Archives for September 2011

Three Years and Counting at DannyBrown.me

Three years ago today, I posted the first article on this blog. It was a pretty simple piece – short, and more of an overview of what to expect in the days ahead.

Three years later, and it’s interesting to look back and see how I’ve changed in that time, both in style and in views on a variety of topics. While I’ve been blogging on and off since 1999, this blog is the one that I’ve made my own, if you like (with you guys playing a huge part, obviously).

So, if you’ll allow me, I’d like to take a little look back at some of the changes, and see how things have developed since that little post back on September 30, 2008.

It Takes Time to Find Who You Are

When I first started on here, I had a different “voice” than the one I have today. Okay – let me rephrase that; I was probably guilty of trying to please too many, as opposed to pleasing myself first.

I’d write some posts with nothing but traffic in mind, or the approval of certain folks in mind (although I wasn’t averse to calling out even back then!), when I should have been writing what was in my head instead. That’s not to say that I didn’t care about what was in the posts – far from it.

But, naively perhaps, these posts seemed to be going with the popular point of view, as opposed to having the balls to disagree with other stuff I was reading because it belonged to someone from the “in-crowd”.

My, how times have changed…

I’m not sure what the tipping point was. Heck, I’m not even sure there was a specific tipping point – perhaps I just got tired of reading lameness, or felt there had to be a better way. Either way, I’m a lot happier now than I was in my early days on here.

If there’s something I’ve learned from that time that I hope you can, it’s that it’s always – always – better to write for you first, and everyone else second. Be true to you, and you’ll be true to your readers.

People Come And Go And That’s Okay

As bloggers, we often put a lot of stock into numbers. Readers; visitors; subscribers; social shares; comments, etc. And there’s nothing wrong with that – after all, we all like to see that the blood, sweat and tears that goes into our blog is worth it, and social proof from numbers is a great way to see this.

Yet we can let these numbers become too important, and that can see us lose sight of who we are and what we want to say.

Instead of writing naturally – and being better bloggers because of it – we begin to look at subscriber counts, and fret when we lose readers. We wonder whether we should be writing differently, or going for list posts as opposed to thoughtful ones.

But we need to stop thinking this way – because at the end of the day, the numbers are meaningless if they’re false.

If you’re writing a post just to get X amount of retweets, or Facebook shares or whatever, you’re probably straying from why you wanted to blog in the first place.

Anyone can write for traffic – but writing for validity and genuine thought? That’s the gold right there.

Besides, there are a ton of reasons readers won’t like your blog – celebrate them, and allow that freedom to let you hang out with people that actually care and want to be with you, as opposed to those who’re just looking for the easy stuff.

It took me a while to realize it but damn, it’s liberating!

It All Comes Back to Being a Person

When I first started blogging many years ago, I wrote about anything and everything – technology, video games, favourite actresses, TV shows, and much, much more. There was no real rhyme or reason to my various blogging endeavours back then – just a desire to write.

One thing I do recall, though, is that because of that scattered approach, I never really let the topics get in the way of who I was – I simply wrote what I was feeling, and that was it.

Jump forward to September 2008, and perhaps the first 8-12 months of this blog, and for whatever reason, I seemed to get mired in the technology and platforms as opposed to what people could do behind them.

Ironic, really, given the goals that I laid out in my first post.

I’m not sure why this happened – perhaps I felt that was the approach I needed to take, or perhaps I was suckered into thinking that’s what people wanted to read (it’s what the most popular blogs were doing, after all).

But, as I’ve found out time and time again, and not just from blogging, people connect more with stories of real people, doing real things, with real results. And that’s what turns my blogging mind on, if you like – being genuine over generic, either from a writing or reading standpoint.

Simply put, being a human being and offering your frailties as well as your perfection (or perceived perfection, since no-one is perfect, not even Batman).

Everyone Has Different Favourites

Sometimes you write a post and you think, “Damn, I nailed that!” – and then no-one reads it! Or, if they do, they don’t let you know, since you don’t get any comments or your social shares are way below some of your other posts.

Again, it boils back to the numbers mindset and why we need to get out of that – because at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. What we might think is some of our best work can be seen as lame by everyone else, or vice versa.

And that’s natural – we all react to different things in different ways. We all have different emotional switches – and that’s okay. It’s what makes us an individual – and that carries across into blogging as well.

So, don’t worry if you feel some of your best work has been bypassed, or some of your favourite posts have disappeared with a whimper instead of a bang. As long as you’ve enjoyed writing it, and garner pleasure and satisfaction from it, that’s all that really matters at the end of the day. And there’s always tomorrow to start anew.

Besides, blog posts are evergreen by nature – there will always be someone that finds your masterpiece. And if it can touch just one single person and make their life better because of it, that’s a million times more satisfying than a thousand retweets or Facebook Likes.

