Categories: Articles

Being There

So many smart people Blogging and Tweeting about so many great ways to set goals for 2010 (and while we’re on the topic, Happy New Year!). It’s one of those things that should make you smile about the power of Blogs, Twitter, etc…

As each year passes, I do like to reflect back on the year that was and contemplate how the next year might be better. The basics are a given (health, family, friends, etc…), but it can get slippery when thinking about the practical and realistic professional goals you have for yourself. On one hand, aiming too low might result in you not accomplishing as much as you could have, while creating insanely huge projections can leave you in a depressed state when November rolls around and you realize how unrealistic (or unattainable) those goals were. All that to say, we do have to "dream big", "just do it" and "shoot for moon" as the clichÃ©s go. In all of my years of creating, cultivating and nurturing personal goals, having massive ones diced up into very fine smaller ones always made things more palpable. Plus, if the major goals were not nailed in 365 days, having all of those little goals (or steps) in the process always provided the perfect emotional GPS for when the arrival of that big one would be. Motion creates more motion (that’s another clichÃ©, but they’re clichÃ©s because they’re true).

A little thing in Social Media can go a long way.

Although Social Media is about community, conversations and creating real interactions between real human beings, we all tend to do a ton of navel gazing in the process. Who could blame us? These tools enable anyone to publish whatever they’re thinking in text, images, audio and video to the world instantly. Along with that, we have plenty of tools that allow of us to listen to what everybody is saying about us and the company we keep. As much fun as conversations and community can be, nothing can be sweeter than the sound of one’s own name being uttered. It’s also a trip to log into your web analytics packages to see how many visitors you have, where they came from, how they found you, what they did and how long they stayed for. All of this combined combined will naturally keep us fairly inward focused.

It’s true… you know it’s true.

As soon as you have some semblance of a growing community (be in on a Blog, Twitter or Facebook), you tend to focus more on that area. It’s not only an ego trip, but maintaining and nurturing that space takes a lot of time, patience and focus. With all of that, you probably find yourself in a similar position to the one I am in. I spend a lot of time focusing on being "here" (this Blog, my Twitter feed, etc…)… and not on being "there" (on your Blogs, your Twitter feed and on your Facebook spaces).

2010 will be about being there.

That’s my one professional resolution for 2010 (it’s also a pretty good goal or resolution for any brands, companies or individuals really looking to understand engagement in the Digital Marketing space). It won’t be about doing less here (there will still be the same steady flow of Blog posts, Tweets, Podcasts, etc…), but I would like to dedicate more time and effort to being there in your spaces. More comments on your Blogs, more responses and back-and-forth on Twitter, and more inside jokes posted to your Walls and Pages on Facebook. In an effort to do so, I’ve re-organized my Google Reader (new folders, must-read Blogs, etc… and marked everything as "mark as read" to start over clean and fresh). I’ve also installed Instapaper so that content of interest can accessed, read and followed anywhere and everywhere (more on that here: Instapaper Is A Must). Beyond that, it’s just a personal promise that I’m making to myself (and publishing here so that I am personally held accountable for it).

What about you? Do you plan on being in your own space solely in 2010 or are you open to "being there" as well?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.