The Value of Optimism

Ever since Kat D left a comment on my blog post about risk taking to let me know that "I forgot to discuss positivity," this topic has been lurking under the surface of my consciousness waiting to be fully processed. Not only was the concept missing from my post, it was completely missing from my understanding of my own risk-taking behavior.

Kat went on to say, "you need to be a positive person to find the courage to take risks," and you know, she's right. Being positive and having optimism is an absolute necessity for courage and successful risk taking. I will take it one step further here and say, it is also, the single most important element to manifest your future life experience.

I can pretty much bucket everyone I have ever known during my thirtysomething years into two different groups: "Optimists" and "Everyone Else." I won't call the "Everyone Else" people "Pessimists" -- I've had enough conversations with these folks to know that they prefer to call themselves "Realists." I personally have a problem with that definition, and so, for the sake of facilitating an open discussion, I'll stick with "Everyone Else."

An optimist, by definition, has an "inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events." And I will define "Everyone Else" as people that have the "inclination to put the harshest construction upon action, events and the future." What I don't know (and would love to hear your thoughts) -- is this a trait or a choice? 

I think it is a choice, although perhaps for many, an unconscious one and I'll tell you why:

Optimists aren't optimists because we are idiots. Let's be clear. We see all the same obstacles and f-d up circumstances "Everyone Else" see but we CHOOSE to focus on what' s good and possible. We CHOOSE to look for the tiny gaps under, over, and around each obstacle. And let me make it known, it's a lot of damn work to make these choices day in and day out. And it's even harder work in the face of constant pessimism from "Everyone Else."

What if we all were pessimists or "realists?" What if nobody ever said "look the bright side," or "Yes, we can?" What would the world be like then? I'll tell you -- it would suck more than it does now. Nobody would encourage each other. Nobody would be pushing for positive change. Nobody would work on the biggest issues facing our nation or our planet -- why would they?  The obstacles are admittedly daunting. But -- in my opinion -- there is nothing smarts, ingenuity and hard work can't solve.

A new but great friend recently said to me, "What if someone told you right now you could build anything in the world? What would you build? Now, what if you were 5 and someone asked you that? What would you be able to imagine then?

That single comment opened my mind to possibilities far greater than what I had been imagining for myself before. I am now re-imagining my world through that lens. Imagining a life where my work is always important. Where my best assets and skills shine. Where I have an amazing and talented network of men and women surrounding and mentoring me at every step. Where truth and integrity win.  Where authenticity is the norm, and where happiness, health and money flow with abundance.

Because that is the value of optimism -- I can dream and believe without boundaries. I can envision my perfect world and I can work to make it happen.

And before your personal auto-responder pops up, let me say, I don't want to hear one "realistic" opinion about it. BUT, I would like to hear about your dreams. In a perfect world without limitations, what do you dream?

And if there's one thing these years of being an optimist has taught me, it's that sharing your dreams with other optimists brings you one step closer to manifesting them. Other people rise to meet and support you and they are the ones that often have the key you need to open the next door.

And every door you open, builds your well of courage to take the next step. And then, all of a sudden, you are courageous enough to jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.*

* Adaptation of quote by Ray Bradbury

By Gretchen Fox, Social Architect at grtchnfx

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"@gretchen," Q&A: Getting Resources for Social

 @gretchen

Q:

How can I get city government officials to understand the need for social media, and the necessity for pouring more resources into it?
~ Valleri Merrill

A:

Hello Valleri,

Thank you for your question -- it’s a smart one. I understand how frustrating this task can be. In the early part of my career, I spent many years teaching the value of social to people who didn’t "get it" but held the purse strings.

The answer is 1) understand your overall business KPIs, 2) define your target audiences and messaging and 3) choose and prove which social tactics will solve the specific needs of the business (or city, in this example).

As one example, you might have an important initiative to increase water conservation behavior in your city. So, instead of pitching a high level concept about the need to increase social fan/follower counts for the City government pages, you could demonstrate a specific social tactic that would help drive awareness and activity around water conservation.

Next, you would identify the target audience and messaging for this initiative. Can you determine the demographics of the households which are not conserving enough water? Defining specific audiences will help you create messaging customized to their needs. For example, if college students are your target audience, you will want to communicate differently than if senior citizens are your target audience.

After you have defined your audience, you can choose which social network and content type would best reach and engage this audience. For younger audiences, Twitter, Instagram and Viddy are popular, but with over 1 Billion people and hyper-targeted advertising options, Facebook is often the best platform to start.

Let's say in this example, you choose Facebook because it's the best fit for your audience. You could create a Page post with your key messaging and then Promote that post into an engagement ad targeted to your specific audience demographics.

Next, you have two options:

1) Find published examples of successful work meeting these goals (here are 105 Facebook advertising case studies).

