Lately, if you have noticed, I have been on a long riff about how information is being shared. After months of observance, I had the experience that gave me the ultimate understanding. I owe this post to every single persons experience because you have had it hundreds of times but specifically this post is the story of mine that happened to me a few days ago. I sent a link with the words “and I thought about you”.
A couple of times a week I stop by MentalFloss. I clicked a post about banana art and thought about my brother who refuses to accept he’s an artist because of what he would have to give up (his bad habits) to have his dream. I saw the bananas and had to share it with someone, someone special, someone whom I thought about immediately after seeing the bananas.
That’s the aim of content isn’t it? Or at least, it’s supposed to be the aim. Great content does good to one person but can only change the world if it’s shared with everyone on it. Whether changing the world is done through banana art or any of the billions of artistic niches, it has to be shared. To be shared, you must have the reader or viewer think of those five words.
Those five words are the most powerful words in the world because they employ action. The moment a person thinks about someone else after reading or viewing some form of content, they are held accountable to share it with that person.
Thinking about it again, this happened the other month when I sent a picture of this tiger to my friend whose favorite animal is a Tiger.
Rawr
As a writer and creator of valuable content, the aim of having it shared is not based off the most Tweets, the most “likes” or the most reblogs. While the content can be shared with thousands of people this way, the connection of the shared knowledge is void of character, void of passion, void of care. The aim of providing invaluable content is to fit into someones worldview and you can only do so when you say or type those 5 words.
Stay Positive & I Wrote This Because I Thought About You
The problem at large with social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, is that it is all noise and no white space.
Twitter is averaging less and less on click-throughs and I’m not surprised. Half the content shared is ridiculous (go click a couple of links if you don’t agree). The other half just blends in with all the other feed and the value is lost in noise. As for Facebook, all the content that is shared are pictures rarely offering any insight in which you seek. The terrible part is there is no white space in either.
Social media is about a constant flow of admired information but admired information is meaningless if there’s no white space after it to digest. That is why you may learn an idea, try to share it with someone, forget half of it and forget where you got the idea from. There was no time for it to cultivate and for the source to get credit. The noise and lack of white space is why more people are deleting “friends” on Facebook and unfollowing people on Twitter.
Of course everyone is still using the constant feed stream, it’s one of the most valuable sources of information…when used correctly. Those who use the content stream properly are those who only click-through on valuable content tweeted, posted and shared by those in their tribe. Content they can interact with and the interaction is what creates white space and a further understanding of the content. The interaction turns the content into an experience which sticks to the memory.
Social media gives too much of an overload of info. If you are looking for something new without an expectation of solid content, then click a few Twitter links. If you want content, stick with Google. If you want an experience, use Twitter, Facebook and any social media with those who connect with you, that interact, that both, you and the person you’re interacting with, can expand and learn. That is why Twitter was held at such a high value, until too many people created too much noise. Curse the followback button
I had nearly 500 followers on Twitter four days ago. Something had changed and I lost almost 100 of them.
The reason behind it? Dunbar’s Law, or at least an attempt at it. I thought I would carry the 150 maximum of people in a group to the web. I would only follow 150 people who interacted, who had fun, who shared concrete content and who really connected. Four days ago, I spent an hour unfollowing nearly everyone who has never communicated with me or who I do not remember getting any links or information worth reading from their tweets. I unfollowed roughly 900 people, half of which were people who were also following me. Keep that in mind.
After I cleared out those who I followed, my followers dropped increasingly. People who programmed their Twitter to only follow those who followed them, no longer followed me. What does this have to say about follow-back courtesy? A lot.
Taking my statistics, only 1/9th or 11% of your followers are only following you because you followed them. (A small percentage than what I would still assume to be true) This gives you an immediate sense that you are reaching people, that people care what you Tweet and have an inclination to interact with you. All false. For a person who has 4,000 followers that is nearly 500 of them that still have no clue who you are or care to know. Sure, that may not be a lot, but now let’s look at the number of people who I unfollowed.
