“They just don’t get it” is a phrase I hear a lot when people who work in social media talk about people or companies that are new, struggling or resistant to being immersed in social media. Part of this frustration on those who are consumers or consultants is around the educational component of it. Part of the frustration of those who don’t know or understand social media is the complete need to be educated on something that, in many cases, is altogether new to them. Thus there is a need for education to make everyone’s lives easier.

Educating people on social media, from organizational cultural change to actually tweeting and everything else in between and around it is the talk in Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business, a book by Barry Libert. The author presents a good book in Social Nation on what social media is, and does a great explanation that it is not just a plug into an organization, rather in some cases how it drives change and thinking of what an organization actually does.

As a believer, practitioner and “walk the talker” of social media, did I have takeaways from this book? Surely. And many of these are driven by interactions with clients and prospective clients with regards to their approach to social media.

Getting into social media today is more complicated than getting into the Web in its early days – I recall fondly building my first commercial Web sites for clients going back to the mid 1990’s. Back then it involved a lot of education and there were always new and changing elements. Today it seems like all that is involved in social media, still in its infancy, is much more comprehensive, intricate and to some complicated than the Web’s infancy. Working with one firm for a Web site may have been all you needed then, today you may work with one offering many services, or many offering just one.

Explaining it is not enough and may not always be relevant – just like businesses need to define their niche, social media needs to be articulated to that niche for it to truly be understood. In the book, Libert gives examples about Zappos, Apple, Google and Ducati, but very few about small to mid-sized businesses. These are good examples, but as I can see using his book as one to offer to a client or a prospect client to digest, more relevant issues to less than large companies are more relevant to a small business, especially as I see more copies of this book being read by entrepreneurs than corporate executives.

You need to talk to everyone – Often people think being a social company is just talking to customers, when it should be to talk to everyone, including all employees, partners, investors, etc. Having a common voice to all will make communication overall easier.

Social Nation is a good primer for a business or individual currently not using social media, or is personally but not professionally. It is not for someone already engaged or working with social media, such as myself, as the book is preaching to the proverbial choir at that point. Although saying that, the accompanying Web site to the book, at socialnationbook.com - offers a unique and interesting social quotient (SQ) test. Coming off of reading StrengthsFinder 2.0, this was a similar experience. So what is my SQ? The 3 words that were presented to me after the quiz were Visionary, Creative Thinker and Transparent. You can take the quiz yourself, and there is no charge for it.

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Book Take-Aways • Business • Strategize • (0) Comments • Permalink

Previously I talked about playing to your strengths. This doesn’t mean being complacent and not growing yourself. Hardly, it says rather than focusing solely on being super humanoids, let’s look at what we do best and leverage the heck out of it.

Among all the self-help business books out there is one which focuses on this – helping you identify your strengths and how to use them to your advantage. StrengthsFinder 2.0 is from the Gallup Organization. It is the second edition of a book which came out from the poll people in 1998. This book was recommended to me by a colleague and I bought my own copy of the book.

StrengthsFinder 2.0 comes with a single-use code for an accompanying Web site. The main feature of the site is the assessment. It is a survey which takes about a half hour to respond to all questions, and upon completion it gives you a list of your top 5 strengths, which come from a pre-defined list of 34. I took the assessment test first then read the book, upon my colleague's recommendation, rather than reading the book first. He recommends this approach so that the person who takes the assessment will have no preconceived notions of what the results will be.

After taking the Web-based assessment, here’s my top 5 strengths:

The above photo is of the cover of the book, where you can write your strengths after removing the dust jacket. If you don’t see the photo, my top 5 strengths are: Activator, Adaptability, Relator, Connectedness, and Responsibility.

Now What?

After I got my results from the assessment, I sat back and took a look at the 5 words given to me. At first glance, they were not a complete shock or surprise to me. I like to think I know myself pretty well, and coupled with what others have said to me about me, these were in line with what I would expect from such an assessment. That being said, I did not know specifically these would come up as my top 5 strengths, so it was a good use of my time.

I then went to the book, reading the opening then the write-ups on my top 5 strengths. For each, there is a brief discussion on it, quotes from a selected people who have the same strength, “ideas for action” on how to leverage this strength, and tips for working with someone else with the same strength. Following reading on my top strengths I read through the remaining 29 strengths defined in the book. After reviewing the entire list and reflecting on all of it, there certainly are others strengths defined which would apply to me, but I am not discounting the top 5 selected as it is a good list to work with.

My takeaway from StrengthsFinder 2.0 is the overall experience that is the book, from the assessment to the discussion on all strengths identified. Although I don’t consider myself an expert at assessing people, I do consider myself a decent judge of character and how to get the most out of people whom I work with. As Gallup is the expert at surveying, this was a great process to see how the questions in the assessment derived this list. The Web site has other tools, including one which allows you to make a poster of your strengths. I have this posted in my office, and glance at as a reminder on occasion.

I recommend StrengthsFinder 2.0 to anyone who is interested in playing to their strengths. It was not a complete life-changing experience for me, rather a good reaffirmation of who I am and what I can do. I do recommend getting a new copy of the book so you can get the code to take the assessment and get the full effect of the book.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Before leaving on a recent trip I went to the shelf at home to grab a few books to read. As I perused the collection put together by myself and my wife, one caught my eye – Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I had heard of the book, but never read it. I remember playing a song in elementary school band based on the book (why I remember that today, I have no idea!). It was my wife’s book, and a small one, so I saw it as a quick read to add to my list for this year.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is the story of a seagull who likes to fly, rather than flying as a means to eat as all of the other seagulls believe. As a result, he is an outcast, and is banished from the society of all other seagulls. Where this upsets him, he feels the collective is wrong and continues to work on and improve his flying skills. The story continues with others realizing he is not wrong, but different, and their interactions with Jonathan.