2) Run a small, affordable test to prove your tactic will work in this capacity.

For number 2, you will want to create a baseline to determine how well these goals are being met currently, and then measure your test regularly to see if you can see any changes & correlation. The gold is always in the data and you can learn a lot from very small data sets.

Please, note, all the data in the world won’t help prove social is a good use of resources if it doesn't meet the specific goals of the decision-makers. Once they see social channels are a good place to grow their business, they will be more willing to invest. And once you have some tactical successes, you can start working on a larger strategy for the organization.

I hope this is helpful, Valleri. I am interested to hear from other social professionals on this topic, as well. Anyone have a different approach?

(Questions can be submitted through my contact page. Please, write “ANONYMOUS” at the top of the message if you don’t want me to mention your name.)

By Gretchen Fox, Social Architect at grtchnfx

Bands and Brands, It's Time for an Official Union

Stop denying it, you guys are meant for one another.

If you don't work in music you might not know it, but bands and brands are exactly the same thing. Well, except of course, bands are cooler.

The similarity between the two is one of the first things that stood out to me after leaving Silicon Valley for the LA music industry. The concept maybe simple, but the opportunity is rich... and ripe for the picking.

To be specific, after the loss of revenue from record sales, bands need brand money; And with the voracious appetite of social media fans, brands need a constant supply of content -- and a way to be cool as word-of-mouth rules the webwaves.

For the non-concert promoter: Just as brand marketers launch products, the band managers, agents, and promoters launch concerts respectively but at a MUCH faster rate. Brands launch a new product often just a few times a year while the band's team does a full launch for every show at every venue.

Most brand managers can't even imagine the day-to-day reality of this. We're talking pitch materials, marketing plan, budget, graphic design, banners, videos, TV ads, radio ads, print, PR outreach, promotions, promotional events, social messaging/content, FB events, mobile messaging, and on and on - show by show by show. The volume is mind-boggling.

And then to crank it up a notch, the Band's image must be on-point and on-brand across all of these venues, shows, channels and media. Trust me, you don't ever want to portray an artist in any way other than how he/she/they want to be portrayed. Which means, the execution must be nothing short of perfection.

This is where the Band Manager becomes the Brand Manager. The two best I've seen are Jonathan Kessler, who manages the forever cool Depeche Mode, and Amy Thomson, the architect of the masterful rise and exit of Swedish House Mafia.

These band managers go through the same steps as any brand marketer except for one big difference: they have to maintain and protect their je ne sais quoi - it's critical. This elusive, magical quality is the one thing every brand wants but few have been able to attain.

The ability to be cool is fairly easy for bands. Just ask any guitar player in the 10th grade. It's the building and maintaining of it -- either for decades or up until a perfect exit at the top -- that is nothing short of Art. This achievement is almost always an actual brand managers dream never come true.

How is it that cultivating cool is like finding a diamond in the desert for brands, yet bands have it in spades? Does it just come down to a combination of product, skill, aesthetic, presence, mysticism and sex appeal? And if so, why is this combination way harder for brands and products to manifest? I will dare to speculate that this is because the people working on the brand side are just simply not as cool. Luckily for brands, I think the solve is presenting itself loud and clear.

I don't mean to pretend this concept is a new idea, brands partner with bands to export their cool all the time. But only recently has it transpired into something beyond the surface, something that might actually work.

The first big step was a deeper and more integrated alliance available with the pervasiveness of social media and content marketing. But now, brands are taking a giant step further and tapping Artists to become a part of the organization. Like we saw with Myspace and Justin Timberlake, and with Blackberry and Alicia Keys.

Now we're onto something. Brands can now leverage bands (artists) to cultivate their own kind of cool vs. hoping the cool just rubs off on their brand.

So, how do we go from the biggest brands and the biggest bands to helping the entire music industry? Scale.

I did a little research and found the brandsmeetbands.com domain is still available for a low cost of $9.99. And then I  found this. It's still in beta and looks pretty new. There appear to be strong indicators that the self-serve approach for matching bands with brands is still in a very nascent stage. What do you think?

Industry folks, is brand money a suitable replacement for the loss of recorded music revenue? Would a self-serve matching system work for bands that don't have agents? Is this the way for smaller brands to finally find a way to use music?

And then on the consumer side, do brands aligned with artists impact you? Do you still consider a band attached to a brand as selling out or is that notion completely outdated? Were you more willing to check out the new MySpace because JT was attached? Did you pause to think Blackberry might have another trick up their sleeve with the Alicia Keys announcement?

As always, I'm interested in your thoughts and eager to help both bands and brands find effective monetization strategies in the connected world.

By Gretchen Fox, Social Architect at grtchnfx