Citizen Marketer 2.1

Aaron Strout

  • Home
  • About Aaron
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Influence, Networking and Building Equity

July 7, 2010 By Aaron Strout 10 Comments

There’s been a post stewing about in my head for the last several days. It’s about the importance of keeping your virtual “bank” full when it comes to networking and influence. As someone that has been focused on networking well before the idea of social networks came into vogue, I can tell you that this is easier said than done, mainly because it requires a lot of work and the frequent subjugation of one’s ego.

The impetus for this post came while I was out for a walk last week. This is usually my quiet time where I can catch up on tweets, e-mails etc. away from the office, my wonderful wife and three beautiful children. During my walk, I listen to music, take in some fresh air and get a little exercise. On this particular day as I was going through my friends tweets and realized that there was a certain influential friend of mine (let’s call him Jim Jones) who I hadn’t spoken to in a while. I didn’t need anything from him but wanted to just say “hi” since it had been a few months since we last connected.

As one that dislikes using the phone whenever possible, sometimes there is no substitute for it, especially when you haven’t connected with someone in a while. To that end, I thought the best way to connect with “Jim” was via a phone call. Unfortunately, with Jim’s popularity has come stalking and bothering so Jim had to change his number. After realizing that I would not be speaking with Jim via the phone that very pleasant morning, I had the following exchange with Jim via direct message on Twitter:

AaronStrout
bruthah! Was out for a walk this AM and thought I’d call just to say “hi.” realized the # I have has been disconnected ;(


JimJones
444-444-1234. Sorry to miss you. I’m in the LA this week, so won’t answer just yet. : )


AaronStrout
oh, no worries. like i said, i just saw you tweeting and thought, “I haven’t talked to Jim in a while.” Hope you’re well. 😉


JimJones
I haven’t talked to you in too long. You’re lovely. : )


AaronStrout
same back atcha sunshine! 😉

The purpose of showing you this exchange is not to make you throw up in your mouth but to demonstrate the importance of my approach. I wanted Jim to know that this was strictly a friendly call and that I wasn’t asking for anything. While “Jim” is a household name in the world of marketing and social media, I take this same approach with my entire network. In fact, I love nothing better than to randomly pull out a tweet or blogpost from someone in my network and re-tweet (repost on Twitter) or comment on their work. I say this not to come off as an egotistical prick but to demonstrate the fact that people with big or small networks appreciate this unconditional “love.”

Building on this topic, a recent post by the lovely and eloquent, Amber Naslund, got me thinking more about the real definition of “influence”which is often one of the outcomes that people seek via the process of networking. In her post, Amber states…

To me, influence isn’t about popularity. Or even reach. It’s about the trust, authority, and presence to drive relevant actions within your community that create something of substance. That last bit is key.

Yup. Couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s about “trust, authority and presence” which to me reinforces why so many many companies have a hard time with social media. They don’t want to take the time to build trust or presence even though they might already have some authority in their particular area of expertise. Like an awkward teenage boy on his first date, the company forgets that relationship building doesn’t happen in one evening and that the physical (read: good) part comes only when “trust and authority” have been established. Unfortunately, too many of these encounters end with a “slap in the face” rather than a “goodnight kiss.”

For those of you who are new to the world of social, this may sound disheartening. But you have to start somewhere. And as a great example of that, I’ll point out my friend, Kelly Stonebock, who knew that she should be blogging but had until recently put it off up. While she’s only got four posts under her belt… she now has FOUR posts under her belt and is on her way to establishing credibility as a serious blogger/writer.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start networking. And while you’re at it, don’t forget the “trust, authority and presence” piece. Don’t worry, it’s never too late to get started.

MLK Day Special: Values and Business

January 19, 2009 By Aaron Strout 2 Comments

http://www.utterli.com/fp/video_player.swf?1228230653
Yes, I’m working today. Apparently it’s a Texas thing. It’s not my first choice but then again, I don’t make the rules.

