Each season participants fight their inner demons before going on to achieve their goals. The lesson is obese people carry around a lot more than weight.

My problem isn’t with the show. It’s the fact we know obesity is a symptom of deeper issues, but talking to someone about it is taboo.

Most of us know someone who is obese. Asides from an occasion flippant remark, I bet the subject has never been raised. The stupid thing is a person’s weight is considered personal.  

In a society where we’re encouraged to talk about things such as mental illness, it’s sad that something as dangerous as obesity is off topic. 

Obesity is self-inflicted. So is drug abuse, self-harming, and a bunch of other stuff we acknowledge as a symptom of deeper problems. So let’s treat it as such. 

Everything we do tells a story about who we are, including weight. It’s up to us whether we choose to hear it.

With pressure from clients or the powers that be, sometimes it’s easier to just create than debate.

The amount of rubbish business blogs, Google+ accounts, applications, and even website content stand testament to those of us who at one time or another surrendered to outputs over outcomes.

My goal is to take an analogue approach to digital planning in 2012.

I plan on asking myself how a particular platform, advertisement, and piece of content will add value in the real world?

Like the newspaper clipping my best mate cut out and mailed to me because he thought it would be of value to me, everything we create should be of value to our audience, in their day to day lives.

When I look back on the year that was, I sincerely hope I can say to myself that everything I was responsible for creating online (at work and at home) adds value offline.

Let’s create. Value.

*This is a thought that’s been marinating for a while now, but flagrantly lifted from a post called 2011: What We Learned on Big Spaceship’s blog. This is hands down the best corporate blog I’ve come across, so do yourself a favour and check it out. 

These are the words of ten year old by Arfa Karim Randhawa (1995-2012), a programming prodigy who was a Microsoft Certified Professional by the time she was nine years old.

Passing away this weekend, I was struck not just by her wisdom but the seeming cruelty of loosing such a remarkable human being at such a young age.

As a child we are taught to do what we’re told. Go to school, do homework, play sport and learn an instrument. Think about what we want to be or do at some distant point in the future.

In short we learn to follow the crowd and await permission to truly live our dreams and do something remarkable.

Most of us take this into adulthood where we continue to wait for permission. Arfa didn’t.

Arfa’s message is that we are whatever we believe ourselves to be. If you think shy, you’re shy. If you think you’re dumb, you’re dumb.

On the contrary, if you think confident, you’re confident. If you think you can so something, anything, you can do it. The only thing stoping you is you.

We don’t need permission. We just need believe in ourselves and do whatever it is we dream of doing.

The reason I wanted to publish this tribute to Arfa is so I’ll never forget her lesson. I’d like to think it will serve as inspiration for others too.

Up until last Saturday I was one of those people who respond immediately to emails, messages and mentions across any number of social networks.

Rarely did I think of it as work. I even took pride in being someone who was seen as always on. I also liked reading what others were chatting about and sharing.

That was until my wife confessed to feeling that she was competing against my phone for attention, and loosing.

Not wanting to be one of those husbands, I had an honest think about the time I was spending navel gazing: was I giving my time freely, acting compulsively, or just having my attention demanded by the stream of email and social media notifications?

I watched and listened to everything around me while sitting, phone free, on the Darling Harbour wharf. 90 minutes taking it all in and I felt more relaxed than I had in a long time. A little Zen even.

This feeling inspired me to switch off my push notification a week later.

The first 24 hours were tough. Without the regular vibrations I felt isolated, a little on edge and unable to just sit on the couch and relax.

Then silence.

My mother used to say silence is bliss. A week on and I couldn’t agree more.

I flinch at the thought I might have had a problem. Not that it matters.

What does matter is I’ve started noticing more in the real world. I’m more relaxed, get less distracted and am generally happier. My wife is happier as well.

The conclusion of this little experiment is that too much of a good thing isn’t healthy. Push notificatications are an option, not an imperative.

Imagine shelling out for premium tickets to the grand final if you’re not into football. A ten thousand dollar bicycle is absurd if you’re not an avid cyclist. If you were into art however, spending that same amount on a painting might represent value for money.

Value doesn’t necessarily refer to money. With so much competing for our attention, you give time to things which represent value. This includes family, friends, a Seth Godin blog post, Red Bull facebook page, or the latest book in the Twilight saga.

