm…well this will be part of the introduction to this class. But, let’s try to define. If you look at the triangle above, you will see the three points entitled Entrepreneurship, Cause/Passion, and Profit/Discipline. If you look at Wikipedia, it defines the word “entrepreneur” as a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. Bottomline, the person(s) see a need, take a calculated risk to bring this idea to market with the sole purpose of gaining a return or profit. The other point of the triangle is “Cause/Passion” where someone has the desire and the passion for a “cause” and solves a social problem. And the “Profit/Discipline” point is where a person(s) gains some return from this idea using some defined discipline. Hybrid Entrepreneurship falls right in the center of this triangle.
Some would say that this sounds like Social Entrepreneurship? Hmm, well one again Wikipedia does a good job! Social Entrepreneurship is defined as someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.
Social Entrepreneurs tyically have the goal to take the “profit” that is generated from the venture and re-invest back into the cause. Making a profit is not the ultimate goal but a byproduct of the greater good for the cause.
Some people think that Hybrid Entrepreneurship to be similar, if not the same, as Social Entrepreneurship. Hybrid Entrepreneurs are ones that have the same social responsibility yet have no problem with making a profit, and are willing to disclose this part of the purpose.
So…what is the purpose of the class? Well, to teach students about Hybrid Entrepreneurship and find opportunities/projects in the community to help solve problems and create business ideas to solve these problems.
Here is the fun part about this class…we will be using video and social media to document and track the projects in this class. The class will be structured to achieve a couple of goals:
1) We will be taking requests from community organizations that have some “problem” that needs to be solved…they have a need. These organizations will submit a request and the class will pick 5 to 6 different problems/issues to analyze. We will invite these organizations to the class to make a 10 to 15 minute presentation and the class will make an assessment then recommendations. Then the presenting organization will select the best recommendations during the class session. We will do this over a four week period.
2) The next part of this class will be dedicated to finding a social problem and solving this issue. The natural part of the first section of this class. The students will be exposed to local organizations and their problems through the above presentations. This will create a natural dialogue…to look for other similar ideas to solve. OR, they can pick from one of the presentations. This project will be to find, research, and solve a problem…then present in s a final presentation using video and presentation slides. The students will have to document this process using video (probably flip cams) and online properties like Twitter and Blogs.
The goal of this class, to explore the idea of Hyrbid Entrepreneurship through research and praxis. I LOVE IT!
I would love to hear from you? Have any examples of Hybrid and/or Social Entrepreneurship? Please share!
Much of this blog was based on information from Will Marre, check out his site by CLICKING HERE.
Hi my name is Bobby and according to my wife, I am gadget freak. Yes, I have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, PS3, AppleTV and on and on and on. I love gadgets. I love the accessories that go with these gadgets.
I love bags. No…I am not a guy with tons on man bags. I have tons of camera equipment, lighting equipment, cords, gizmos, and gadgets to do my job. Oh yeah…I have other bags for my laptop, iPad, books, etc. So I love the idea of finding the best bag possible to organize these things and make them quickly assessable. My life…my entrepreneurial life…my small business life…quickly assessable.
Digital Dependancy
Everyday, I use these things that we depend on so much in this new digital life. Google Calendar, Google Docs, MS Word, iCal, BaseCamp, Quickbooks, Mobile Me, iMail, etc, etc, etc. I use these everyday to organize and execute my life to serve my clients. OK…are you annoyed? Yes…I am. My head is spinning.
Think about your day. If you are a technology person or live in this Corporate Americano…we are influenced to use so many digital tools. We check our email, update our calendar, take notes, use the CRM, pull out the iPad, take notes on paper, save our contacts in three places…we try so hard. This is a true digital divide…dividing us between all the devices/software and efficiency.
Have you tallied up your communication and online communication costs? How about the time invested in creating the best tool from a piece of open source code? Oh yeah, how much time do you spend sifting through emails or even multiple email accounts? How many newsletters are you getting each day? How many different passwords do you have to remember for each login between all of those technologies?
So…I put my foot down.
