My Top 10 Lessons From The Last 15 Years

Although, I have had some great mentors, most of my best life lessons have come from trial-and-error. I have a very high tolerance for both risk and failure, and because of this, I have generated a high volume of experiences from which to learn. Failure is always the best teacher.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity (and honor) to share these lessons as a  guest speaker for Clint Schaff's USC Annenberg Program on Online Communities class in Santa Monica. I really enjoy teaching, especially teaching graduate students who are quick to grab concepts and put them into action.

Petr Pronsati is an excellent example of this. I think he did an excellent job honing in on the main points from my experimental, non-linear discussion in his "What I Learned"  post. You can find those points re-blogged below with some additional background/commentary (in italics) below.

(1) “Being early is the same as being wrong” – If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s important to figure out if the market is ready for your idea and if this is the time and place for your idea to exist.

GF: This is actually an old saying in startup culture and one a previous boss, Andria Tay, reminded me of recently. We had this experience first hand when we launched a Social TV product at CES in 2007. It is great to see that Social TV is all the rage -- in 2013 -- we knew it would be... We were just too early for the market. Lesson learned. And now, I repeat this lesson to every entrepreneur who will listen.

(2) Testing, Testing, Testing – Make an assumption, try it, test it, get all the data and figure out what you learned. Then, test against that. So, change one element and repeat the process. Compare. Repeat. Learn.

GF: We all learned the Scientific Method in grade school. This is the backbone of my process and one of the ways in which I have been able to create structure in the unstructured world of social.  If you use this method as a business process, you will find the gold -- whether figuring out what will make your consumers Retweet your messages or which Facebook ads drive the most amount of sales.

(3) “Go for it” – If you are working with new or emerging technology you have to be willing to take risks. It may be a failure, but you’ll live through it to try again.

GF: I doubt this comes as a surprise to you if you are reading my blog. Risk taking is my ethos. I am willing to completely bomb publicly to try to figure something out. Somebody always has to go first and I would rather recover from failure than suffer from fear. Always.

Erik’s brain is a creative cross-pollinator.

Gretchen is all about power statements. 

GF: I experimented with the teaching dynamics a bit to co-create the learning experience with the students in this class. I wanted our experience to be more social and demonstrate the difference between a crowd and a community. We all learned about the students' strengths and goals in order to be able to support one another. We discovered, one student, Erik, has a common strength with me -- I call it pattern recognition for business application. He called it creative cross-pollination. I loved that term! And I shared that I love powerful combinations of words. You'll see that a lot in my writing. Words have the power to transform. Just take a quick glance through the book, The Power of Now, to see.

(4) “The people that you know are going to be the most important people in your careers” – Most jobs are given to people by people they know. Form a network and help each other.

GF: This is probably the biggest thing for young people to understand -- don't bother submitting your resume a hundred times to job sites. People give jobs to people they know. Build your network. Let people know what you're looking for and help them find work, too. This approach will serve you better.

(5) “Producing as much as possible is key to manifesting the life that you want” – Blogging about the things you’re interested in doing not only keep you informed, it will give you a body of work that can set you apart from everyone else.

GF: This is one of the key differentiators I see between people who are successful and those that are not. Producing is about acting. It's about taking the reigns. Most people do a lot of thinking and wishing about what they want and don't actually take steps to make it happen.

Blogging is a great way to take action, and so are other forms of social media. Through these efforts, you can cultivate your personal brand (see number 7) and create community around shared interests, specifically work interests.

(6) “Keep your overhead down” – Tumblr sites are easy to update. Don’t make it too overwhelming to update. Keep it lean. Technology has a lot of simple solutions.

GF: I see this issue frequently. You decide you want to start blogging so you find the "best" solution out there. Often what is the best solution for a pro is not the same as what is best for a beginner. Start with something manageable and then upgrade when you have outgrown the platform. Better that than to drown in a host of features and options only to find yourself unable to even get started. 

(7) “Everyone has a personal brand” – You can use social media to figure out how you want to position yourself in the business world.