It’s easy to say this is all relative and different people value different things. True, but easy. And if your – or your client’s – business depends on getting people’s attention, you want to know how your audience determines value.

You value what can relate to

Influencers play a big role in making things valuable. But this doesn’t answer the question. To do so we need to go back in time. We’ll be back in a jiffy, don’t worry.

You’re six and in the playground near where you live. A kid you’ve never seen walks over. After a moment of silent staring they ask your age. It sounds more like a challenge than a question. Hey, you’re the same age. “Let’s be friends.”

You’re twelve now, it’s the first day of high school and don’t know anyone. A kid starts talking to you. You ask them what they’re into. What, you’re both into surfing? Cool.

You walk out of the cinema with your friends. You’re seventeen now, and just watched Fast & Furious. You don’t have a car yet, but hell yeah! Paul Walker’s character was crazy cool.

And we’re back.

I’m stating the obvious now. You connect to what you can relate to. The closer the relation, the more valuable something is to you. If you follow a brand on facebook, regularly read a blog or magazine, it’s because you relate to it.

The opposite naturally holds true also. A cruel example is the refugee debate, with ignorant fools believing themselves to have nothing in common with refugees. To them, these people have no value. It’s sad how many wars are fought for this same reason.

Some final thoughts

Content is becoming more important. Getting and holding the attention of your audience requires you to produce content they relate to. The more your audience can relate, the more of their attention will be given to you.

This requires a different type of understanding. Just like the six year old you in the park, you need to give people something they relate to. As simple as this sounds, few businesses are doing it.

Worked well for J.K. Rowling. Can you imagine how much her first manuscript is worth these days?

If you think this post is worth it, please share it with your friends and followers. Thanks.

The down side of being so enamoured with work, is I find that it chews the majority of my time. When not applying what I know, I’m plugged in. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

The problem is my mind is constantly occupied, which could one day lead to  professional fatigue. Whereas social media is my day job, the same applies to any profession.

If you’re into what you do then you’ll seek out others within the same tribe. Soon you’ll be spending all of your down time up, leaving you feeling a little upside down.

As more people discover the joy (addiction) of social media, I imagine more will suffer the same fate.

It struck me the other day, feet up on the couch, that there is an exception to the rule: Instagram.

If you’re not familiar, Instagram is a photo sharing iPhone application. It incorporates filters that allow even the most amateur photographer’s shots to look classy. Like most social platforms, followers, likes, and comments are all part of the fun.

Maybe it’s me, but the act of sharing and looking at photos is so simple. People shed their corporate garb and are become everyday people, as opposed to CEO, Creative Director, Digital Strategist, or Taxi Driver.

Not once have I felt the need to share an image relating to my job. The same seems to go for other to. It’s just real people sharing pics of places they go, things they see, friends, family, and whatever else takes their fancy. There’s something beautiful about this.

Instagram provides me with an alternative to other, more work focused social platforms, relieving the fatigue which can accompany them. There’s no need, no place, no desire, for it to become other than what it is.

So on behalf of all us who love our jobs but need a little down time, thank you Instagram.

What do you think. Is it just me, or do platforms like Instagram have an important place in the social media universe?

Ever heard two physicists talk shop? I have, and I’m the first to say that I had NO IDEA what they were on about. It wasn’t anything complex, they were using specialist language unfamiliar to me.

The same holds true of any tribe. You will struggle to follow a conversation unless you’ve been initiated.

Communicators have the horrible habit of using specialist language when trying to express an idea. Yet we get frustrated when people don’t understand us (evidenced by how few people actually understand what it is we do).

Keep this all in mind the next time you’re speaking to people who haven’t been initiated into our tribe, or a sub-tribe (social media comes to mind).

You don’t have to dumb it down. Just leave the specialist language at home.

The video below always gives me a giggle. This could be because I am a card carrying member of the philosophy tribe. I’m betting that it will make little sense to others.

Hat tip to Mark Pollard and Cathie McGinn who both shared insightful posts on language in recent weeks. Thinking starts here. 

As Alex Bogusky says, fear is the moral enemy of creativity. If we accept this – and I do – courage is the lifelong friend of creativity.

This post looks at courage and creativity in the form of disruption. But first, a little story.

A little story

He was famous for being obnoxious and getting about in garish attire. He attracted all sorts of attention, little of which was positive. Luckily he was a swordsman, quite skilled so the story goes.

