Sun 19 Apr 2009
Can you spell V-A-L-U-E?
Posted by Lisa Hickey under random, social media
photo: wetwebwork
I used to think that the word “value” was the most overused, least meaningful word in the English language. People kept telling me: “In social media, you need give people something of value.” But what was that? Information? News? A how-to guide? Entertainment? Just something random and bizarrely interesting? A beautiful sentence? Surely there could be value in ANY of those things.
But then I discovered a meaning that makes sense to me.
And in the end, it seemed so obvious, that I felt a little stupid for not getting it before. So with that said, I will share it with you. : )
People come together in a community because they share common values. It may be common interests (knitting, photography, golf). It may be shared ideas, such a political views or religion. It could be excitement around a product, or even a shared sense of humor. But whatever it is – people come together because they realize they only have a limited amount of time in this world and they want to spend their time doing the things they think are most important. And it’s nice to have others who share those values – people who think the same things are interesting or equally important.
So when I think about what to give a group of people that *has* value, I think about what values they share that brought them together in the first place.
This leads me down the following paths when creating things of value:
> Advice, information, how-tos that help the group as a whole will have value.
> An idea that is relevant to your group but gets them to see things in a new light will have value.
> Things that are funny because only people who are in that group really understand what you’re saying will have value.
> Something random and bizarrely interesting will have value only to those people in your group who happen to find that particular thing also interesting. Another way to look at this is that if your group is large enough, everything will have value to *someone* in it.
> News about what’s going on out there in the world has value when either: a) it relates back to the group or b) you are one of the first to pass it on. (it’s truly NEW, and thus the newness itself connects people).
> Sometimes advertisers try to connect their product to a group of people by associating it with what’s happening in the world. They try to jump on trends as a way of connecting people to their product. It works when there truly is a connection between the product and the trend. It rings false when there isn’t.
> If something has value to my group, I have a public conversation about it. If something has value only to an individual, I have a private conversation.
> If you have created a community, or group, or following or whatever that was created randomly, haphazardly and does not share certain values, it will be *extremely* difficult to figure out what is valuable to them.
There are those of us (and some days, I admit to being one of them) who want to find the one thing that *everyone in the world* will find interesting. And there are some things that are universally appeally: stories of men landing on the moon, or a pilot landing a plane on the Hudson.
But it’s really really hard to send a man to the moon or land a plane on the Hudson river every day.
And if you want to get out there and talk to a group of people every day, in a way that has value to them, I’d try this: first, think about what their shared values are.
Loved your thought process. Our ministry has been dialoging with leaders about how to blend women of different generations at events. THE key is offering simultaneous value. Your blog is helping me think through that with more clarity. Thanks!
Agree. Question: What if you have more than one interest and your followings/followers are in different “groups”? Should we have mulitple ids for that purpose?
Colleen, glad I was able to help, and the idea of finding out commonalities across generations is fascinating to me. Best of luck!
Fanny, that’s an interesting dilemma. If they are really, truly different in their values, then multiple id’s is probably the way to go. But you could also try to think a little broader about what might tie people in the group together. For example, I try to blend my groups of advertising folks, social media evangelists, graphic designers, business innovators and writers of all kinds under the umbrella of “creative thinking”. I also try to remember that all these types of groups exist in my network, and to give something specifically geared to each group when I can. For example, the graphic designers that follow me on Twitter will usually ignore me until I post some great typography I’ve found — then they all come out and thank me. But I try to make sure everything I post is unique and interesting enough that there *could* be cross-over between the groups, all might find merit in it.
I so agree. Think about what your audience wants to hear verses what you want to say.
For someone with a hurricane inside your brain you sure are focused in your thinking.
Good perspective on value. Can be anything from answers to ideas to content that’s amusing. But always in response to the values of the audience/community. For brands these days I think two things of value are honesty and responsiveness. Both of those are values that social media can truly help a company provide.
edward boches