Community Is in the Cracks – Be Yourself
Step into a social media crack and you won't break your mama's back, but you might just connect with your people (for business and/or pleasure).
I wrote down “Community is in the cracks” after drinks in a bar with Chris Walker and ... shoot, drawing a blank a few other folks ... at the end of an AIIM Conference day in 2011 or 2012.
At the time, I was managing AIIM’s online professional community and thought it’d make a good blog post.
While I never got around to writing that post, the phrase popped back into my head the other day as part of Ayodeji Awosika's Write your way to 5K learning experience.
A quick digression for context first.
Social Business: Still Causing Confusion
Social business has always felt like an odd marriage of words.
While I try to keep a beginner’s mindset, I’ve been “online” in some way since 1993. Just because I’ve used social media for business since 2009 doesn’t mean everyone has. I admit to being a bit shocked – at first – at some of the basic questions about navigating social sites for business use from others in Ayo’s community.
The “social” piece of “social business” still confuses folks. Initially, businesses were thrown off by the “social” side. There was a lot of harrumphing in the business press about wasting time on Facebook and Twitter back in the olden days of 2010.
True, Farmville did waste a lot of time.
But we all figured out that social is a good way to connect (of course), but also amplify our reach. Enter the marketers screwing up social media like they did email (perhaps a blog for another day).
Today, it feels like it’s the “business” side that holds some folks back and there’s a lack of focus on the “social” part.
Through all of the changes to the social media landscape (and all the ones to come), the basic premise of every social media platform is insanely powerful: the ability to make a true connection with a like-minded individual across town, on the other side of the country, or on the other side of the globe.
The social piece remains key and can’t be faked or automated. In the halcyon early days of social media, when it was going to change the world for the better, the analogy of the Internet as the world’s largest cocktail party was popular.
The same dynamic exists in both situations – wall flowers; the dude drinking too much scotch glued to the bar; the power networker, flitting from person to person, dry-humping every “connection” they make for a business lead; you get the idea.
There are books on this, so I’ll just end with this: social media allows connection individually and at scale.
But it’s just talking.
With your fingers (OK, fine, you can talk talk too with all the readily available video tools now).
In a room where anyone can hear your conversation and join in.
Anyways. Back to that bar.
Community Crack (Not the Bad Kind) One: Online Conversations
Chris and I "knew" each other (and the other folks) from Twitter and it was the first time we had met IRL. On Twitter, where I managed the AIIMcmty account, I would run “ECM Tweetjams.” There was a “community-lite” around those online conversations.
However, in between talking about ECM and AIIM, we got to know each other a bit. And had some random conversations that led to strange outcomes (the unicorn in a mankini here being one of them).
The first year AIIM had an app for the conference in 2014, I was responsible for jumpstarting conversations. I walked around the Cypress Pointe Resort in Orlando, taking pics and welcoming folks.
I had shared a dozen or so updates – a mix of behind-the-scenes event building, attempts at humor, tips to attend (wear comfortable shoes — evergreen advice for anyone attending any conference/trade show!), etc. Response was "meh."
The conversation took off when Allen Podrazza, an attendee, added a photo of a blender and something like "should I bring for margaritas?"
The floodgates opened. People started talking about pets, booze, travel, etc. I think a parrot was mentioned. I know Donda Young started talking about Flat Stanley – a variation of George Clooney taking photos of his sister and fiancé’s photo at various places during his travels in Up in the Air (what a great movie and book).
Allen opened a crack and folks walked right in. I know Donda, who was new to AIIM and the event, made friends and business connections that have helped her career. AIIM 2024 is around the corner in April. On LinkedIn, I see those connections made a decade ago in Orlando continue to bear fruit as folks share their plans to attend with a lot of “can’t wait to see you again” messages.
Because Allen shared a picture of a blender.
Community Crack Two: If You’re a Little Weird, Be a Little Weird
“We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”
Dr. Seuss
Again, I’ve been usefully reminded that despite the overwhelming presence of social media in my work life for years, it’s still new to a lot of folks.
One frequent question that keeps popping up during the various presentations is some variation that boils down to “how much ‘me’ is too much?” when the topic of “be authentic” rolls around.
And, seriously, how inauthentic does the advice “be authentic” sound? Just me? Anyways.
People buy and do work with other people.
Be a people.
Show your personality.
I’ve always said that if you met me outside of a business context after reading/following me on social media, that you'd "know" me (a me with less cussing, but still me).
Connection, which is what community is really about, doesn’t happen when we’re pretending to be something we aren’t.
Being yourself – being “social” -- doesn’t mean you talk non-stop about your personal likes and dislikes (unless that IS your brand and goal). I love action figures and RPGs and strategy games on Xbox. I don’t talk about them that stuff online (Facebook, which is pure, unfiltered me, is another matter) – though now and again an action figure makes its way into a blog post (especially my Godzilla with the shooty fist).
For the 2nd or 3rd AIIM ECM poster (printed baby! Olde School infographics!), I was on a video call with the designer and noticed his shelves filled with action figures. We had a great working relationship, partially because we ended up talking about action figures for 10 minutes or so before figuring out how to shape/design the poster.
We bonded over our bit of weird.
Find Your Cracks
Pick a platform or two.
Ignore the rest.
Don’t lie to yourself and think you’re going to master TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Pinterest, any others I’m forgetting, and any personal communities you’re involved in for professional support.
You. Will. Not.
Focus on the platforms your customers are already on.
Then decide to be there.
Being there means you actively have conversations (it’s not “engagement,” it’s a conversation) with others on the platform.
Then be yourself.
How much of yourself do you bring? There’s no hard bright line here. You have to feel your way and decide what feels good for you.
Don’t be afraid of those cracks though.
I’ll share one quick example. Jed Cawthorne is an AIIM member and one of the smartest and nicest people I’ve ever met. He also makes his own armor and swordfights (seriously, see photo).
His expertise overlaps with security issues around access to content. I know that he’s presented on webinars dressed in at least some of his armor to tie in to the whole “security/protection” theme of those session topics.
It’s weird, but also not weird in the best possible way.
Letting a little bit of your weird show that matches a prospect’s or customer’s or co-worker’s weird could be that thing that creates a relationship and leads to a feeling of community.
So be a bit weird (as appropriate); we’re all odd anyway.
If you like my bit of weird, let’s talk about your newsletter and content marketing strategy: duhonius@gmail.com.