Always be Creating – Always be Learning – Social Media/Social Marketing Tips – Count down to SXSW2009 – 33 Days

Starting each day out right is a true challenge in this age with all the constant changes. So each day between now and Friday, March 13, I will share a short thought to inspire or a piece of experience to teach. These articles stem from my strategy work with social media and social networking systems and SEO work over the last 8 years and IT management over the last 20  years and most importantly the amazing experiences I had working with an AI spin-off from MIT called Symbolics throughout the 80’s. I learned the importance of learning and embracing tools that help you be more creative.

Let’s start with right attitude of ABC and ABL. Always be creating and always always be learning.

The number of existing  web-based social media tools and new ones being brought out each month can feel overwhelming. Ever visit www.Mashable.com? Subscribe to that feed! And read www.ReadWriteWeb.com or www.TechCrunch.com? Monitor them for tools that help you become more aware of what’s possible with the systems you’re using. Tools like Sharepoint, WordPress, Facebook, Google and others can make life easier after surviving the learning curve! No you don’t have to learn them all. Pick the ones that are worth exploring. Test them. Use them. Throw out the ones that are of no value but remember to cycle back.

Watch how you dig in and justify that you know enough already.  Are you saying – ‘no more’ I don’t need this social networking stuff? I don’t have the time. I’m too busy. I can’t keep up anyway. Take notice when you get into that line of thinking and just let it go. You’re not in a Catch 22 situation. You CAN both learn and ‘be’ who you want to be and have control over your time and what you share with others. I remember when I worked for a major US corporation for 12 years all through the 90’s and early 2000’s. I felt trapped. Middle management was like being stuck. Can’t leave, paid too well. Can’t advance; not in the inner circle.  Don’t have time; always too busy just trying to stay even. Then… I got laid off.

Last night I watched Catch-22, the movie by Mike Nichols.  Take some time and watch it again. Watch carefully for who gets out of the catch 22 and most importantly ‘why and how’ he did it.

Always be creating. Always be learning. These are your unalienable rights.

Tom

Tags: catch 22, Facebook, google, Internet Tools, mashable, sharepoint, social media, SXSW, SXSW2009, techcrunch, wordpress

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Countdown to SXSW2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.