Dear young people,

We need to talk. See, I don’t know how many of us are really listening to you, but I am. I have been for a while. I wanted to let you know that, because I’m not sure you really, truly knew that I was listening. But I am. I can hear you.

I’m not going to comment on the quality of the things that I hear. It’s unfair for us adult types to tell you on the one hand to live your early years with abandon while you can get away with it, and on the other hand tell you that you all sound like a clutch of raving fools. We can’t have one without the other. I get it. Keep saying what you’re saying, keep sharing what you’re sharing, keep doing what you’re doing. I’m not going to stop you.

But I want you to know something. I can hear you.

It’s really easy, isn’t it? It’s easy to let people know what you’re thinking. When you have a bad day, you put it on Facebook. That way you’re not keeping it in. You’re expressing yourself. And you’re giving your friends an opportunity to help you through the down times. It’s easy to have a bad day when you can talk about it, isn’t it? And with your laptop, the computers at school, and your cell phone, you can talk about it pretty much whenever you want, can’t you?

But here’s the thing. Here’s what we need to talk about. You’re about to enter into a world where you’re expected to have something called tact. Tact is a funny thing. It’s the process of strategically not talking about things. When some of the older folks out there use phrases like “playing your cards close to your vest,” or “keeping it under your hat,” they’re talking about tact.

Sounds shady, doesn’t it? It’s not, though. Tact isn’t about keeping secrets, really. It’s about presenting certain pieces of information in a way that takes into account the desires of other people. You don’t complain about the crappy weather at a funeral, because when you’re at a funeral no one needs to be reminded how crappy a day it is. That’s tact.

The world you’re entering expects you to have tact. It expects you to take into account a variety of factors before you present information. This is a very basic skill that does not appear in any high school curriculum. And without it, you can’t possibly expect to get anywhere without first changing the way the world operates. (I’m not saying you can’t, but in this case it’s probably not a very good idea.)

A few weeks ago, I heard a bit on the radio where a reporter asked high schoolers some pretty easy questions about civics. Who is your governor? When you’re of age, will you vote Democrat or Republican? How many senators are there in Congress? And while the answers to these questions were predictably obtuse – one kid thought Ted Kennedy was the governor of Massachusetts – what got me were the brazen, off-the-cuff responses that clearly identified the speaker as someone who had never thought about politics at all.

Q: Who do you think will win the gubernatorial election today?
A: I don’t know. I don’t care. I hate politics.
Q: Why don’t you like politics?
A: Because it’s so corrupt. I don’t think there should be any government at all. We’re all people. We should be allowed to take care of ourselves.
Q: So you don’t think there should be anything in the way of government at all?
A: No way! Get rid of all the politicians and all the laws, and just let us live our lives. Let us be free.

I know. You didn’t think anyone was listening when you said that. But I was. I heard you. And now you’re stuck with the things you said. Now whenever anyone thinks about you, they’ll think about this very poorly thought out statement.

Tact involves admitting what you don’t know, and speaking only when you know something about the subject matter. It’s okay to not like politics because it’s corrupt. It’s not okay to suggest dismissing all politicians because some politicians are corrupt. There is a very good reason that the political system operates the way it does. You need to do your research before you speak.

We all want what we say to have impact. The irony is that if we knew exactly what people thought about what we said, we might not like the impact that we’re having. And because we often have no idea what kind of impact we’re having on other people, we just keep saying things that are louder and more absurd than the last until someone finally calls us out.

So here’s what I want you to do. This is very important. I want you to go ask your parents, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your legal guardians, your guidance councilors, your homeroom teachers, your role models, your coaches, and every other adult role model you have what tact is and how you should use it. Not for our benefit — for yours.

All the best,

–Matt Shaw

http://www.mattshawblog.com

I heard an interesting story from a coworker recently. The story was about an insurance agent. It goes like this:

The agent — let’s call him Willy — was signing people up for his brand of insurance during an company’s open enrollment period. Only that’s not entirely accurate. He was supposed to be signing people up, but even though he had posted flyers and sent emails asking people to come visit him in the conference room on the 18th floor, no one came.

And that was a problem for Willy. See, Willy is a very good salesman. He closes an insane percentage of people he talks to. He’s funny, affable, outgoing — everything you could want an insurance agent to be. But if Willy isn’t talking to people, he isn’t selling policies. And if he isn’t selling policies, he isn’t making money.

Willy was in trouble.

This story got me thinking about something else I heard recently (and forgive me, but I forget where): We are built to be social things. We are at our best when we interact face-to-face. Jokes are funnier in person. Stories are sadder. Compliments are more sincere.

But even though we are hard-wired — or “created”, if you prefer — to be social beings, face-to-face interaction isn’t always possible or practical. So then what do we do?

It seems to me that this is the void that social media fills. Not permanently, of course, but as a temporary fix, or as a means to facilitate face-to-face social interaction. Social media is a temporary replacement for having an in-person conversation, when the alternative is not connecting with anyone at all.