Roughly 900 people I unfollowed because they had no interaction, no concrete content, and flatly, no care in the world that I exist. Which is fine – Remember, my purpose was to go after Dunbar’s law anyway, I am only wanting people of my Tribe. There’s no need to give a false sense of identity by following people who have nothing to do with my niche (other than for entertainment). This leads to the reason Twitter should get rid of the Follow-Back button.
Have you noticed that Twitter is getting less click-throughs, less interactions with multiple people, and overall less content. It’s all noise – no harmony. The reason why? Too many followers and too many people are just following back. I used to dedicate a couple of hours to reading content via twitter feed. After my second attempt, I realized how much passionate content was lacking. I merely had followed hundreds of people who had a similar interest thinking that they would want to interact over their tweets. Sorry though, I don’t think the lack of hot boys in the midwest has anything to do with public speaking. Nor does the other 899 people who we’re tweeting – roughly 45-50 people consistently tweet great information and interact continuously with people they connect best with. I am now only following around 50 people, far from Dunbar’s law.
Let’s look at Twitter from the should-be view.
Twitter should not be only about following people, it should be about interacting. Twitter should not have a follow-back button because you don’t want people to follow you because you follow them. Do you realize that if you have two people following each other, you get nowhere? Twitter should be about being a leader, connecting to other leaders, and teaching followers how to become a leader. To become a Twitter leader: create harmonic content, consistently interact with other leaders and passionate followers, and by all means, to become a Twitter leader, quit following people back.
You can give any person a red dipping bird and have them place it in a position for all to see and begin telling about it. Not only will they show and tell about the red dipping bird, but they will do it perfectly.
“It is a red plastic bird that for some reason dips forward and puts its beak into a glass of water “emulates the movement” and dips back and continuous going back and forth. You can purchase them in all different sizes, colors and with goofy extras like flamboyantly colored feathers or an old Abe Lincoln hat.”
Done. They showed and told.
But there’s a flaw.
It’s boring.
Everyone who’s seen one knows this. Everyone who owns one, probably laughed at the flamboyant feather color comment but still thought the presentation was dull. Everyone else who were shown and told to, they could get up and do the same exact thing.
Show and tell, which is ultimately done in k-5 grade levels, can set incredible examples and offer intelligent insight into creativity – if done right. There’s a often an overlooked variable to show and tell that can make the experiences result artistic, unique and altogether attention-informative (Information people actually want to pay attention to). Simply showing and telling doesn’t do this. Doing it the old school way is bland and banal.
The correct format is to figure out THEN show and tell.
Figure Out THEN Show & Tell
Having to figure something out taps potential on the shoulder and tells it to get to work. In the case of the red dipping bird and according to How Stuff Works, The Dipping Bird (also called the Drinking Bird or the Dunking Bird) is a popular novelty item or toy in the United States and other countries.
A Dippy Bird has the following parts:
Two equal-sized, hollow glass bulbs
A long glass tube that connects the bulbs
Fuzzy, water-absorbent material covering the head
Two plastic legs with a pivot connection
Methylene chloride in the abdomen. Methylene chloride is an industrial paint stripper and solvent (one thing that dissolves easily in methylene chloride is caffeine, so you can use methylene chloride to decaffeinate things). Methylene chloride helps makes a Dippy Bird work because it evaporates very easily — it boils at just 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).
To operate the Dippy Bird, you get its head wet. As the water evaporates, fluid moves up into the head, causing the bird to become top-heavy and dip forward. Once the bird dips forward, fluid moves back into the abdomen, causing the bird to become bottom-heavy and tip up.
Here is how a Dippy Bird works:
When water evaporates from the fuzz on the Dippy Bird’s head, the head is cooled.
The temperature decrease in the head condenses the methylene chloride vapor, decreasing the vapor pressure in the head relative to the vapor pressure in the abdomen.
The greater vapor pressure in the abdomen forces fluid up through the neck and into the head.
As fluid enters the head, it makes the Dippy Bird top-heavy.
