What would I say if this was the last post I’d ever write? Unlike Bob, who was the first person to take on this challenge, I’m not going to tackle it as a question of mortality (if for no other reason than the fact that I couldn’t come close to being as eloquent and moving as he was). But I will try to take it on as a question of legacy – what would I want people to take away from having known or encountered me? An “advice to future grads” for the broader audience.

In short, I’d implore you to think critically and be compassionate. I think there’s a tendency to see these almost as contradictory ideas but I don’t mean them to be.  Quite the contrary, actually. I see these things as two sides of the same coin.

First, think critically

In my younger days I tried and failed to start a  non-profit / think tank dedicated to promoting a responsible approach to journalism. I adopted “think critically” as the slogan for the organization. Critical thinking isn’t intended to carry a negative connotation, it simply means to ask the extra question. Dig a little deeper. Take the time to put things in context. Consider the source.

All the stuff they teach you in j-skool but that far too often falls by the wayside when working journalists are confronted with deadline pressures, reluctant sources and scarce resources.

Even though I’ve abandoned the project I’ve tried to keep the credo. I think far too often people accept what they’re told without asking the extra question. Critical thinking can be uncomfortable, especially when it involves challenging one’s own preconceived ideals or understandings of the world.

But it’s so very important, especially in the era of unfiltered information overload.

We are bombarded with data, information and opinions. In the face of such an onslaught, we seek out that which reassures us. The multitude of sources only compounds this by implying a variety of viewpoints that may not actually exist.

It’s easy to find 15 sources to support what you believe; it’s harder to seek out the other 15 that challenge you.

Think critically about what you read. Think critically about what you hear. Seek out alternative and dissenting viewpoints. Expose yourself to opinions you don’t share and try to see things the way others do.  Question your beliefs from time to time – if they’re worthwhile you’ll come back to them and you’ll be richer for having challenged them.

Which brings us to the second point.

Then, be compassionate

If it’s important to think critically about issues, ideas and information, it’s just as important to apply these principles to people. Try to understand people. Try to see things as they might. Examine their motivations.

Then remind yourself that they are people, just like you.

War and genocide and terrible things like that depend on the dehumanizing of the enemy. Less dramatically, it’s easier to rail against “them neo-cons” or “the socialists” than it would be to rail against the guy that sits down the hall or the woman you met at yoga.

People are flawed. All of them. But they’re people. Their opinions and beliefs are based on their experiences, just like yours. That might frustrate you, that might confound you and that might even offend you. But try to understand why they are the way they are before you pass judgement.

You don’t have to like them. You don’t even have to respect them. But try to understand them. And remember that there but for the grace of whatever deity you believe in or life choices you’ve made…

In conclusion

Think. Challenge yourself. Make yourself uncomfortable every once in awhile. Walk the proverbial mile in someone else’s kicks. You’ll be better for it.

photo credit: rogilde – roberto la forgia

What if you could only write one more post? What would you want to say?

I don’t want to be overly prescriptive so I’ll leave it at that and let people interpret the questions how they choose. You can write about your standard blog topic or you can look more broadly at the world. You can imagine you’re dying or you can pretend you’re simply shutting your blog down.

To get the ball rolling I’m going to tag a few of my favourite bloggers here in the hopes they join the thought experiment but since I’m trying to avoid going too deeply into any one sector or blog focus I’m going to leave people off.

Everyone’s welcome to participate though, this is NOT by invite only.

UPDATE: Now that there’s some critical mass here, I’ve deleted the people I tagged who haven’t written yet (hoping the still will tough). More than half this list is people who did this challenge of their own accord, which is already a far better turnout than I could’ve hoped.

• My own “last post”
• Amy Boughner
• Bob LeDrew
• Kym @ Relishing
• Sarah Millar
• Melanie “herrealworld” Ching
• Tanya “spydergrrl” Snook
• Don “foodieprints” Chow
• Teresa “map_maker” Baldwin
• Gordon Bonnar

Once you write your last post, leave a comment below with the link. I’ll also be using #LastPost to tag tweets and posts about it so feel free to adopt that tag too. I’ll add to the list on this page too.

Oh, and feel free to tag others too, just make sure you note it in the comments so I can keep track of everyone.

photo credit: fensterbme

For someone who gets paid to write digital outreach and marketing strategies that often include advice on how to manage one’s social media properties, I do a pretty poor job of it here at 42 points. SEO best practices are routinely overlooked in favour of feeding my love of clever (at least to me) titles and pithy asides. I go weeks, sometimes months between posts. I don’t bother with tags very often and my categories are pretty useless.

The honest truth? I just can’t be bothered sometimes. This blog was never supposed to be part of some strategic exercise to build a personal brand. I don’t see myself as a thought leader with legions of readers counting on me for unique insights. And, at the end of the day (in the literal sense, not the over used cliche one), I don’t have the energy to put best practices into place. I’d rather play with my kid, or hang out with my wife, or take my dog for a walk, or create the ultimate dynasty in NHL 10’s Be a GM mode.

I get my fill of social media strategy at work.

And I’m not alone here. Just today, I had a conversation on Twitter with a couple of bloggers about the number of posts in our draft queue. The awesomely-awesome Sue Murphy admitted a few months ago to suffering the pains of blogger guilt. Hell, one of the smartest guys I know started his own PR/web/social media consultancy two years ago and he’s doing so well that he still hasn’t finished his website.