As marketers, we replace in-person interaction with lots of things. Emails could just as easily be handshakes. Direct mailings could be a cup of coffee. Banner ads could be lunch on me. We market to people because while face-to-face interaction is more effective, most times wider spread communication is more efficient.

But that’s the thing. Everything in marketing is either social or a replacement for social activity. And social media is just an online — and admittedly lacking — manifestation of our nature as social creatures.

More specifically, what social media represents is a way for Willy to do his job. His Twitter account is a means for him to set up conference rooms all over the world. It’s a surrogate for knocking on doors and shaking hands. Not a replacement by any means — Willy will probably be less effective on Twitter than he is in real life. But in terms of output per gain, there is the potential for Willy to be just as successful. More successful, certainly, than he was in the conference room on the 18th floor.

The end of the story? Well, everyone felt bad for Willy and bought lots of insurance from him. That part may or may not be true. But what’s a story without a happy ending?

I admit I have deceived you.

See, I’ve told you that this is a marketing blog. I’ve told you that I was going to talk about the insights that people are sharing about business and careerism, specifically as they pertain to the wonderful art of marketing. And to my credit, I think I’ve done that.

But here’s the thing. Despite what I might have called myself up until recently, I am not a marketer. So really, I don’t have much of a leg to stand on – in the traditional sense – when it comes to writing a blog about marketing theory.

Okay, I’ll back up.

There are Two Kinds of Business People

First, there are those who believe that everything is marketing. That’s because a business is a reflection of each of its working parts, and a well-oiled business should take pride in those parts. You only hire the best people for every position you have open. Why keep them behind a curtain? Let them talk about the work they’re doing in public. Only good things can come of it.

To people who think this way, I have very little to say. Other than that I wish there were more of you.

The other kind of person likes to put his business in silos. Marketing creates the messages that drive sales. Sales makes the money that’s handled by finance. Finance determines how much to spend on R&D, and so on. Everyone has a job to do, and every individual is responsible for getting that job done. Full stop.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with silos. Most businesses in the world use them. Silos help businesses stay organized. They make payroll a breeze. But I want to make one thing very clear. And I’m going to put it in big font so I’m not mistaken.

Social Media is NOT Marketing.

Which, by association, means that I’m not a marketer. Got it so far? Good.

Social =! Marketing

So if social media isn’t marketing, what the heck is it? That, friend, is a very good question, and one worthy of exploration. Let’s start with an analogy.

In 1979, there was a floor in a skyscraper in Chicago dedicated to the sales department of a particular insurance firm. It was the job of the salesmen on this floor to call leads, set up meetings, build relationships, ask for referrals, and so on. Everyone on this floor spent a lot of time on the phone, building and leveraging their networks for the explicit purpose of gaining revenue.

In 1979, there were lots of other people using phones, too. In that very skyscraper, almost every office had one. Everyone knew how to use the phone. They had them in their houses. They taught their children how to use them, and how to use them responsibly. There were phone chains and phone books and phone booths. The phone was all over the place. A worldwide sensation. But within that insurance company, was the telephone “that silly thing that the salespeople use?” No, of course not. It was just the phone.

(Am I telegraphing this punch a bit? Ah well.)

(Excuse the pun, by the way.)

Like the telephone, social media is simply a means by which people communicate. It’s not a means by which marketers communicate to prospects. It’s a tool to do that, of course, just like any number of other tools available (the telephone, e.g.). Sure, there are people who use it particularly well, and there are those who do not. But the people who use social media well could just as easily be in IT or legal (or – gasp! – sales) as marketing. So what is social media?

Social Media is Communication

But not in the MarComm sense of the word. (You know what I mean – the sentiment that makes IT roll its eyes and creative wring its delicate hands.) It’s communication in the way that telephones are communication, the way that email is communication. The way that physically sitting down and talking to people is communication. You wouldn’t put marketing in charge of having conversations, would you? Of course not. So why is social media any different?

If social media is just communication, who should be in charge of it? Oh, well that’s really easy. Ask someone what the most recent article posted on socialmediaexplorer.com is about. If she can answer correctly, she’s a good candidate.

See, here’s the thing about social media. In order for it to work, you have to be passionate about the art of communicating. Apart from that, there’s really no other qualification that you need. You don’t have to write particularly well. You don’t have to be a big-picture thinker. All you need to be able to do is be interesting and talk to people.

People who are passionate about communication live in all kinds of silos. And chances are that if you do a decent enough job of looking around, you’ll find a developer or an analyst or a kid in the stock room who does a better job of communicating than someone who’s getting paid to communicate. Put that person in charge of social media.

So I’m Not a Marketer

I used to be. I used to be in the business of SEO and SEM, of designing landing pages and emails. All of those things fall pretty squarely in the marketing silo. The kid in the stock room probably couldn’t do those things.

Today, my job is to figure out how businesses communicate with large groups of individuals. Granted, the strategy part of the job probably isn’t something the kid in the stock room could do, either. But three years ago, I was a kid in a stock room who knew how to communicate. I put my nose into a handful of books, started reading a couple of blogs, and with some hard work, I made it out of the stock room and into a really cool gig.

It’s just not a marketing gig. Get it?