The bird tips. Liquid travels to the head. The bottom of the tube is no longer submerged in liquid.
Vapor bubbles travel through the tube and into the head. Liquid drains from the head, displaced by the bubbles.
Fluid drains back into the abdomen, making the bird bottom-heavy.
The bird tips back up.
Show And Tell No More
Rhetorical questions :
Which show and tell of the red dipping bird did you like more?
Which one did you learn more from?
Which one was presented in an interesting way?
Which description do you think there was plenty of effort behind?
Figuring It Out
We are doing the world a great injustice when we don’t incorporate this critical variable to the Show and Tell process we teach our youngest students. What makes matters worse is that more than three quarters of adults still follow the same routine system of show and tell that they were taught as kids.
The variable of “figuring out” how something works, what something is, or why it does a particular thing is essential to producing real results. Results that are human, that are original, and that are backed with experience. These are the results that create profit.
The market used to be in the pocket of those who could show and tell well, even more so to those who mastered it. Now it goes to those who figure it out, who provide content and experience it, who make sure that what they are showing and telling is their art, their invention and their creation.
Showcasing your intelligence can only be done by gaining too much knowledge that you do not know what to do with.
On the other hand, you can overdue your schedule by reading too much only to end up as mentally shriveled as a trash-basket piece of paper.
I had 35+ bookmarks on my computer and at one time had 55+. I have a bookcase collecting various books I come across, and a longer list written down of books I want to get. Then there are the piles of Success, Mens Health, and other magazines being piled up. Not to mention the fact I spend a majority of my time in a bookstore. I surround myself with all of these informational resources because I want to learn as much as possible and become successful just as you are!
But I have come to find very quickly that you don’t learn first to be smart. You need to be SMART first, to learn.
What do you need to know before you start learning everything that you are passionate about?
S for Substantial – Define what is most important. What information are you really looking for? Let go of the less credible websites and books and be sure of solid content. Stay focused on what you are out to learn and avoid being distracted by other information. Look at everything as a magazine — skip over the advertisements no matter how many girls they promise you.
M for Modest – The opposite of substantial, make sure that you are not overwhelming yourself with the toughest jargon-filled resources. Search for the middle ground to what you already know and what you have absolutely no understanding of. Too often people who want to learn jump the gun and it backfires. Modesty is also a reminder to find resources that remain free of vanity, bias, egotism and even boastfulness. Unless of course, that is your taste.
A for Allocate – Since you have observed what is most important to you, you can organize all of those bookmarks, books, blogs, lists, etc. This allows you to focus on one subject rather than flipping through three different ones. I also call this Cleaning House. Go into your all your resources one by one and while you find the category for each, you can toss all the resources that do not matter or do not fulfill the substantial or modest requirements.
R for Relation – Now it is time to connect with your resources. Establishing a relationship requires much more work than simply following people on twitter, and “liking” something on Facebook. –It also produces a larger benefit– You need to expand your connections to communicating with other people who have the same interests. I have at least 4 blogs that I contribute to each day and 12-15 blogs that I give feedback on a few times a week. In addition, as I start a new book, I find the website or blog that goes with it so that I can connect even better and understand the information more clearly. What is even more clear is how quickly people will come to you for info, simply by participating in other people’s content.
T for Take Down – Originally I meant for “T” to stand for transcribe, since the best way to retain the most important information is to write it down. (Often in the form of your own blog or journal) But as I have gone through these processes multiple times, you need more than just writing your ideas and thoughts down. Save the fire crackers for the fireworks. I have never been a competitive person, but I cannot stand Journalists who go for the most posts, the most followers, the most “likes”. They are after numbers and these numbers are little fireworks. You want to TAKE DOWN these noisy competitors. CONTENT, CONTENT, and more CONTENT is the only way. Make sure each time you sit down to write your thoughts out that you EXPLODE with content. Let your competitors light off the kiddy fireworks. If you followed the previous four steps to the SMART process than I can guarantee you will have a much easier time creating firework information.