GF: Your presence on the Internet is a representation of who you are in real life. For example, I am bold, assertive, and slightly irreverent. You can hear it in my writing voice and it makes up a part of my personal brand. Social media is a great place to exercise your personal brand and discover your unique voice. People remember things that are clear, concise, and consistent. This should be the goal of every brand, including yours.

(8) Do it right — If you want to start your own social media consultancy, have the resources to do it right. You don’t want to have to do every job yourself.

GF: This is actually my second time to have a consultancy. I learned a lot from the first go around -- namely, it takes a lot of work and money to start a business. I promised myself I would never do it again without hiring and partnering with people that are strong where I am weak. Nobody is good at everything. It's better to play to your strengths than go down for your weaknesses.  Luckily, there are a lot of startups catering to small businesses these days, and you can find a good and affordable solution for everything you need.

(9) “Social business is a core business function” – It’s about making sure every piece of the business is using social data; is leveraging social technology, community and conversation; and is able to respond in real time.

GF: This is my mantra right now. I have a lot of thoughts on this topic. Too many businesses are stuck in the early phase of social media and there is a way bigger vision for social. I will be detailing this vision as well as practical steps to get there over the coming months. Get ready, I am going to rattle some cages in the process. (If you are interested, you can get my blog updates in a weekly newsletter by subscribing here.)

(10) “Explore, Explore, Explore, Explore” – Technology is always changing. Everything will be different in two years. But the human connection has always been there and always will be there. So one way to ensure success is by finding ways to use technology to build community.

GF: This is actually two pieces of advice. First, play with every new technology that comes out. Things move way too quickly to not keep up. Second, as you explore technology, always think about how it can be used to improve your relationships. It *always* goes back to relationships -- whether you're looking for a job or acquiring a new user. People like to feel like they matter and technology can be a great facilitator for those connections -- and one of the biggest areas where most companies miss the boat.

What do you think? Do these align with your own life lessons? I would love to hear your own lessons in the comments below and I am sure many students will be very appreciative of your insights.

By Gretchen Fox, Social Architect at grtchnfx

@gretchen Q&A: Aligning demand generation and promotions

Q:

What do you recommend to ensure that  demand generation and social promotions are aligned, and effective?

~ @vincentlucier 

A:

Hi Vince,

Thank you for the question, let's actually break these into two parts: how to make sure these efforts are aligned and how to make these efforts are effective. 

For efforts to be aligned on any campaign, it comes down to having an integrated strategy and plan. Creating integrated campaigns should be relatively easy if your company has weekly intra-departmental meetings where everyone shares upcoming campaign plans and objectives. If your company does not have this type of meeting, I recommend championing the effort to create one.  During these meetings, it is important to cover the goals of the campaign, the tactics, and the way you will measure success, as well as, open up the conversation to generate feedback from the other teams. Often times, other channel managers will have invaluable input that allows a more aligned approach -- they just need the space to contribute.

The second question isn't quite so simple to solve. Effectiveness isn't something you can learn how to do once and then repeat forever in the future. It is an ongoing process with changing variables and the results are often challenging to comparle. I recommend using a system to set goals, measure results, and gather insights. Once you go through this process you will be able to use your insights to make assumptions, for your next campaign. By repeating this process, you will identify insights and correlating triggers for your specific audience and be able to improve effectiveness campaign-over-campaign.

A few extra tips and tricks learned over time:

1. Be clear on your goals for your campaign
2. Create a multi-channel communication plan for your promotion
3. Strategically plan out the timeline of each communication for maximum exposure
4. Create separate bit.ly links for each communication so you can see which effort drives the most traffic
5. Ensure your landing page is designed for conversion (whether the goal is to create a lead or drive a sale)
6. Pour over your data for insights

I hope this is helpful!

I would love to hear how other teams are making sure their marketing efforts are aligned for maximum effectiveness in the comments below.

Please, submit any questions to me on Twitter or through my contact page, and be sure to let me know if you want your question to be anonymous.

By Gretchen Fox, Social Architect at grtchnfx

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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