Given the importance of this day, I thought I’d take a minute to honor Dr. Martin Luther King by talking about something that I’m sure he would have appreciated i.e. values in the workplace. Specificically, things like authenticity, transparency and good old fashioned trust.

To that end, here are the URLs I metion in my video post below:

  • http://budurl.com/…thenticity
  • http://barryjudge.com/…on-package
  • http://www.web-strategist.com/…lts-pages/
  • http://www.adrants.com/…emphis.php

Mobile post sent by astrout using Utterli. reply-count Replies.

How Important is Authenticity? Just Ask Bear Grylls.

January 13, 2009 By Aaron Strout 8 Comments

A few weeks ago, my friend, Chris Brogan, who just happens to be a well-knownblogger and president of New Marketing Labs, wrote a paid for post for K-Mart. In spite of Chris’ up front disclosures about the relationship, a fire stormerupted in the blogosphere over the ethics of paid for content.

As you can probably imagine, this was a polarizing issue with one camp believing that it was okay for bloggers to get paid to write favorable posts as long as they were up front about their relationship with the company in question and the other insisting that mixing sponsorship and editorial bastardized the process, irrespective of disclosures. From an intellectual standpoint, I certainly can understand and respect the first camp’s position although my heart sits squarely in the second. [At at a minimum, you should read Chris’ follow up post on the topic and decide for yourself.]

With that as a backdrop, I was surprised at how willing I was to overlook “authenticity” as a critical factor when it came to my television entertainment. In particular, I’m refrencing two shows on the Discovery Channel. The first titled, Man vs. Wild, where ex-British special forces macho man, Bear Grylls demonstrates survival in the most extreme locations. The second, Survivorman, featuring much more mundane and less heralded, Les Stroud, doing approximately the same. My wife and I quickly became addicted to first show last season as Bear demonstrated survival techniques in extreme environments such as the Alps, the Amazon and the Sahara Desert.

If you haven’t watched the show before, I’ve included a video clip below to show you just how captivating Bear can be. His fearless nature and “I’ll eat anything” mentality is contagious. I find myself thinking after every show, “I wonder if I could do that?” However, there turned out to be one catch. Not all of Bear’s extreme situations were truly “survival” worthy. In fact, the BBC wrote a fairly scathing piece spelling out a number of instances where Bear had either been assisted by his camera crew or even worse, stayed in a hotel vs. roughing it out in the wild.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXuFR7Cz4rk]

After reading about some of the less-than-flattering press Bear received, I thought it might be time to check out rival survival guru, Les Stroud, on aptly named, Survivorman. Unlike Bear Grylls on Man vs. Wild, Les is hardcore about the authenticity of his treks out in the wild (he’s visited many of the same extreme climates as Grylls). In fact, he has chosen to eschew a camera crew and films everything himself. He also is dedicated to actually “surviving” out in the wild at nearly all costs. No hotels. No assistance. Just himself, his cameras and his knife.

That should make for entertaining television right? Unfortunately it doesn’t. Not for me anyway. The reason being that not a whole lot goes on during Survivorman other than a constant stream of self-wallowing by Les. I know this because I did a marathon four hour session over the holiday break with my family. At various points in the show, my 10 year old daughter was openly questioning the fact that Les, once again, was coming up empty handed in his attempts to actually catch something to eat. It turns out that Les is a lot better at enduring 5-6 days of no food (while incessantly complaining about light-headed and hungry he is) than he is at foraging for actual food (clip of Les below).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkx4z8W4pd4]

As you can imagine, this leaves me in an awful dilemma. I led off this post with the fact that while I was intellectually okay with the idea of paid for content, I had a hard time truly embracing this notion in my heart. So how is it that I would gravitate toward a guy that I know isn’t authentic (at least some of the time) while I do little to hide my disdain for a similar personality who is doing things by the book.