Having said that, hehe… here are some of the posts I’ve been most proud of here, whether they’ve been read or not:

The Kids Are Alright – because a community came together and made some very ill kids extremely happy. Thank you.
You Don’t Have to Die to Live – because opening up about my suicide attempt helped others open up too.
Pale Blue Dots – because it’s just a simple post with a simple message that seemed to connect.
Response to Barbara Talisman – because it was an amazing show of how people can care about something they’re emotionally invested in.
Virtual Stalking – because it encouraged people to speak up and take action.
Could This Be Your Child? – because it made for uncomfortable reading on a rarely-discussed topic and a thoughtful discussion in the comments.
A-Listers Behaving Badly – because this guest post was the most commented on here for a reason, and helped bring the protagonists together in agreement.

So there we have it – three years of change, evolution and learning.

It’s been a fun ride so far, and it wouldn’t have been anything like it has been without you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a one-time reader; an infrequent commenter; a long-time subscriber or otherwise – every word you read means the world to me, and I sincerely appreciate you coming here as opposed to anywhere else you could be at that given time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far, and here’s to many more together in the years to come.

Happy anniversary – thanks for allowing me to have it!

image: cso237
image: jimmedia
image: jasohill

The Most Important Job in the World?

In life, we often place merit on someone by the job they have. We may not mean to, but it’s no real fault of ours if we do – it’s been ingrained from us almost since we could walk.

Parents tell us to get an education, or we won’t get a good job.

Teachers tell us to study harder, or we won’t get a good job.

Potential girlfriends and boyfriends can decide whether or not we’re worthy of their attention, based on the job we have and the material things that can bring.

We see someone being chauffered from place-to-place and feel they must be really important.

Ironically, in social media, this feeling can be exacerbated.

Our blogs become popular; we get hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter; conferences invite us to speak; we have badges of merit that show how smart we are.

When you have that kind of “adulation”, it’s easy to mistake your importance and think your job is something it’s not. Sure, you may have a great job with a personal secretary; or your golf course fees cost more than it takes to send a child through college; or your blog is quoted in the New York Times.

But does that make you owner of the most important job in the world?

Think about it:

If every single blogger in the world stopped blogging tomorrow, we’d still get our news and opinion pieces. They might be watered down a little, but we’d still get them.

If every chauffeur quit tomorrow, we’d still have cabs, buses, trains, motorbikes and even bicycles to get around on.

If every girlfriend or boyfriend dumped their partners tomorrow, we’d still get by on our imaginations. Life would go on.

Now think about some of the jobs we often look at as lesser, and ask the same question:

If every trash collector quit tomorrow, we’d be faced with disease on the streets as the rats came to town.

If every security guard quit tomorrow, our businesses might follow suit, as we see the bad people come to town.

If every sewage worker quit tomorrow, our streets would be overrun by crap.

If every school crossing guard quit tomorrow, how long would our children stay safe at busy intersections?

We look at life through funny lenses. We see people in lesser light when often we should be shining the light on them. We celebrate our own importance when, often, that importance could be survived if it were to disappear overnight.

The point is, we all have important stuff to do and offer. Let’s try remember that more – yes?

image: Auntie P

Serve Yourself. Ain?t Nobody Gonna Do For You

This is a guest post by Marjorie Clayman.

A few years back, Yoko Ono released a comprehensive anthology of tapes that John Lennon had left behind. It?s a treasure trove of songs, some that you would know right away and others that he hadn?t yet gotten finished.

One of the latter is a song with the blog title as the chorus. It is, of course, acerbic and hilarious, as one might expect from John Lennon.

This song popped into my head the other day as I was thinking about the world of social media.

I am finding more and more that social media is like the ocean, and it has tides that can carry you out or bring you back in.

These tides can be ways of doing things (or not doing things), ways of thinking about people, ways of presenting yourself, and just about everything else. You meet a person who knows a person who?s connected to a person and they?re all of a like mind, so you float in with them. Then you meet other people and they pull you in a different direction.

Pretty soon, if you?re not careful, you can actually lose your footing and just become a piece of driftwood in this restless sea.

The sad fact of the matter, as you discover as you start treading water here in the online world, is that most people have some sort of agenda, and their ability to influence you towards that agenda is what makes social media extremely powerful.

Maybe a person wants you to think poorly of another person because they are competitive with that person. Maybe someone else wants you to avoid certain things because, really, they?re worried you?d be better than them.

You never really know the full story. You never know when the sea floor will randomly drop, pulling you under.

That?s why you need to follow John Lennon?s advice, online and offline.

It?s easy, very easy, to fall in with a crowd. It?s how we gain acceptance. It?s how we feel part of a group, or to use the oft-used online term, ?tribe.? Thinking for yourself or remaining unaffiliated can be really exhausting. There are so many decisions to make on a daily basis. There is so much content to sift through, so many viewpoints to evaluate.

But you have to serve yourself.

Nobody else is going to gear your towards things that will always 100% be for your own good. You have to achieve yourself, too, because ain?t nobody gonna do for you. You can talk to people, you can befriend people, and you can listen to everybody. But don?t let yourself become that piece of driftwood.

