I was at an APSS event recently and the discussion was around LinkedIn and how to better utilize this great networking asset. It was an informative session and thanks to some pointers from Chris J. Reed, I’ve updated my profile with the new tools available. I do recommend you check out what you can do now on LinkedIn. It’s awesome.
One other thing Chris mentioned was the One Percent Rule – where one percent of people on social media are the contributors (see explanation below), nine percent are participating and sharing, with the following 90 percent not doing much at all, other than inviting you to play Candy Crush. It’s been apparent for a very long time that the 90 percent just don’t seem to get that the one percent don’t have time to play games! Those invites keep on coming though…
The 1-9-90 rule makes a lot of sense to me in regards to social interactivity in Asia, especially as I am a One Percenter. I can also see that, as a blogger, I need to ensure my nine percent group is strong.
As always, the session got me thinking, and I’ve come up with my own “profiles” associated with how people contribute in the social world. This is my observations based on my own community, however I think I’m connected to just about every country, race, religion and culture within my network, so a good test case perhaps?
The One Percenters
This group are born communicators. Not only do they create their own content in blogs, articles, etc, they fundamentally believe in the sharing of diverse knowledge – anything that makes them think, laugh or even the stuff that outrages them. Professionally, they’ll share a wide array of information on their field of excellence and support others’ writing about similar subjects. The One Percenters value knowledge and believe sharing ideas can fundamentally change the world. They’re typically open to different opinions, argue passionately, love the collaboration they get to create across the world, and most of the time, provide good fodder for friend’s timelines. The great thing about The One Percenters is they’re also terrific supporters. They’ll love your kids photos, your latest meal and if you want to launch a blog or a Facebook fan page, make sure they know about it, ‘cos they’ll “Like” it and share it – appreciating how hard it is getting any support in Asia. They don’t just communicate out with the world, they actively participate in it, although there are definitely some Narcissists in the one percent gang. Naturally, with three blogs, lots of content under my belt, and a penchant for sharing knowledge, I consider myself a “One Percenter.”
The Nine Percent Includes…
The Knowledge Lovers
While not creating content, this group love knowledge in all its forms. This is the group you definitely want in your tribe as a One Percenter. The Knowledge Lovers admire the One Percenters, but appreciate that creating content is just not their thing. This group is more inclined towards (what I think of as) Microblogging – as in sharing not only their content , but their opinion too – rather than just sharing a link (something that really frustrates me). They’ll tag you in content they think you’ll love, acknowledge the great work of people they know, and just be general cheer leaders for this new world of social. An important differentiator for a Knowledge Lover is they will never share information they have not read first. They appreciate that their credibility is linked to the quality of information they share, so don’t expect them to retweet your blog within five seconds of posting it. It’s not their thing. This group constantly reads every chance they get.
The Narcissists
Then we get The Narcissists – bless. These folk are on social media channels and quite active to boot, but it’s all about them. They’ll share pictures, adventures, events they’re in and more, but they’ll never EVER (well rarely) “like,” share or acknowledge anyone else’s work. Sometimes it’s because they’re just too busy, but the reality is, they see social media as a one-way-street-for-information-distribution, and they’re all over it for that. Be sure to protect your heart from disappointment when they don’t acknowledge your existence. Of course, confused within The Narcissist gang can be the famous and semi-famous – especially those building a brand around their personality. These people are not narcissistic, they are just building a business, and if you are in their close community, they usually go above and beyond for their friends. It’s a fine line.
The Addicts
The Addicts typically cross a lot of social media channels – usually with one favorite in the mix, although not always. These are the sorts of people who let you know where they’ve checked in (aka the Foursquare generation), and they’re often all over Twitter, having conversations all night with complete strangers. You can usually identify The Addicts when they reveal (on social media of course) that “they just need to take a break from social media” – although the break rarely lasts long. I’ve never been a fan of the stranger conversations – preferring to build fewer, deeper relationships – so this group has always been a curiosity to me.
The Community Builders
This is another active group within the top 10 percent of participants, and their goal is to build the biggest community they can as quickly as they can. The Community Builders spend hours and hours following people, they build groups and lists, they know every powerful hashtag in the universe, they join popular conversations and participate, and they are often very successful in raising their personal brand above the noise. I personally don’t know how anyone has the time to do this while working a day job, but I take my hat off to them for the investment. If you get on their radar and they like what you do, they often support you – but it’s not for you, it’s for them.
The Social Channel Fanatics
I love this group of people. They will do everything in their power to convince you that one social channel stands above all others and that is where you need to be. You can always identify a Social Channel Fanatic by their fevered eyes as they wax lyrical about why this one single channel is all you need and why the rest are not relevant at all. While I am always an appreciator of passion, I’ve learnt that arguing the point, suggesting maybe some other channels are better for different people based on their style of interaction, is, well, generally pretty wasted. The Social Channel Fanatics are a great resource to get to the bottom of one particular social channel however, so the depth of learning can be quite wonderful.
The 90 Percent Includes…
The Voyeurs
I know these people exist, because every time I turn up at a networking event, BBQ or a party they’ll tell me everything I’ve been doing in my life, but NOT ONCE did they ever comment or acknowledge my existence online! The Voyeurs don’t participate (beyond an occasional like) and they merely observe the lives of those around them. Sometimes it’s because they’re shy, sometimes it’s because they don’t see the point, and sometimes, it’s just ‘cos the world has to have its voyeurs… it’d be boring without them right?
