Categories: Articles

The Power Of Intent

The word "should" is more powerful than you might imagine. How do you think people should Blog, use Twitter or post videos on YouTube?

I’m just as guilty as the next person when it comes to "should"-ing all over people. We tend to make grand assumptions in hopes that people do things online the way "God intended them to be" – whatever that means. Does that mean that anything goes? Does that mean that there are no rules? Absolutely not, but – as the famous saying goes – "the inventor rarely knows what the invention is for." The fact still remains that if you’re reading this Blog posting, you are clearly an early adopter. The majority of people do not understand what Twitter is for, so they use it how they know best (to follow Oprah or Ashton Kutcher – they’re simply not interested in any form of conversation), at the same time, people like me mouth off that Twitter isn’t really doing what it was "supposed to do" (see: Half Of Your Twitter Efforts Are Wasted – The Trouble Is We Don’t Know Which Half).

Who says anything should be used in one specific way?

Let’s take a closer look at Twitter to better understand the power of intent. If you’re a company and you would like to notify those interested when you post a news item or add a product line, but you have zero interest in engaging in Twitter much beyond using it to simply broadcast those news items, who is to say that this is not the "right way" to use Twitter? If there are people interested and following those tweets (however big or small the group of followers may be) and as long as it is tightly tied to an overarching business strategy, why not use Twitter in a way in which many of us would think is counter-intuitive?

Your intent is not my intent.

It’s beyond the concept of "live and let live" – all of these platforms, technologies, tools and channels offer a myriad of ways to connect and build community (or simply drive sales), and while there are many among us that are seasoned veterans mingling with those fresh out of school, you don’t need a college degree or fifteen years in the business to understand what your consumers want and how to give it to them.

Intent is everything.

If broadcasting in a conversational channel works for you, who is anyone else to judge?

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.