6 survival tips to prepare for a tough 2009: time-wasters will become life-savers

Image by gleonhard via Flickr

I have recently been getting a flood of requests from clients, my social network 'friends' and my blog readers to talk about what I could recommend as far as surviving (or even prospering) in the current economic downturn goes. As most of you know, I am not an economist or a financial expert, so instead of talking about markets, money, restructuring and ROI I figured I would talk about how to build an audience around your brand, and how to use that audience and the Internet's juice to capture new opportunities for yourself and your company. Here it goes:)

1) Network Network Network. This is the time to tap into the power of the crowd & the cloud. 2009 will be the year that everyone - no matter what business they are in and what current position they have - will seek to connect with like-minded and highly selected people using social and business networks, from LinkedIn to Xing to Facebook and many other ones. We will also see an increasing blurring of the lines between social and business contacts, as well, as business matters become even more completely and publicly intertwined with who you are, as a person. However, the actual networking platforms are likely to remain purpose-specific (which is what I really like about LinkedIn, btw) but we will use several different services at the same time, segmenting our network and contacts accordingly. On my end, I am keeping LinkedIn connections limited to people I have actually met, face to face (mostly), Facebook is where I tend to be more open and accept most connections (but not all, either), and Twitter is wide open, for me.

Maintaining business and personal relationships in an open, transparent yet careful and individual way will soon become a crucial reason for if and why we get asked to join a project or to  work with others, or not. It is already common practice that we check each other out on LinkedIn before we even commit to a meeting or a phone/skype call, and this will of course increase in 2009. Never mind plain old Googling; if you are not listed on something like LinkedIn, if you're not visible and commented-on in some peer-generated way, if you don't have a site / blog / feed / profile, and (to a lesser extend) if you don't use Twitter or in some other way share your 'river', in many cases you just won't be considered. It's being part of the Tribe (as Seth Godin likes to say) that is starting to matter more than ever before. So get connected, get the network humming, and join the tribes that are in your areas of interest.

This trend will become even more pronounced with the new Open Social, Google and Facebook Friend Connect offerings: You will do a lot more business if you are connected to the right people (this sounds like verbiage from the 50s... but it's true!), and if they are connected to you, and these platforms will make it even easier. Soon, however, it's not enough that you are just part of a network, but what you will actually do there. 

So, here is my advise for getting ready for the battle of 2009: spend some time on building high quality profiles, inviting the right people, networking with your peer groups, and building your social capital. What looked like a major time-waster when I first got involved (i.e. LinkedIn back in 2003 I believe) has now become a true life-saver - we all need qualified and pre-approved connections that we can easily use when push comes to shove, and this is one of the best ways to do it. Lastly, give yourself a nice Christmas present, buy Yochai Benkler's book "The Wealth of Networks" - it rocks.

2) Show people who  - what - where you really are. This trend is becoming more pronounced every single day: if you don't publish anything about yourself, who you are, what is special about you, what you stand for, and yes, what you may offer, sell or provide, nobody will care about pinging you in the first place. Today, if you are '404'-person-not-found on the Net, it usually means one of 3 things: a) you live in one of the few remaining, so-called developing countries that has not yet been uprooted by the Internet b) you are a bona-fide but under-the-radar VIP and are thus exempt from any such trivial need for self-presentation c) You apparently haven't done anything worth mentioning in the past 5 years - at least this will be people's perception when they Google you!

In either case, a total lack of any content about you (or your company, your project or your creations) is already enough to make most more connected people suspicious, and this trend will drastically increase in 2009. No network, no 'friends', no comments, no links - and many people will feel reluctant to do business with you. This is the new power, and maybe also the curse, of the paradigm of hyper-transparency.