So could I possibly have takeaways on a fictional story about pesky birds? Actually, when compared to many of the books I have read throughout the years and wrote about here at The Hot Iron I most certainly have! And here are my takeaways from this book of prose and photos.

In the end, you have to live with yourself – You may be wrong or you may be right. However in the end, you are the primary person who has to deal with you. If you believe doing or believing in something is the right thing to do, then you must do it, and be prepared to deal with those who don’t agree with you or any circumstances.

What some may consider fringe behavior may not really be – It seems no matter the decision we make, someone will come out and say it is not “normal” or acceptable. We are considered outliers as a result. But getting beyond your closest critics, you will find some who see your actions or decisions to be not so unusual or outside of the norm. Where getting a second or third opinion is always recommended, you may simply need to be surrounding yourself with other likeminded people.

You won’t know if you don’t try – Whether it’s flying from heights no other seagull has flown before or starting your own business, you won’t know if you can or can’t until you try. What some consider taking a great risk may not be that great of a risk at all. The idea of a going outside of your comfort zone may not be that great of a leap of faith at all. Take a look inside of you and you may see something you haven’t seen before.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a quick read, and an inspiring one. This book from the 70’s is timeless, and I recommend it to everyone.

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Book Take-Aways • Thrive • (2) Comments • Permalink

Even if there was such a thing as a silver bullet for the success of a business, it would still need to be properly fired. This would require a silver gun and people who could fire the gun accurately to the exact target, whatever that target is, of course. As ideal as that would be, it doesn’t exist and I takes work to get your business to where you want it.

Thinking about where your business is and where you want it to be is the idea behind the book Predictable Success by Les McKeown. I was given a copy to read by the author. In it, the reader is taken through 7 stages of the lifecycle of a business as identified by McKeown with “predictable success” being at the top of the curve, ideally where your business should be. All of McKeown’s 7 states are: Early Struggle, Fun, Whitewater, Predictable Success, Treadmill, The Big Rut and Death Rattle.

As I read Predictable Success, I had many flashbacks to all of the firms I have worked for, and of course my own Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC. In addition to this trip down memory lane, my takeaways from the book are reflective of my experiences, and are:

It’s important to know where your business is - Whether you are joining a business or have been in one, knowing which state the business is in is important to your decision-making there. For management, knowing the state can influence decisions to improve the business. For employees, it can influence your decision to stay or leave a job.

The wrong people can hurt a business - Unfortunately I have seen this one too much personally, where key people in a firm get to a level where many people believe they are irreplaceable and position themselves as such. This can occur to the point where management will work around them to solve problems in the company, even if those people are the real problem.

Some people cannot solve their business’ problems themselves - From small to large, there are some who lead or run a business who don’t have it in to truly do what is needed to correct the problems in their business. Why? There are many reasons, from not realizing there is a problem to being mired in the day-to-day work of the business to pull themselves out to see and do what’s needed to not having the capital they need (whether people and/or money) to make it happen. I’m not trying to be a downer, only realistic. One thing this book does well is outline steps to get to predictable success – so if you have some outline of a plan, it will help you determine if you have what it takes to make things happen, or seek help to do so.

I enjoyed reading Predictable Success. It is written in a no-nonsense, down to business manner and it is, as I said previously, easy to relate to the business stages based on my previous experience, and probably would be the same for you as well. I rate Predictable Success up with The E-Myth Revisited as a guide for businesses who are in a funk, and recommend it to any business owner, even if everthing is going great for them, or so they may think!

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Book Take-Aways • Business • Thrive • (0) Comments • Permalink

One of the most exciting aspects of the work I do with my Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC is bringing a business or entity to the Web for the first time. A few months back I partnered with design studio Visible Logic, Inc. to launch the Web site for the new book OUIJA – For The Record by D. Lynn Cain. I have talked about the Web site here at The Hot Iron previously, as it is both an attractive and functional Web site, blog and forum.

What was unique about this project was I did not read the book before the Web site went live. Though I knew what the book was about, I didn’t know the full story. When I finished OUIJA – For The Record, I put down a fascinating story about a family who traveled to Afghanistan in the 1960’s as the result of sessions with an Ouija board. Seriously! Where the story may be somewhat far-fetched to some, my only comment to people is to get a copy of the book for yourself, read it, and then form your own opinion.

As with all books I read, including non-fiction and novels, I have a list of takeaways from OUIJA – For The Record, including:

Tell Your Story - Most all of us have a unique story to tell. It may not be about all of our life, perhaps a small period of time. Even if it is not truly unique there will be someone else interested in what you have to say for a variety of reasons. It may be best told as a blog post or straight to a bound book. But tell it.

People Need Something to Believe In - Whether you are always on the move or live a simple life, we all want something to believe in. In the case of the family in OUIJA – For The Record, what they believed in was that they needed to go to the Middle East. Whatever that something is, it may not be even something you are necessarily looking for. What did that wise British philosopher say about not getting what you want, but what you need?

OUIJA – For The Record was a good read about a family that could be your next door neighbor, or yourself. If you like stories about every day people, or even in the paranormal as the Ouija board was a key element in these peoples’ lives, I highly recommend you get a copy of this book.

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Book Take-Aways • Diversions • (2) Comments • Permalink