It’s hardly confined to social media, of course. I work for a brilliant web shop full of great developers, designers and information architects but our site looks dated and stale (we’re working on it, I promise). We also do amazing custom intranets for clients on SharePoint but our own intranet is brutal.

As lame as it sounds, I think many of us are too busy helping others for a living to really help ourselves.

We’re all quick to judge companies for the web presence they keep but is that ultimately fair? Or maybe that’s why RFPs always ask for work samples…

What say you, loyal reader(s)? How can you make sure you have a decent pair of shoes to wear online?
photo credit: ★keaggy.com

Ugh. Nothing worse than unsolicited advice, right? Well, I guess it’s not entirely unsolicited. This is a post I started mentally writing back when all the colleges and universities were sending a crop of new grads into the world but it wasn’t until yesterday, when Toronto-based PR educator Barry Waite tweeted and asked for advice for new PR grads, that I started actually thinking about how to make this coherent.

Sorry Barry, I need more than 140 characters.

First a disclaimer. I’m probably not the first person a young grad would turn to for advice. Yes, I’ve got social media in my job title but I’m certainly not an expert. I don’t have legions of followers, I don’t have a book deal and I don’t have an iPhone app.

What I do have, though, is 10 years or so of experience working in PR/comms type roles and a career I’m pretty happy with.

You gotta “get” social media. But there is more

There seems to be a lot of pressure on new PR grads these days to “get” social media. With good reason. Social media are radically changing the way that PR, communications, marketing and media relations are done. However, there seems to be a lot of people who are taking that idea to its illogical extreme, trying to find out how to make a career in social media. Recent grads are hanging out their shingles as social media consultants or looking for work as a social media expert.

Yes, I am the “social media guy” at non-linear creations. My experience in social spaces got me in the door here. But it’s my experience in web strategy (as an in-house comms guy who worked on a half dozen web projects in three years) that keeps me relevant and allows me to work as part of an amazing team of web strategists, information architects and user-experience designers. It’s my ability to write integrated digital outreach strategies (that include but are not limited to social media tools) that makes me an asset to our clients.

When I was in talks with NLC before I came on board, I asked that the word “integration” be included in my job title. As a rule, I don’t put much stock in titles but I wanted that to be front and centre when I was introduced to clients because, at its heart, that’s my job. My job isn’t to teach people how to use social media, it’s to help them integrate social media into their overall outreach strategy.

Nobody is hiring a semaphore consultant

Is there a market for social-media-specific training or consulting? Yup. For now. But, at its core, outreach via social media isn’t rocket science. There’s a learning curve, sure, but it’s not that steep. And as these tools and the communities of knowledge around them mature, social-media-specific consulting as a concept is going to sound as insane as fax-machine-specific consulting or press-release-specific consulting.

My job title is “social media integration consultant” but my job is communication. My role is to work with clients to understand their needs and objectives then recommend tools and strategies to help them meet their goals. I come at projects with a social media mindset but I don’t work in isolation and I don’t throw blinders on. Some projects scream out for a social component. Others don’t. It’s my experience as a general communications professional and the insights of the rest of the NLC strategy team that help decide which are which.

So to the PR or comms or marketing grads 2010, I humbly offer you this. Don’t specialize to the point of putting yourself on the path to irrelevance. If you want to work in social media, understand how social media works with traditional outreach channels – those aren’t going away. Don’t just understand your niche, understand how your niche fits in the bigger picture.

At the end of the day, PR, comms and marketing aren’t about the tools, they are about understanding the underlying human behaviours. How people communicate. How people interact. Don’t be a social media specialist or an any other kind of specialist. Be a communicator first.

photo credit: CarbonNYC

He makes a lot of good points and I’m not taking issue with what he’s written. It would be great if more companies did nice things for their customers, especially ones who bring them repeat business. Chris Brogan has written about similar things (the one that jumps out in my head is this post about his comic book supplier). Companies showing they value your patronage by going the extra mile isn’t rocket science and it certainly predates social media and all that.

So maybe this post is just inspired by subconscious sour grapes ’cause I don’t have stories of my own to share. Take that gain of salt as you read on.

But could it be that these companies are treating Chris and Joe well because they have a big following? Because they know, even without asking for it, that they’re likely to get a nice plug on a well-read blog? These guys have big twitter followings. Would I get similar treatment from these companies if I was a regular? Would you?

The takeaway from both of these posts seems to be that more companies should take the personal approach to customer service. But is that realistic? Does that scale?

Can Fairmont afford to upgrade all of their regular customers the way they did for Joe? Or does the fact that he’s blogged about them before and that they sponsor an event series that he organizes play into their decision to upgrade him for his troubles? Can Mick Galuski reasonably expect to have time to send a DM to every one of his customers when their comic shipment arrives each week?

Look, this isn’t intended to be a shot at Joe Thornley or Chris Brogan. So please don’t read it as such. I just wonder if maybe they don’t realize the impact of their reach. They are more than regular customers, they are regular customers with large networks of people who trust their recommendations. It makes sense for these companies to go the extra mile for them. But I’m not convinced it’s practical as a long-term model of customer service.

But feel free to argue. I’d like to be proven wrong.

photo credit: libraryman