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Will Your Brand Survive the Culture Shock and Thrive on the Social Web?

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New Tribes, New Rules

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It seems like every day now I meet someone who is trying to make sense of the social web. Most folks seem to understand that something important is happening, but just can’t connect to the value of what they’re seeing.

The social web is a vibrant new culture. Corporations, small business, and individuals are bringing their best to be a part of what’s happening.

47 million websites were added in 2009.
The web is a new culture occurring in a new virtual space.
Talking through a computer or smart phone doesn’t return the same results as talking in person does.

It helps to start out knowing that.

We Have the Problem of Speaking the Same Language

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Anyone who’s been a military brat or moved around for their professional life knows that every new location meant learning the rules of the new school and the new community. Somehow that cultural difference is easier to see when we go to a foreign land, where the language has different sounds and a different alphabet. With such obviously linguistic differences we’re more likely to expect differences in values, traditions and how how people choose to connect into business and social groups and tribes.

When I traveled internationally, it took me about three years to identify those same cultural differences in the English speaking countries. We had the disadvantage of speaking the same language. So we often thought we were saying or doing the appropriate thing — We thought the same words meant the same things. We thought we were doing what worked in one place … but found it didn’t work in another.

I once signed a contract with an Australian friend. I thought it described a partnership. As things progressed I realized she thought she had engaged a channel of distribution. Each of us behaved according the premise we believed. Until we figured that out, we were constantly wondering why the other didn’t behave.

Will Your Brand Survive the Culture Shock of the Social Web?

Whenever we meet a new culture, we have the problem of figuring out what’s the same to all humans, what’s just our individuality, and what’s the culture. It’s no wonder that wise folks approach the social web with varying degrees of caution, suspicion, or confusion, fearing missteps or problems. It’s still a bit foreign that people connect via computers and smart phones. For others, it’s a problem of learning a new set of social rules and words that have different meanings in different contexts.

Until we sort those, we can be in a bit of a culture shock. After studying the tradtional symptoms of culture shock, I find that online, culture shock shares these common characteristics. The ones I list here are those that apply to both individuals and brands. With each I’ve added some ways to help you survive the culture shock to thrive on the social web.

  • Sadness, loneliness, melancholy; Lack of confidence; Feelings of inadequacy or insecurity; Feelings of being lost, overlooked, exploited or abused — Does the sheer volume of noise on the Internet overwhelm you and minimize your effort? Does so much noise sometimes make it seem like you or your brand will never get the attention and respect that could be, should be, or once was yours? Find a community where your message makes sense. You’ll be louder and make faster progress.
  • Loss of identity; Preoccupation with health — the health of your business. Have you less idea of who you, your brand, and your customers are now than you did when you got here? Do you or your brand find advisors to help you focus on a healthy Internet presence? Do you blame lack of productivity on Internet ADD and then seek out facts to prove it? Do you treat the Internet as a huge time sink? Are you overly occupied with statistics and connections that are meaningless to building your business? Look to what healthy online businesses are doing. Talk to the people who run and advise them. Learn what goals drive them.
  • Insomnia, desire to sleep too much or too little; Unable to solve simple problems — Do you or your business have trouble stepping away from the computer? Do you binge blog and then avoid it? Have you gotten so caught up in the tools and numbers of followers that you no longer know how to fix simple issues without turning them into bigger problems? Do you meet your online customers offline? Develop habits that match the habits of your audience or the people you want to reach. Talk with them, write for them regularly where they are and when they are online. Their feedback will be the support to keep things going. Not every online problem needs to be solved online.
  • Changes in temperament, depression, feeling vulnerable, feeling powerless — Does it overly affect you or your brand when you don’t get enough pageviews or a response from an influencer on Twitter? Are you certain those are good metrics? Do you spend the right amount of time figuring out why? Keep the Internet in perspective. It’s only one piece of a total business plan. Now more than ever, we need to be meeting our customers and friends online and off. Have a true strategy. Choose a mission and goals that support growing your brand and your business. Then choose the tools that will systematically move those goals forward in a realistic and practical way.
  • Identifying with the old culture or idealizing the old country — Do you play a defensive game? Do you or your business try to make the web work the same as the offline world? Do you hold on to the old tools and the old office rules because they once made your business successful? Pick up the tools and learn how the culture uses them. Look for how the new ways make your business faster, easier, and more meaningful to you and your customers.
  • Trying too hard to absorb everything in the new culture or country — Are you or your brand willing to join with a beginner’s mind? Pace yourself to set simple goals, meet one friend, and learn one tool at a time. Cultures, like businesses, are built, learned, and grow over time.
  • Developing stereotypes about the new culture — Do you or your brand believe that “the Internet is the Wild West,” “Twitter is narcissism,” “Bloggers work in the PJ’s” or any other stereotypes? Putting people who want to buy from you into boxes with labels is not a great way win their interest and loyalty.