Serve yourself. Ain?t nobody gonna do for you.

Truer words were never spoken.

About the author:?Marjorie Clayman works for her family-owned agency,?Clayman Advertising, Inc., where she represents the third generation! Margie is the resident blogger at?MargieClayman.com, and can be found on Twitter at?@MargieClayman.?

The Difference Between Acumen and Accruing

Acumen and accruing. Two words that share a few letters, and yet are miles apart in every other sense.

Acumen means you have something of use; accruing means you’re in the process of gathering stuff that isn’t necessarily useful.

Acumen means you connect the dots between idea, execution and success; accruing means you’re more concerned with collecting the dots as opposed to connecting them.

Acumen means you know your shit; accruing means you think anything below a certain number is shit.

In other words, someone with acumen will always – ALWAYS – beat someone that prefers accruing.

Because the numbers that come as a result of acumen far outstrip any importance that the simple act of accruing numbers offers.

Something to keep in mind when you next want results in anything you do…

Lessons From An Asshole

Over on Facebook yesterday, technology blogger Robert Scoble opened a discussion about Twitter versus Facebook versus Google+, based on an observation by Digg founder Kevin Rose and how these platforms offered different engagement.

One of the commenters, Aimee Giese, left her take, and offered a counter to Robert’s view that Twitter was basically a dead zone now, and all the social media interaction is happening on Google+ and Facebook. To which Robert offered the reply as seen in the image below:

If you think Robert’s reply to Aimee, and his claim that she can’t have many friends or family members, is over the top, you wouldn’t be alone.

As well as people that continued to have a debate about the merits of Twitter, Facebook and Google+, many offered their take on Robert’s jibe (intentional or otherwise):

As you can see, the responses ranged from disbelief to anger and disappointment. Yes, we all get riled up, and yes, we say things we probably regret – but that used to be to a limited crowd. Friends down the pub, or work colleagues, for example.

With social media, though, that local crowd has become millions-strong, and everything we say is up for grabs. And if you’re in a position of “influence”, as Robert Scoble is to many, then that amplification becomes even louder (as of writing, the image Aimee uploaded to TwitPic has had just over 16,500 views).

In fairness to Robert, he did apologize to Aimee on Google+, and admitted he had been an asshole and stepped over the mark (although an apology on the original Facebook thread would perhaps have made more sense).

So can we learn anything from what happened yesterday? After all, it’s a prime case of what many brands are afraid of when it comes to social media – a negative interaction. There are a few things.

We Are Always On Display

You might think that a comment or notification is flippant, or not as important as others might see it. The problem is, people have very different views when it comes to what they see as acceptable and what they see as insulting.

Before we (or brands) make a statement, we need to think a little bit more to see if it will be misconstrued. Many of the people that commented on Robert’s apology feel Aimee took it too personally, and Robert wasn’t in any way to blame. Personally, I disagree with this – I think it’s exactly what Robert said it was in his apology (“way over the line”).

But others obviously disagree.

So just consider if the tone of response is appropriate, and even needed. Brands especially have detractors (customers hate to be let down), so it’s even more important to be on your game when making public statements.

Apologies Are Better When Immediate

When the Facebook wall lit up last night with support for Aimee, it was clear that many felt she was owed an apology from Robert. And, as I mentioned, he quickly apologized over on Google+, and made sure to tag Aimee too, so she knew he had mentioned her.

Too many people and brands leave their apologies until long after the event – this doesn’t help their cause. The belief then is that it’s just a carefully orchestrated corporate PR ?response, and the intent isn’t really there.

Sure, for some cases an apology and how it’s worded may have to go through legal channels for approval, to ensure more damage isn’t done. But for something like Robert’s gaffe, a speedy (and honest) apology not only helps douse more flames, but shows people you actually have the balls to admit when you’re wrong, and take ownership.

That goes a long way in reputation management.

Fanboys Wear Shit Goggles

One of the interesting/sad aspects of the whole thread was how many people “Liked” Robert’s reply to Aimee (17 at current count). Does this mean 17 people think it’s okay to insult someone, and raise questions about that person’s ability to make friends?

Then on Robert’s Google+ apology, more people are chipping in and saying Aimee (and those that felt Robert’s comment was out of place) are over-reacting, and need to grow up. A couple of examples:

At least DeWayne Lehman admits to being a professional asshole…

Yes, healthy debate is good, and that’s the beauty of the web – we’re offered far more open options to have a debate, as opposed to just having the views of one with no option to disagree.

Unfortunately, you’ll always have the fanboys that seem to wear shit goggles, as it feels like anything others say is just shit (unless it’s from the object of their affection).

We just need to accept that some people’s opinion will more than likely always be skewed, and no amount of debate is going to change that view. So don’t waste your energy there, and move on to where you can have a healthy debate.

We all make mistakes. Or we all say something that can be viewed as a mistake.

Some people handle it better than others. Kudos to Robert for rectifying his. If only more would step up to the plate in the same way…