I spent more time stressing out about what I am doing next and where to find what I am doing next. Notice the last sentence was in past tense! Yes…I have an assistant, but using the “digital” to find the “digital” is creating a huge digital dependancy. Why do think we text, Tweet, and consistently review our digital device while driving…because we can and we hope we can stay in-tune with our information. We do not have a clear plan.
So I went old school!
Yep…I did it and I have a planner again. Yes, you know that organizer that is a day timer? Yep, it is about the size of my graduate school classical rhetoric book. Guess…what, it is WORKING. Also…It has me thinking about all this digital dependancy.
WHY DO WE DO IT?
Because if you are surrounded by the crowd I am around (offline and online), then you are always hearing about the next big tool, next big CRM, next gadget, next organizational “do-dad”…and we try it. We are entrepreneurs, small business owners, and we want the edge…the edge to get ahead. We live technology and we are conditioned to believe that killing trees is not the answer…just a better gadget.
Back to basics.
Yes…I have moved to the planner full of paper, a calendar, organizational tools, place to take notes, place to journal. Oh, I still use my iPhone and iPad with the calendar so my assistant can keep up with what I am doing. I am getting rid of all the stupid newsletters and blog posts delivered. I am also using my hand to write. It is amazing how much this helps me clear my head and articulate my thoughts. Plus…if I can add 30 minutes of time back to my life each day, then that is more time with the things I love…my family.
We are visionaries!
We are creative and we are strategic. We have passion and willingness to work infinite amount of hours to execute an idea. But sometimes, it is hard to lead. Seriously! This is by means no admission that I have not tried or will try again to successfully lead a group with a common mission/goal. It is a self-reflection that I realize that I was not pre-disposed to be a natural born leader. I think? We just believe in tomorrow’s human capital!
We generate great ideas!
We live in a world that beats to many different drums. We feel our path and not objectively understand how to get to the final resting place. But we understand that the path is so much fun. Our ideas do not come to us during a planning session, they happen in the middle of the night when we least expect. They happen in the shower or when we are screaming down the road at 85 mph with the windows down. But the logical side of our brain knows and understands that we must capitalize on that very moment of true epiphany. We must implement the creative thought right when it pops in our brain. You will find us running through the house stark naked to jot down the idea, draw that vision, create that master piece. We will cut across five lanes of traffic under creative transcendental inspiration, just to get to the side of the interstate to jot it down. We are passionate about our ideas.
We need implementors!
We need help. We see the vision and can articulate the vision, but we rely on those who have the expertise to help us implement the vision. The vision is clear in our head…so clear we can almost reach out and touch it. But, we need those who can decipher our vision into a palatable final product. Yes, we can be technicians of our trade, but as practitioners we understand to rely on those have the technical expertise to make the final product shine!
We like living within our creative freedom!
We know when to turn on that perfect song to get us into a creative rhythm. We like to spread our wings and let the emotion of the story influence the direction. We get so in-tune with our creative thoughts that those looking in have a hard time communicating with us during the moments of inspiration. We can see the lips flapping, but the words just do not register. We are in the zone. We are in the place where we so connected with our big “T” truth, that it only makes sense to us. It feeds our ego and separates us from others. We love our passion.
Structure is a necessary evil!
We understand that organization is the one thing that still keeps us human. It is that calendar or the to-do list that brings us back to reality. It is that assistant that is so OCD about keeping structure, that we knew when we hired them…it was necessary for not only our mental sanity but to ensure we kept our business thriving. We find value in the other side of the brain, just sometimes it is hard to make it happen.
Our minds rationalize differently!
We articulate our thoughts verbally so that we when hear ourselves say it out loud, we can then find the holes in the idea. We speak in tangents and outliers that ultimately have meaning to the bigger story, but we have to rationalize it in our own brains just to get to the final point. We chose to take the road less traveled because sometimes we do not like to feel mainstreamed. We like the opposing argument, just to argue that position with out any pre-disposition…because we can! We like a-typical. We want to be in the minds of those we are trying to influence, so we can understand how to truly create and influential piece of creative. We are flat out manic!
We do not create on a timeline!