Culture shock is a lot less when you find a friend who can translate what’s happening and introduce you to others who live the culture every day. Don’t let the tools decide how you act, lead with the relationships you make.

As my friend, Chris Brogan says … “it’s always about the people.”

Great countries and great companies have been built by ideas and innovations that develop when two cultures connect. The key is being aware that VALUES ARE THE KEY TO BUILDING VALUE.
Listen, engage, interact, learn, and meet up at the core of the matter where our values align well.

What are the keys to integrating into this new culture of the social web?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz to learn the culture of the social web!!

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3 Simple Steps to Add Irresistible Influence to Your Brand

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Magnetic from the Very First Minute!

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What makes a person or a company unforgettable from the second you interact?

Why do some folks motivate and energize us? What is it about some folks that attracts people so powerfully?

What makes a magnetic personality? Is it possible for a company or a brand to have those qualities? Can we carry them online and off?

3 Simple Steps to Add Irresistible Influence to Your Brand

The brands and the businesses we love don’t just deliver on a promise. They make us feel good about working with them and feel good about being part of what they’re doing. If you have a favorite brand or company you might find that they have the same qualities that we find attractive in individuals we first meet.

Try these three steps to develop an irresistible influence brand image online and off.

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  • Live positivity with a bias toward service … When someone lights up our minds with the joy of living, it’s hard not to notice. Companies are learning to do the same thing. It’s fascinating how positivity and “can do” pulls us to it. We’d all rather be around someone who stands in the sun than someone drenched without an umbrella. We’d rather use products and work with brands who inspire us. Somehow we know they’ll be around when hard times come too.
  • Share your intelligent thinking without an agenda … It might be fun to watch someone who’s silly, but it’s hard to invest in their unpredictability. People and companies who visibly sort problems into great actions are valuable. We know that they can help us make clear decisions, and they pass on useful information when we might need it. Folks who help us clarify our thoughts are priceless.
  • Make us part of your meaningful mission … People and companies with a passion guiding them are attractive. We can see their values and how those values align with our own. Companies and individuals will solid values stand on solid ground and when we stand with them, we know we do too.

Whether we’re a corporation, a small business, or an individual, our brand comes through in our positive bias, our intelligent problem solving and meaningful mission. People want to participate with folks who are on a great path that is bright, generous, and passionate. Even if it’s only for a short transaction, it beats out the folks who are just going through the motions. On Twitter, on our blogs, in person, it’s those characteristics that make us uniquely different.

How do you add irresistible to your brand image?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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Develop strategies and tactics with the best of the Social Web for an entire weekend.

What Influence Could Push You to the Magic that Is Missing?

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It’s old news and I think we all know …

If we’re not adding value, we’re taking it away.

So we’re busy adding value, doing great things, working, building, being productive. We want to get on with what we know how to do well. We do something that adds to the big thing and it gets bigger and better.

Somewhere near every one of us is someone who thinks differently. He or she is smart as we are, but has different experience or a different view of how things work. He wants to add his own extra value. She has reasons to care and contribute. He might not know the process, the culture, or the traditions. One’s a coworker. One’s a customer. One’s a big brand client.

Most come with a job. We have to include them.

The temptation often is to move forward. Try to ignore them or keep them from the core of things. Add our value and show them when we’re done. That makes it hard for even the most collaborative and curious to find the right way to join in.

But what if we invite them? What if we ask these different thinkers to sit beside us, to invest in our quest and be part of the process?

They’ll bring ideas, thoughts, and opinions. They’ll influence what we’re doing. They will challenge our assumptions. People who think differently make us uncomfortable … and that can make communication and progress seem a lot slower.

The more different we find someone’s experience and thinking, the more we should consider his or her questions and reasoning. It’s the best safety net and idea test in the population. We love and understand our own thinking. Agree with the guy who thinks unlike us and we’ve got something hot cooking.

