Our Need to Belong

What do you need?

Abraham Maslow wrote a paper in 1943 entitled The Theory of Human Motivation. The most famous portion of the work was his Hierarchy of Needs.

As you may know, it covered everything from our basic requirements for food and shelter to safety, self-esteem, morality, health, self actualization and one aspect that I find fascinating which is our desire to belong.

It is the reason we have clubs, teams, communities and networks. We need each other for commerce and business but we also need each other to converse and create, build and share. It is the essence of social networking which has been around for a couple of hundred million years.

Read the Room

While attending SobCon earlier this year, I noticed a shift in the tone of the discussions. It was not a room full of web geeks; it was an astute group of smart established business professionals. Sure, many of us met online but that’s where the conversation began. It was a conduit at best.

I was smiling yesterday as I read some positive comments about BlogWorld happening in Vegas this week and some even shocked about the professionalism of the speakers and presentations. Perhaps this is because we believe the online tools will help move the revenue line but still surprised that it really is doing that.

But SobCon and BlogWorld or any other convention is irrelevant without the people and our need to belong. You don’t get excited that you’re going to the game this weekend so you can sit by yourself, you are going to share an experience with others – in some cases, thousands of others.

So what do we do with all this?

Our need to belong is wired into our collective DNA. Don’t believe me? Remove all contact with humans for 24 hours. No contact! No email. No Internet. No phone. No tweets. No TV. No radio. No wireless device. Nothing.

The entire reason 33 miners were pulled out of an apartment sized hole in the earth a mile down was their ability to be a community. They longed to survive together.

How can you embrace our inherent need to belong in your business?

knealemann

image credit: socgeo ruhosting

Stop Calling It Marketing

A couple of days ago I posed the question – who needs marketing?

If you own a business, you have a lot of expenses involved and you can’t always afford to do it all.

Marketing often suffers because priorities are given to other expenses deemed more necessary.


How Will They Find You?

I received an email yesterday from an colleague who asked if I had any data on the success rate of a campaign that was executed exclusively online verses one that had a traditional media component as well.

Anytime you can access a wide range of options you stand a better chance of success. But if you point your camera at the wrong audience, the amount of time, effort and money you allocate to a initiative is mute.

No time. Tight Budget.

The first line of defense is often "we don't have much money". It's usually followed closely with, "I'm too busy". So everyone is broke and has no time. Cool, now what?

Billions are wasted every year on misguided crap on the wrong medium. Advertising is only a portion of marketing. I was watching TV last night and every single spot was terrible. Well, maybe that one spot was okay, nah, it sucked too.

Focus on The Idea, Not The Dollar.

The explosion of social media and the fact that only a small fraction of companies have yet to embrace its true potential make it a perfect time to get in.

Dive in the deep end and have a look around. Experiment, have fun, ask a lot of questions and shelve your preconceived notions. Make the time.

Just for a moment, stop looking at your budget and time constraints. Think long and hard on how you interact with people in and out of your organization. Ask what they want, not what you think.

And let's stop calling it marketing and call it life.

Think it'll work?

knealemann
strategy. marketing. media.

image credit: tripcart

Why Do You Follow? Why Are We Friends?

There is much debate these days about the future of social media. This is not a new phenomenon or a fad. The interface will change, new portals will crop up, but it isn’t going anywhere.

Is Twitter modern day Hieroglyphics?
Five thousand years ago, the Egyptians used hieroglyphics on walls and caves to tell entire life stories.

Over a hundred years ago, Samuel Morse devised a code for his electric telegraph which revolutionized radio communication.

Today we sit impatiently while our 3G phones take almost a second to react to our every whim.

What are the similarities?
It is our need to belong, share, and be a part of something. Social media has given us the ability to connect with people we actually know, people who know the people we actually know, and beyond.

The connections are the starting point not the end game. If you haven't seen Did You Know 3.0 you should! It's an eye opener and it's exciting. In the presentation, it lists the population of MySpace as the fifth largest country in the world.

We are building communities from every area of the planet, every race and religion, financial background and upbringing, personal taste and political leaning. Borders are gone.

Six Degrees
Whenever I receive or send a friend or connection request, one of the first things that catches my attention is how many mutual friends we have – the more Kevin Bacons, the more likely we have stuff in common. At least that’s the theory.

Obviously, with hundreds and possibly thousands of friends, connections and followers no one can keep it all straight. But if you want to experience the true magic of this process, take a few seconds and find out more about them, then perhaps initiate further contact.

Why do we connect?
Be inquisitive and you will be surprised how many will say hello and how many will want to know more about you.

If you expect others to read your stuff, be prepared to read theirs. If you think you can build a network so you can send spam, don't be surprised when your friend count begins to dwindle.

Your engagement could simply be to collect friends like hockey cards, build a profile and join the worldwide fridge magnet party. Or you can take a few seconds and get to know a little bit about those who said “yes”.

What are the benefits of social media to you?

km

Why Social Networking Works

My life in the blogosphere began about eight months ago. I wondered what I would write about; I wondered if anyone would care. And I found out through reading experts on the subject that it wasn’t the point.

For some reason, the subject has bubbled to the surface again. People like Mitch Joel, CC Chapman and Seth Godin are writing about the benefits of writing a blog and immersing yourself in social media.

The bottom line: networking through blogs, podcasts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Bebo, Last.fm, MySpace and the multitude of other social media sites is whatever you get out of it.

If you want to share recipes with friends, rant about government spending, share business tips, expand on your expertise, or simply stay in touch, it’s all okay. There are no set rules.

Don't worry about who will read or follow you. It’s important to share your honest voice. You must be cognizant of proper language (cursing won’t get you anywhere), and over time you will find your style.

My blogging life began with whatever came to the top of my head, but now I focus on my passions – media, integration, social networking, music, television, radio, and content.

I could write about golf, cooking, auto racing, or reading books but those are passions I prefer to enjoy rather than write about.

So if you have been thinking about starting a blog or a podcast, just do it. It’s free.

If you want to promote and share your thoughts with a wider audience, post your work on your various profiles to insure more people have the chance to know what you’re doing.

Let me know how it goes. Send me an email or a post here with a link to your blog.

In eight months, I have connected with hundreds of people I would never had met otherwise and reconnected with people I hadn’t seen or talked to in ages. We just want to connect and share. It’s really that simple. Abraham Maslow was right.

And most importantly - have fun!

km