So how to show people who you really are? My recipe: publish stuff that you care about, content that's personal, unique and different, such as updates on your social networks, book reviews on Amazon, Flickr pictures from your mobile phone, playlists from last.fm, Ovi (Nokia) sharing updates, blog posts, comments, videos... whatever you feel most inclined to get involved with. Does it take time? Yes, but guess what: this new process of sharing will actually grow on you, and these previously considered time-wasting activities will become an important part of what you do. Suddenly, what once looked like seriously wasting time starts looking like a good investment: a powerful network may yet spring from the wasteland of bizarre tweets, bad blog posts and random Internet friending - we just need to learn how to juggle it all a lot better. Just like 10-12 years ago, when email was often considered a waste of time and it was mostly geeks that had an email address - now it has become the essential tool for business communication. No email, no pings, no business.  In 2009, it will start to become just the same for social and business networks. And yes, soon, email will really be for old people ;)

3) Have real conversations. In 2009, you can stop pushing yourself, your products and your marketing messages via email, newsletters, snail mail, phone calls or print ads; and you can stop yelling at people to get them to pay attention to you. Start pulling them in by being part of conversations, by adding value to something that exists already. Show people that you care about an issue or a topic, signal that you have something of value to give, and they will ask who you are and what you do, and invite you to show them your goodies.

Broadcast less to the masses, and start narrow-casting to the ones that actally want you (this, btw, is the Future of Advertising, in my view). If they don't yet know that they should want you, show yourself and your value in an irresistible way: give something of value, for free. Add value and get value.

Cool down on the monologue (ouch, yes, I should be talking!) and get into 'duo-logs' i.e. conversations. Yes, this is really though; but the times of winning-by-sheer-dominance, of closing a deal because of sheer force, of 'I talk you listen', of monopoly of attention are coming to an end. In the future, you simply won't be hired if you can't talk with people, if you can't listen, if you can't attract rather than force, whether you're a lawyer, a CEO, a marketing exec or an artist. This is what I like so much about Twitter, btw: I can have real conversations with people, as microscopic as they may be. I can check them out very quickly, by looking at their links, and their followers etc, and I can get as engaged as I want - but it's all out in the open.

4) Don't think Money - think Attention, Trust, Merit (Money2.0). This is crucial: the new currency in this hyper-connected economy, is Attention and Trust, based on Merit. In other words, if what you do is good, if it has value, if it maintains that value, over and over again, and if you can get attention repeatedly (by publishing that value in the right context), and if you can get people to trust you and spend time with you, then the money, the remuneration, a very tangible economic benefit will be forthcoming, without a doubt. Money is a consequence of attention, not the other way round.

On my end, during the past 3 years, I have switched my approach completely: I publish, I pull, I try to maintain a reasonable level of quality, and I trust this will return economic benefits. And it has, indeed: 2009 looks more busy than ever before. I believe that when you ask "how does this come back with real $$ attached to it" too early, it deflates your momentum just when you need it the most. Don't ask 'how can I make money with this' but ask 'how do I add value with this, and will I get people to pay attention and trust me with this (and of course - do I enjoy doing this!)'. Again, money is a consequence not the root (and there are other ways of remuneration, as well, not to forget) - just don't miss the point when you can harvest it!

5) Look for new collaborations, unusual partnerships and disruptive alliances. In this highly volatile and fast-moving environment, many of our roles are constantly shifting. Telecoms become content services, mobile phone makers go into the music business, airlines start social networks, newspapers get into TV production, search engines start communities, advertising agencies become R&D departments for major brands. In the near future, a lot more things will be a lot more connected than we have ever thought possible. Your skills and what you have to offer may all of a sudden become a lot less sough-after in your traditional line of work but suddenly become a must-have in a totally unrelated field. Musicians become creators of brand-icons and corporate logos, video-making amateurs become content curators for digital TV services, bloggers become brand evangelists, marketers become social network influencers. Review your assumptions as to what you can do, look for disruptive ideas in whatever sector you are currently working in - and when the rising tide hits you jump into the raft and float with it.

6) Go for creativity. Now. In this world of ever smarter machines, devices and software, the value of so-called facts, computations and logic is greatly commoditized. If Google tells me the answer to just about every fact that I may want to investigate, the ability to connect those facts, at random, and to create context, to blend them, to envision, to compose... is where the new values lie. New jobs are emerging as we speak, and they will not be taught at schools and universities any time soon. Pursue creativity, and the future is yours.

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Comments

[Scott McIntosh]

"a powerful network may yet spring from the wasteland of bizarre tweets"

That statement is just awesome!

[Jason Feinberg]

This is insanely useful and spot-on as usual. Great post, real inspiring and a good blueprint for the new year. I think the idea of Money 2.0 is accurate about currency moving forward.

Jason
http://www.musicbusinessblog.com