The Social Critics
Probably my favorite group is this one. The Social Critics are on social media – usually in a limited way – and they use every chance they get to tell you that social media sucks. I find them a curiosity within the mix, because they do utilize social, however because they do not tend to have a professional need to use it in a more considered way, the negatives tend to outweigh the positives. Examples where it’s not necessary are: they’re getting towards the end of their career and can’t see the point, they work within a very small community so it’s not necessary for career advancement, or they have never left the place they grew up in so most people are physically close to them. While participating to a limited extent, The Social Critics deride it every chance they get. I’ve never gotten to the bottom of that one.
The Socially Inept
This group are not always conscious of their actions (or words) and are the ones who inadvertently drop comments that most consider racist, sexist, un-nationalistic, and generally, not acceptable. The comments are usually posted without expectation of a response – other than for people to agree with them – but when people do respond, often with vitriol, The Socially Inept are surprised. The social revolution has not necessarily been a great thing for this group. You can find extreme examples of how they’ve gotten it very very wrong very very often here, and here and here. While the virality of these stories were impossible to ignore, I suppose the good news is that the Socially Inept attend to learn very harsh lessons very quickly. Long overdue. We all know people like this, so perhaps if you’re aware of anyone at risk, you can share these links and help them see the light?
The Newbies
I think my favorite group – because they’re just cute – are the brand new people on social media – The Newbies. They’re straggling in these days, with the vast bulk of developed country humans engaged somewhere. The Newbies post their first comment – to which most people go “about time you joined us,” and then they get tentative, before going quiet to observe what everyone else is doing. Alternatively, they post absolute nonsense and before they know it, people jump on them, and they go quiet. It’s a bit of a scary world for The Newbie, because they are entering an established “structure” and aren’t always confident in how to play this game. The challenge for this gang is they are not early adopters, so this obviously isn’t an intuitive medium for them, and thus, it’s scary. We’re not all the same. But it’s not rocket science, just be authentic and have fun.
The Yeah Whatevs
Remember when mobile phones came out in the late 90s and a lot of us rushed off and got one? Then the next round of adopters got one? Then the next? Finally, there remained a small 4th group who were all attitude, saying “why would I want one of them?” In my mind, this demographic was typically 30’ish male professionals, and they finally cracked about six years ago – the final frontier of mobile phone adoption was won. After that, they were incredibly annoying and couldn’t be without their phones – picking them up during dinner (but not to look at Facebook), interrupting conversations to take calls – yawn! Well those people are not anywhere on social media – other than LinkedIn. You can always spot The Yeah Whatev male, because they wax lyrical at dinner parties about why they aren’t on it, and everyone else is thinking “there is no escape in the long-run sunshine, you’ll see!”
The Spouse Invader
As an addendum to The Yeah Whatevs, I have to add a special category in its own right – The Spouse Invader. Again the majority are male, as let’s face it, women are natural communicators. The Spouse Invader is not on social media, although if anywhere, they do have a shabby LinkedIn profile, but never share anything on it. This group cannot make any sense of Twitter. Google+ what, why? Pinterest is women’s business, although they’ll benefit from the collection of recipes someone has been studiously collating. Facebook, no way, but perhaps I can just have a sneak peak over my spouses’ shoulder? “Hey love, you’ve left Facebook on, do you mind if I take a look?” They are participating, they just want to tell the world that they’re not. I am thankful my husband is not a Spouse Invader.
Concluding now… I promise
Obviously much of the above is tongue-in-cheek and will hopefully make you smile, but we do live in interesting times and for professionals, how we participate on digital channels will become more and more critical for our success and advancement.
In recent months, I’ve been running workshops and training sessions, trying to get more colleagues and professional friends intelligently utilizing social assets to enhance their career opportunities. I really believe in it.
As much as I’m sharing, I’m also learning and gaining clarity on the challenges people are facing. For example, some of the lessons and epiphanies have been:
- There is no one size fits all approach – how you engage for professional growth is a very personal journey, based on your unique character and ambitions
- Many professionals are being told they should get on social media, but few are explaining to them the why and the how
- Most people don’t even know where to start when it comes to sharing information or where they get the information from. Helping people hone in on their areas of expertise and suitable resources for information is a great place to start
- People are not understanding the benefit of their companies’ brand, nor are companies understanding the benefit of individual employee brands within their organization. The fundamental message is people speak, companies do not, so you’ve got to make this a priority with all employees in an organization – especially your senior execs. It’s not a nice to have anymore
- Successful participation in social media is about giving not getting. This is for companies as well as individuals. People are not really understanding that fundamental philosophy. We must connect with our hearts and minds to be successful. We must be thinking about what will make the biggest impact on the audience we want to influence, and then subtly weave in our own personal goals too
While social interaction is completely intuitive to me, for the majority of people, it really seems a confusing minefield. In the early days of speaking on this topic, I felt stupid talking about things that were so obvious to me. But they are not obvious to the 90 percent. As such, I’ve decided my goal is to help as many professionals as I can get into the nine percent gang, if not the one percent.
But people must join this world in a way that makes sense to them and can help them build towards their goals. The “What’s in it for Me” is absolutely critical to understand – and there are a lot of individual options in the WIIFM argument. Making sense of that individually is where we are right now.
Any thoughts on who I missed and which profile you can most relate to?
Cheers
Andrea
PS: I always try to write short blogs, and here I am again…
PPS: some of my professional social media assets are
Reblogged this on Nadeem Ansari's Blog.