What is a timeline…oh, that thing that keeps us on task. We just cannot force our inspiration…it just happens at 3am when the dog happened to lick our face and that is the one little thing that made it all click. We procrastinate because we work better under pressure, knowing we have to deliver the best thing since sliced bread in the next few hours. It is like a drug…the ability to create a masterpiece in a tight timeframe knowing inspiration will hit us at that an unknown moment. Then we deliver and sleep like no tomorrow.
We lead by example!
We lead from our hearts, our passions, and our past experiences. We want to create a community of ideas, bring people together with a common vision, and allow them to create more pieces of fine art. We have been down that road before. Living the dream with bad bosses, bad corporate structure…and it is our hope to make it a little better for those that will lead us to the next millennium. Why, because we believe in our future. We believe we must give back because those we are trying to inspire will be the ones who decide how our legacy(s) will live for the next millennium.
Enough of this Follow Me stuff! Seriously, I follow enough stuff already. Follow me tells me you are going to push your brand, your thoughts, your ideology on me…one tweet, one post, one update at a time. Really, are we so self-indulged to think that everyone has something so important to say that we must follow everything. That is not social…it is a dictatorship of push notifications.
Say yes to join! Join the conversation, join the community, join the fun…join not follow.
Think about it the next time you set-up a campaign. But who really wants to create a campaign, everyone creates campaigns. Why not create communities. Communities do not follow everyone in the group, they join a conversation. They area community of people with common conversation.
How about just share! Share the conversation.
We are so excited that we have created a social media account, we want to stamp it on every freaking media outlet from television, print, websites, post card, etc. We place icons on these pieces with something that says “Follow Us.” But how do we follow you when you do not even put the URL for us to click and type. I guess “you” spent so much money on these campaigns, you feel like you have to tell everyone and include the social networks to make sure the “target audience” follows the message. But what happens after you follow? Seriously, what do I do after I follow. Should I sit back and feel excited that you are now going to overwhelm me with updates and not even let me join the conversation. Because when I follow you, you do not even have the common courtesy to respond with a conversation after all of your push notifications.
We are so excited that we created these campaigns, we do not even think of the un-sustainable effect they will have with a “Follow” mentality. Why…because what is going to happen when the person who is pushing the information leaves, changes, looses interest in the campaign. If it is all push, then the community is not leading the charge…the community is the sustainable part of the message.
Say no to Follow and yes to Share! Go find the community and build the technology around the community to facilitate engagement.
A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with one of the Social Media team members with Greenville Hospital System. They showed me this little idea they created! Little cards that had intriguing little quotes that complimented a Social Media outlet they were trying to promote. These cards were used to hand out, place around town, used to give out in the hospital, or even at events.
How cool! They are almost the size of playing cards using the branded colors of the Greenville Hospital System. Each card had a different phrase or quote promoting a Social Media account, whether it was the Careers Twitter Account (@ghs_careers) or the main Facebook account for the hospital (Facebook.com/GreenvilleHospitalSystem).
What a fun little way to spread the word or even prompt a conversation about the information or community surrounding a Social Media account. So simple, thoughtful, and intriguing. It is so hard to find intriguing ways to promote Social Media accounts. So many organizations and people are using Social Media to promote Social Media. When you are trying to build community, you have to assume that most people have not used these platforms or do not know the actual URL (account username) to find these accounts online.
I even see many organizations advertise on billboards/flyers and use the Twitter bird or the Facebook logo with the phrase “Follow Us.” FAIL! Nice Try! You cannot assume that people reading these promotions know how or where to find these accounts online. If you look at the bottom of each of these cards, you will see the actual URL address for the Social Media account they are promoting. Even the Facebook cards have an image with the thumbs up “Like” logo indicating the action item desired.
I just think these is so smart, it is fun to watch organizations find innovative ways to use media to engage a community with new forms of media.
To learn more about Greenville Hospital Systems Social Media presence, CLICK HERE or go to http://www.ghs.org/socialmedia
Today, I was invited to attend the first in a series of First Friday Speaker Presentations by the Spiro Institute at the new campus for Clemson University called Clemson At The Falls. It is a center for Professional Advancement and Continuing Education located in downtown Greenville, SC. Today’s speaker was Steve Edwards talking about “Amazing!!! Simple Tools to Transform Your Life from Ordinary to Amazing.” I talked more about my thoughts and reactions to the insightful presentation in the above video.
