Talk. But Do It With A Purpose!
Too many people simply talk without action. When I was in the PR agency world these folks were called “creative”. Up until you got so tired of idea after idea with no execution and they became “expendable”. Over the past three years I’ve often been exasperated by the amount of talk with no action that occurs on social networks and at social media focused events. Rather than be frustrated I pushed my attention towards taking action and seeing results and at the same time getting to know some amazing folks that were doing the same. Fortunately the time for simply talk is ending quite rapidly for many folks (thanks horrible economy!) and you can see it in the topics being poured over throughout the SXSW Panel Picker, the agenda for Blog World Expo and more. Is it not exciting to see so many people talking about results from actions THEY took, rather than talking about actions YOU should take? It’s about time.
Taking action has always been core to my purpose in life, whether it be in my work, at home with my family, volunteering or simply making sure my tomatoes continue to grow under immense drought conditions. In each scenario I have a far greater purpose than simply “going to work”, “providing for my family” or “alleviating the ravages of guilt”. Rather, I believe, that through action in each of these scenarios I can, in minutia, improve the world around me.
- Listening a bit more attentively at work to a colleague and taking action to help them, and in turn our business, succeed.
- Getting down on the floor with my three-year old to play trucks and explaining to him that it might not be the best idea to throw them across the room at his infant brother…even if the infant is laughing uncontrollably.
- Eating food that we planted in our own garden so that we are not only more healthy, but maybe we saved a little gas running out to the store.
Purpose drives action. Action drives results. Determine what your purpose is, and there is not a singular purpose but rather many, decide what result you want from that purpose and take action in order to see those results to fruition.
I was reminded by all of this reading a post from my friend Jason Stoddard whom in his post, “Dragonslayers with Purpose“, writes:
I am not a tactical person and yet I am living in a very tactical era. A tactic is nothing more than a tool, nothing more than a hammer. And whereas it is easier to monetize a hammer than some new process to swing that hammer (or a new application of that hammer,) the nail gun is around the corner.
Tactical is not sustainable. Purpose, on the other hand, is infinite.
Read the whole post, which served as an open letter to speakers at the upcoming “Ubiquity Marketing unSummit“, there is a lot to chew on but for me I see two major elements: an acknowledgement that things have changed and we must change along with the times, but that the idea of purpose remains a rockbed for all of our actions no matter how simple. As a speaker at the Ubiquity Marketing unSummit I’m excited about the opportunity, but I also challenge all the speakers to heed the words of purpose and action, for without them we are all talking without voices.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Wow – my tongue is now more famous than I am (not hard to do). Let’s just not let my wife know that my virtual tongue is making the rounds…
On a serious note, I have a special place in my heart for this topic. Many folks in the socialsphere have realized that they need to start talking about ROI but as you point out, very few are actually talking about how they did it (or how you can do it) in a prescriptive manner.
One of the reasons I took the job of CMO at my current company, Powered Inc. is that we deliver measurement and demonstrable results to each and everyone of our clients. This is a big deal and it definitely gives us a leg up on those that DON’T offer the same.
Love the new blog btw… although I keep expecting to see an animated gif of Jerry Rice in a tuxedo dancing across the screen.
Aaron | @aaronstrout
August 27th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Aaron, I thought you would enjoy my stealing your pic, and don’t worry, the secret is safe with me.
We are still tweaking the new blog, but I may get moving on a cross-promotion with Dancing with the Stars, great idea. I do a mean foxtrot.
/kff
August 27th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Great post and extension to the conversation.
“Obviously, a man’s judgment cannot be better than the information on which he has based it. Give him the truth and he may still go wrong when he has the chance to be right, but give him no news or present him only with distorted and incomplete data, with ignorant, sloppy or biased reporting, with propaganda and deliberate falsehoods, and you destroy his whole reasoning processes, and make him something less than a man.”- Arthur Hays Sulzberger, former NY Times Editor
“How-ya like them [tomatoes].”
August 27th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I kinda agree and kinda disagree. When you talk about ROI, you’re talking about a measurable metric of success and very often, the socnets are not measurable. Because ROI is a financial term, meaning loosely, “How much money can I make off this action?”, I think ROI is actually a loss-leader.
Surely the stakeholder want to know ROI, but often good will that is generated over a long period of time, and trust that is built out of consistent interaction, is not measurable for months or years, if at all.
It’s sort of truthiness. It feels right, but there’s no empirical evidence to say that is is right.
Good post, though.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I’m not saying “ROI = action”, in fact I don’t mention ROI in my post at all. My point was that there has been too much talk by too many folks, particularly those in marketing, with zero action. At the same time there is certainly no point in action for the sake of action, therefore the foundation of purpose.
I’m a big fan of measurement in general however, whether that be in ROI terms (depends on your audience) or not. For example, I would argue that the Patriots are a better organization historically than the Ravens based on one simple numerical comparison: 3 versus 1. Can we just fast-forward to the October 4th matchup?
/kff
August 27th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Oh you had to go there didn’t you.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
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