To help shed some light on my dilemma, I thought I might ask my Twitter network of nearly 4,000 to chime in. Surely they might feel the same way I did. The question I posed was, “Doing some research for a blog post I’m writing. It’s about authenticity. Any strong feelings either way RE Survivor Man VS Man vs. Wild?”

@Ninenty7: I know it is silly, but I don’t watch Bear’s show because he isn’t really out there in it.

@tallglassofmilk: Don’t watch either but overheard others saying one is for real b
y himself while the other pretends but has a crew. True?

@MikeLangford: This is the only situation ever where I’d say a guy named Les beats a guy named Bear. Survivor Man rules.

@dbcotton: Mixed feelings. Bear has better all around survivor skills, but Survivor Man is more realistic.

@LisaHoffman: Two of my 12 yo’s fave shows. He likes Bear better (me too) but says Survivorman is more authentic. M v. W more instructional

@tinycg: Survivorman is authentic and provides useful real tips.. Man v Wild is mostly staged and useful if you are ex-spec ops.

@SusanBratton: google “joe pine authenticity dishymix” for ideas for your blog post. Listen to the Podcast and/or read the transcripts. [Link to Susan’s podcast with Joe is here]

@LisaHoffman: Bear is far more interesting because he engages the audience (sound familiar?) Survivorman is actually trying to survive, tho.

@peplau: @MikeLangford @tallglassofmilk Bear is also a bit of a fraud http://snipr.com/9u1dj Afraid it’s more than just having a crew.

@tallglassofmilk: Well, authenticity certainly doesn’t guarantee entertainment, especially in TV. Probably why so much “reality” is faked.

@jamessumerlin: absolutely survivorman, big fan.

@m750: Bear is entertainment, Les Stroud is the real deal.

@chareich: think survivorman seems a little less contrived. Man v wild – probably eats big macs off camera

@davidkspencer: Survivorman is where it’s at. Feels more real, less polished. This clip is what did man v. wild in for me: http://is.gd/25si

@ChrisKeef: missed the earlier tweet. I’m all about Survivorman, not Man vs. Wild. Les is far more genuine, raw and honest.

@ChrisKeef: I will agree that Bear is more ‘entertaining’, however Survivorman seems more organic. Easier to believe, I guess.

Not surprisingly, nearly everyone that responded validated what I suspected that they would i.e. authenticity was more important than entertainment value by a long shot. @m750 hit the nail on the head when he mentioned that “Bear is entertainment [but] Les Stroud is the real deal.”

As a marketer, this tells me that it doesn’t matter how slick, exciting or entertaining the content is that our company creates, at the end of the day our customers will want us to be authentic. For their sake though, I promise not to whine about how sore my fingers are after several hours of typing or how much of a caffeine headache I have as a result of my forgoing my morning coffee.

How about you? Are you being authentic in the way you communicate with your customers? Seems to me that there’s a reason why Josh Bernoff and Forrester’s customer survey shows that only 16% of people trust corporate blogs. Sounds like we all have a lot of work to do. Just ask Bear.

Originally posted on http://theengagedconsumer.powered.com

Recent Posts

  • How We Arrived at the What 2 Know Podcast: A Brief History
  • A Walk Down Memory Lane: My Third Ever Podcast… with Michael Arrington
  • 45 Things I’ve Learned in My 45 Years on Earth
  • SXSW Best Bars, Restaurants, Panels & Pro Tips from W2O
  • Austin Breakfast Places FTW

Recent Comments

  • jmctigue on Austin Breakfast Places FTW
  • aaronstrout on My Wife the Community Manager
  • Mike Troiano on My Wife the Community Manager
  • aaronstrout on My Wife the Community Manager
  • Samiina Mirza on My Wife the Community Manager

Categories

  • Analytics
  • Blog
  • content marketing
  • facebook
  • location based services
  • mobile
  • pre-commerce
  • social media
  • social media marketing
  • twitter
  • W2O Group

Search

Copyright © 2021 ·Stroutmeister Theme