Gose Stories

News items and stories that strike my fancy...

How do you like to do it?

"I do it, I love to do it. I just did it and I'm ready to do it again, don't tell me you don't do it"

King Louis XVI
History of the World: Part 1

It is a bit strange if you're always doing it by yourself, but maybe that's how people get started. Some people prefer to do it online, while others think it's silly unless you're "pressing the flesh" so to speak.

Some like to do it in the morning. Others at lunch. And even more in the evening and late at night. Coffee shops seem to be the hip place to do it, but really it can be done anywhere at any time.

There are those who like it more one on one and others prefer a "group" thing. Some people are more voyeuristic when it comes to doing it and would rather just watch. But the real fun is getting involved.

I used to be really awkward at it and therefore wasn't very good. It just takes practice. Nobody wants to be bad at it.

So no matter what your preference, networking is an essential piece of doing business today. How do you like to do it?

The Top Six Reasons Companies are Still Scared of Social Media

1- Employees will waste time with social media.

2- Haters will damage our brand.

3- We'll lose control of the brand.

4- Social media requires a real budget! It's not really cheap, or free.

5- They're scared they'll be sued.

6- They're scared of giving away corporate secrets or that information on social networks will affect the stock price.

via socialmediatoday.com

There's certainly nothing wrong with companies having concerns over social media, but to me this has always been an employee management issue and NOT a technology or legal issue.

The value of the handshake

I used to be horrible at networking. Horrible. But it takes time and effort to make it work. I wasn't willing to do it. Now I am. And articles like this one reveal why.

One of the real ways to get ahead in these online channels is to take things offline. To meet people in their protein forms. To share, to learn, to build and to grow. Never forget that.

There are still many brands that believe these online channels and platforms are filled with very lonely individuals who spend their time stealing music and illegally downloading Hollywood blockbuster movies while playing Warlocks in massively multiplayer online role-playing games. People who could never really influence anybody, let alone get a date. Those who are engaged online or those who take the time to scratch beneath the surface (just a little bit) know that those who think like that are actually the same people who are online. The demographics and psychographics are there.

How do you really grow and make these online channels work for you?

Get out into the wild. Meet those you have met online and connected with for a coffee, invite them to lunch or - better yet - create a meet-up, unconference, tweet-up or attend an old-fashioned traditional convention. Not that connecting on Facebook or LinkedIn isn't "real", but nothing beats a real world meet-up. Always remember that you can't read body language online, and then there's that old saying that, "words account for only 7% of all communication."

Online social networks are not a substitute for pressing flesh.

via twistimage.com

It's great to connect with people online. And it's certainly quite easy. But we need to reach beyond our laptops and "press the flesh" from time to time to time.

There is still considerable value in face-to-face encounters and getting to the handshake. As the article says, "Online social networks are not a substitute.

Seth's Blog: Clout

The web knows something, but it's not telling us, at least not yet.

The web knows how many followers you have on Twitter, how many friends you have on Facebook, how many people read your blog.

It also knows how often those people retweet, amplify and spread your ideas.

It also knows how many followers your followers have...

So, what if, Google-style, someone took all this data and figured out who has clout. Which of your readers is the one capable of making an idea break through the noise and spread? Bloggers don't have impact because they have a lot of readers, they have a lot of impact because of who their readers are (my readers, of course, are the most sophisticated and cloutful on the entire web).

via sethgodin.typepad.com

I've heard the "holy trinity" of social media is 500 connections on LinkedIn, 400 Facebook friends and 1,000 Twitter followers.

It would interesting to see who has "clout."