First, I’d like to point you to this video:
Thanks to Robbin for the heads up on this.
Next, I’d like to share a quote from Kathy Sierra:
“Let other companies, brands, apps battle with one another over who has the most awesome product, while the REAL battle is over who has the most awesome users.”
This video and this quote go to the heart of what I think is wrong with 99% of the talk about being ‘awesome’ these days. All this talk about how you need to be awesome, how you need to create amazing content and how ‘awesome wins’.
Because most of that talk is focused on how YOU can be awesome. What YOU need to do to be awesome, and how if YOU create awesome content, then YOU are awesome.
Everyone that attended the World Science Festival with Bobby McFerrin no doubt left thinking HE was awesome. Why? Because he made THEM feel awesome. Note with Kathy’s quote, the focus is on who has the most awesome USERS (and it could just as easily be the most awesome customers, or blog readers).
The point is, don’t focus on how YOU can be awesome, focus on how you can make OTHER PEOPLE awesome. If you are blogger, how can you create content that’s going to help your readers do something they couldn’t do before? How are you going to help them solve a problem, or be more productive? What ability are you going to give them that they didn’t have before?
It’s not about putting a spotlight on yourself. It’s not about beating your chest and bragging about your accomplishments.
But empowering others…now THAT is awesome.
What super power will you give your readers?
Mack, what a powerful article. I couldn’t agree more, empowering your users has to be your top priority no matter what.
This is the core focus I am trying to take with our product day in day out, many thanks for reinforcing this important point here.
Let me put your post in my Buffer, great stuff as usual Mack. 🙂
I act because of awesome causes, not because of awesome people. We are all awesome in one way or another. Awesome causes help us reveal our own awesomeness.
Bobby McFerrin is a gift and I watched this again so I could feel myself grin 🙂 Thanks for sharing it! It’s going onto my Facebook wall right now!
It’s so very true that sometimes we forget the incredible capacity we each have to influence others – for good or ill. The smallest acts and attitudes we put out there can make a difference to another person’s moment. I’ve always been of the mind that through giving, I receive ten-fold in return. Recently, on a train, an old fellow sat next to me (ok, I admit, I inwardly groaned a little) and proceeded to regale me with stories for two hours. I listened & laughed (made the effort ;-)). At his stop, he was grinning ear to ear, thanking me for sharing, shaking my hand non-stop. Personally, I got nothing more out of it then knowing I had made his trip that much more pleasant. (Then I put on my iPod & fell asleep :-))
Maybe I’m a Pollyanna looking through rose-coloured glasses but this world would be a much kinder place if we listened to and lifted others more often.
As always, thank you for a thoughtful post, Mack. Oh, and did I mention that you’re awesome? 😉
Thank you Tobey, I think you’re awesome too, and not just for being a good train companion 😉
Awesome!! This is just what I needed today and advice to help others feel awesome. I could write forever about myself and my woes, but how would that help others? It might be cathartic to myself, or with a slight spin it may be helpful. I was told once to always put a smile on my face – as it is what others see that sets their mood upon meeting. Another friend’s purpose in life – To Make People Smile – that’s it, but he does it so well 🙂 Sometimes by just listening – but really listening and smiling until he gets a smile.
This is really a profound post, Mack, and it gets to the heart of my Social Media philosophy.
A lot of people I know are not involved in the Social Media world, so I get the odd experience of being simultaneously completely immersed while also completely aware of how people outside of this crazy Social Media circuit view the whole thing. “Egotistical.” “Self-serving/Self-absorbed.” These are the kinds of words and phrases I hear.
The role models I choose to follow in this world are the ones who are perpetually lifting other people up. Of course they spend some time promoting themselves – they’re here for business – but the word awesome is used as they describe other people.
Thank you for this post! I hope people pay attention. Dare I say, it’s awesome 🙂
Thank you Margie, I hope they do as well. I wish Kathy was still blogging because she shared so much on her blog that new bloggers over the last 4 years have really missed. One thing she always hit on was if you can teach readers how to do something better, or give them a new skill that makes them more productive or efficient, that’s how you grow your own awareness. Not by directly promoting yourself, but by making others ‘more awesome’.
The great thing about social media is that it excels at making things happen indirectly. If you can make your readers smarter, guess what…they are going to tell all their friends how smart YOU are. But if you blog about how smart YOU are, that almost never works.
We all have the ability to turn on a spotlight, and we all have the ability to decide who it shines on. I think our spotlight shines a bit brighter when we turn it away from ourselves.
It takes a lot of courage, and trust, to turn that spotlight away from oneself.
Margie, you mention how many people who aren’t involved in Social Media see it as a tad narcissistic – which, of course, it can seen to be.
Perhaps, it’s because some see Social Media as the new ‘Advertising Medium’ and don’t appreciate the relationship aspect. ‘Why highlight your competition?’
Mack, you make an excellent point; I think there’s inherent respect gained when you help others. Reciprocity rocks.
Fantastic video – do we ‘know’ what comes next? Do we intuit it?