That difference — in their experience, how they see things, and how they do things — is added value we might be overlooking. That influence could the the one thing that pushes us to add the magic that was missing.

When do you invite a different influence to be part of what you’re doing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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What If the Social Web Froze Over and No One Came?

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cooltext443860173_ive-been-thinking about communities and harbors online and off.

I like watching the harbor out our window change. A recent snowfall covered it. The foggy diffused sunlight softens it, and tricks my eyes into thinking the whole world has gone black and white. A faint shimmer on the icy snow calls back to last spring when sailors filled it with life.

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I suppose few sailors who keep their boats in the harbor ever have a chance to see the harbor this quiet way. I wonder how it might change their experience next spring if they were looking at the lonely, frozen-over beauty I see out my window today.

The harbor is a community. I watch it as the boats come to take their places each season. I see the people with so much and so little in common take their places and have conversations. I see other people sail and watch without saying much of anything.

Can’t help but wonder what a sailor or two might do if when they returned next spring to find the harbor somehow was forever frozen over and empty.

Then this morning I read this morning that Yahoo! Will Kill MyBlogLog Next Month.

What if the social web froze over and no one came? Would you read and blog anyway? Would you just visit your harbors offline?

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How to Leave an Unforgettable First Impression … of the Very Best Kind

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Irresistible Beats Embarrassed Every Time

First impressions. Guess we’ve all made our share of bad ones. In my experience, bad first impressions tend to happen when I try too hard, when I focus on myself and what I want from a certain situation. Whether the occasion is personal or business, if I become about attracting attention, I end up looking like someone who wears sequins and top hat to blue jeans bar … It’s an unforgettable first impression, but not the one I wanted to leave behind.

It happens. People do it. So do big corporations. We’re even inventing new ways to do the equivalent as the noise level rises on the social web.

In a hard economy, first impressions become even more important. People have less time, fewer opportunities, and more competition. A bad first impression may not lead to a chance for a second meeting.

Unfortunately trying too hard usually too often leads to the wrong kind of attention.

Do you, does your business, leave an unforgettable first impression … of the very best kind?

How to Leave an Unforgettable First Impression

In a one-to-one market, every individual and every business is meeting customers as individuals. As the social web grows, people discuss experiences and pass their impressions far further than was ever possible. Suddenly a bad day can become an incident or a nice passing gesture can be raised to heroic. Every first impression has the possibility of being amplified.

We all want to make the positive, unforgettable first impression. That’s the one that wins us friends and business.

What makes someone unforgettable? What makes us want to go out of our way to see someone we hardly know? How do some people leave an indelible first impression so attractive that we look forward to being with them again?

What do those magnetic people and companies consistently offer?

  • a curious, open, intelligent mind
    Some people spark our imagination. They energize and motivate us. When we share a conversation, they literally make our brains light up with thoughts and ideas. Their kind of thinking inspires confidence and respect — in them and in us. People who are mindful and curious find solutions where other folks find problems. They don’t let small differences or ambiguities throw them. They help us find the action inside our ideas. They listen well and respond. We feel that they truly see us.
  • a positive, open, knowing heart
    Some people love living. They don’t really have an easier life; they just look at life and business differently. Small things don’t get to be worries, so they spend time on little disagreements. When others might be a little more distant, they pull us near with positivity. They smile soon as they see us, long before we say say hello. It’s easy to say hello when we feel like we already know them.
  • a clear, open, meaningful purpose
    Some people see the world and everyone in it with the eyes and the mind of a discoverer. When we say things, they listen for what our words mean to us. They know themselves in a real way, which makes them easy to understand and easy to be with. They offer everyone solid ground to stand on, which makes us all feel a little taller when we’re around them.

People like that are unforgettable. When we see them again, we go back to where they’re standing, even if we hardly know them. We want that unforgettable experience again. If we are able, we introduce that unforgettable person to our friends.

It works the same for companies. When companies meet customers in that unforgettable way, customers want to have that experience again. We often tell our friends about how we were treated and bring them back with us so they get the same positive experience.

You might notice that each point closes on the feeling we’re left with. Isn’t that what a first impression is? A feeling about someone or something that we’re getting to know?

People remember most how we make them feel. The most unforgettable people … of the best kind … focus their attention and care on the people around them. They know that an unforgettable positive first impression is the doorway to true communication.

What’s your recipe for a unforgettable first impression of the very best kind? What tools do you use to make that impression a reality?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!