The next event by the Spiro Institute will be October 15th at the Brooks Center for Performing Arts. The event is titled Entrepreneurship Tomorrow and will be featuring:
Nikki Haley – Republican Nominee for Governor of South Carolina
Steve Edwards – CEO of the Edwards Group
Greg Smith – VP & GM of Xerox Mortgage Services
It will be moderated by Claude Lilly who is the Dean of the College of Business and Behavioral Science. To learn more about the event, CLICK HERE.
Why do we use Social Media technologies? To me…to connect and build communities of like minded individuals. Why do you use Facebook for your business? Do you use it to just update with information and events? How about use it for what it was originally designed to do, build a community of people to share and connect.
One of my favorite Facebook Page communities is the Clemson Alumni Association’s Facebook Page. You should check it out some time. If you look at the image in this post from the Facebook Page (look below), you will see how the community engages with each other. This was a video post letting everyone know that homecoming is right around the corner, bottom-line a reminder to mark your calendar. If you look below the video, someone that was new to the Clemson Homecoming experience posted a question. People from the community stepped in and engaged the conversation, reinforcing the experience. You do not see the Clemson Alumni Association respond till later, but the community of fans were the ones leading the conversation.
Do you want to control your community or do you want to let your community grow…let the technology be the platform to connect and engage. I choose the 2nd option. Are you building Social Media platforms to push information or a creating a place that connects and engages like minded people. Does it have to be a Facebook Page, Twitter Account, YouTube Account…could it just be a regular lunch meeting using a calendar as the technology that allows to connect.
I want to thank my buddy Dave Lee for inviting me to join his NFL Fantasy Football League this season. This has been a fun place for us to connect, share in our love for the game, and meet new people. Oh, by the way…it has helped me get into the NFL and follow the success of one of my favorite Clemson Tiger Alums, CJ Spiller. What a cool Social Media technology that has connected like minded people.
Collaborative writing…well that can be tough, but collaborative video editing? This can be difficult, exhausting, time consuming, etc….but maybe not? Collaborative storytelling is the way I like to look at it. Five months ago, I was asked to work with the Call Me MISTER program to help create a 10 year anniversary video project for their big summit. The goal was to interview many of the “MISTER’s” and supporters of the program, allowing them to talk about the program through their eyes.
It was a team of us traveling all over North and South Carolina to interview each of the 20 individuals, our guide was just a few questions. What we found…a lot of stories to be told, each with a different viewpoint of the Call Me MISTER program.
The Call Me MISTER program is an initiative to place black males as elementary teachers in the class room. That is it…you can look beyond the initiative and derive more underlying themes, but there is a need especially here in South Carolina to change the face of our educational system. What a better way to do so than to place educated, black males as role models, as educators. Not football players, not rappers, not drug dealers…but teachers, leaders, educators. This initiative is based at Clemson University with many black colleges in South Carolina with this program in place.
We interviewed many of the “MISTERS,” the graduates of this program. We interview the presidents of each of the South Carolina institutions (Clemson, Benedict, Claflin, and Morris). We interviewed those who support the program including Wachovia, Doris Buffet (Sunshine Lady Foundation), Mott Foundation, DuPont, and the Self Foundation. We found so many stories, so much passion, so much that needed to be conveyed.
So when all the interviews were complete, this team worked together in a room and took close to five hours worth of video interviews, and collaboratively constructed four final video messages. We collaboratively decided beginning, middle, and end. We created criteria which helped us clarify what was to be cut and what was to be included; to support the mission and the audience’s needs.
Each one of us had our own predispositions, our own viewpoints, and we learned to identify what comment was purposeful and what did not add value to the mission. We all had a deciding factor in the construction of the storyline, all four of us. We listened to the stories and to each other; and we let the MISTER movement dictate the message.
What a great way to tell a story, a collaborative way to find the story within the story. We listened.