Nobody liked the obnoxious fellow, naturally. When passing through a small village, he was challenged to a duel. But this was all the norm for the peacock swordsman.

The big day arrived.

Not wanting to let an opportunity pass, some local lads decided they’d do all a favour and knock him off. This was of course unbeknown to the challenger who was also a swordsman of repute.

As soon as the two swordsmen were set to duel, the young men let fly with arrows. Our villain died. Dead, before he could draw his sword. Crowds cheered and the lads felt pretty chuffed.

Our friendly challenger however, cried. The boys prostrated in front of him, apologising for taking his glory.
The older man scored them. “Idiots. I wasn’t chasing glory. This man was far more skilled than me.”

The boys looked at each other, shrugging shoulders and shaking heads.

“Why do you think he acted and dressed the way he did? He looked like an ass to draw attention to himself, to provoke people into challenging him.”

The man stood up, preparing to leave. “It takes courage to put yourself out there. All young people should aspire to be like him at least once.”

Courage, disruption, success

There are many lessons that could be drawn from this little story. The one I want to focus on is having the courage to disrupt.

If you want to get people’s attention in our busy virtual marketplace, you have to let it all hang out. You have to put something into the public domain that’s wild enough to get people to look. I mean really look. And then tell their friends.

But doing so takes courage. Namely, the courage to sell the idea:

1. To your team. Whether you’re the CMO or an intern, saying something outlandish will likely get odd looks. But if you liked mediocre and hiding in the back, you probably wouldn’t work in marketing communications.

2. To your bosses (or other decision makers). This takes more guts as these people a) can fire you, and b) will immediately see how failure affects them. But you influence people for a living, so I’m sure you’ll have them convinced in no time. Plus, if you thought failure was a real possibility you’d have come up with a better idea.

3. To your client. Clients want you to make them look good and cause them little/no stress. So enchant them. Show examples of similar things that worked for others, give them facts and figures, as well as the tools they need to sell the idea internally. Don’t forget, they’ll need as much courage as you.

In short

Don’t be discouraged by the fact that the guy in the story died. Being a samurai was a far tougher gig than a communicator (and they have swords so are automatically cooler).

Our industry is also full of examples of wildly creative ideas. Just remember, each of those ideas started with someone who had the courage to draw attention to themselves.

My challenge to you is to do something that scares you each week (bonus points if that involves wearing happy pants to work). I dare you.

*My little story is based on a historical account I read in Kendo World magazine. Alas, I cannot recall the author or swordsman’s name. 

You hate it more times than not, but it’s what keeps you coming back. Change.

It doesn’t matter what you think about changes made to facebook because it’s the changes that hold your attention.

Just like the second time you watched that horror movie and weren’t scared by that scene, your hyper-stimulated brain had already processed the known and gave its attention to the unknown. The new.

The clever team at facebook know this and have continually presented us with changes. From the introduction of applications, then more applications, then a change to this and that and so on.

By the time you get used to something they change it. And your brain processes the changes as something new, something needing attention. Clever hey?

Myspace and Friendster didn’t get it. Apple and Amazon do. Enough said.

Your job is to keep this in mind the next time you want to get someone’s attention, or you’re warned against changing what ain’t broke.

Innovation is change. Disruption rules.

Technology is new. People are not. Predicting online social media trends might be far simpler than we thought.

A group listens as a well known influencer shares his wisdom.

Members of his community ask questions, respectfully challenging the influencer’s ideas. He engages them, and by the end of the conversation has convinced the group. Again.

His followers spread these ideas with their own friends and followers. One of his keenest followers eventually shared a transcript of some of his best ideas.

By recording and sharing this influencer’s ideas, Plato went on to become an influencer in his own right. I’m glad he did, because we might not otherwise have known of Socrates. But that’s not really the point.

The point is that while technology is new, people are not. We’ve been following the same patterns for centuries.

Influencers, followers, communities, tribes, sharing, engaging, meet-ups, connecting, liking. It’s nature, not new.

So the next time you’re looking to predict social media trends, just whip out your portable wormhole (smartphone) and go back in time for a little digital archaeology. It’s much easier than the Lara Croft, Tomb Raider type stuff, and you’re guaranteed more trends than the heart desires, both good and bad.

I just hope none of the influencers I know end up like Socrates.