afordrunning

Fellow Twitterers, Facebookers, Tumblrs, Flickerers, and Posterousies – Social Media is not the forum for you to clear your mental cobwebs or deep-seeded issues. Of course, the occasional “my plane is 16 hours late”, or “another one of my socks just caught on fire…AGAIN!” rants are completely acceptable. But, in general I think we should share some info/laughs/opinions but please, please cease and desist with the vomitous therapy posts.

Here’s how to tell if you are a candidate for Psycho of Web 2.0. Stand back and look at your stream of output – do you see a thread? Does that thread sound like a person ready to jump off a tall building, or take a long nap in a running car with the garage door closed? It’s time to start talking to someone else – or at least keep it to yourself.

The State Department wants their employees to blog now. NOW? That’s so slow it’s almost pre-trend. But, their rules are many and anxiety is high that someone will say something that starts WW3. This is not a statement on the government in that most every company I know has similar tendencies in controlling the message about themselves and their people. News Flash, nobody cares about you like YOU DO.  

This isn’t a diss on social media and it’s exploration either. But a governor to the expectations that we have through the medium. Business in this environment is not the same as hanging a website that’s been copy-written, proofed, and analyzed prior to execution.

Yet we still want to control what the conversation like we have in all other aspects. Our contemporary business leaders are asking for ROI, buzz, and quantifiable metrics all rolled up into the cool new tools. Seriously? Nobody knows what this will end up like once it gels, but what I do know is that jumping in with a “business gloss” mentality means the original purpose of having a “conversation” shifts the terms of the engagement from real to pseudo. 

Are your employees going to say something you don’t like, most likely. Will they make new connections, gain a better understanding of their business environment, and learn to communicate with the marketplace more effectively? If done right and you let them. So if you want to keep the terms of conversation safe, controlled, and measured then send a fax. If you want to truly let your people discover their voices, bring in other perspectives, and maybe – just maybe enjoy two way communication then just let go.

Controlling conversation is like mandating religion…they both lead to revolution. So the question is which side of the gallows would you like to be on?