The keynote breakfast with Peter Shankman was yet another great presentation that entertained the crowd with a lot of humor and positivism in the early morning of Day 2 of GCECS 2009. Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Out and Founder and CEO of Geek Factory, Inc., talked about the value of social media and the 5 principles for achieving success using the today’s technology. To begin with, Shankman humorously defined Social Media as “the ability to screw up in front of a larger audience for a shorter amount of time”. According to him Social Media is primarily based on the trial-error principle. Another strong point he made was that Social Media is an environment that allows for the uncontrollable usage and reuse of other’s materials or ideas. Therefore, we need to create something that is hard to copy. In times in which nothing new is being created, new ideas need to be protected and implemented in a way that nobody can steal them. His four principles for achieving success using social media were:
1. Being an honest and keeping transparency. An important lesson that we can learn from the economic history is that things are changing. The heads of corporations and governments realize the need to change the tactics and start to hire young, motivated individuals, who are oriented towards proaction and transparency, because nowadays Social Media and networking means trust.
2. Having relevance to your audience and the relationships between the connections. According to Shankman that is one of the most important principle. He made an analogy using the lava lamp as an example. He compared the oil as the people in your network, and the heat as the relevance. The way to keep yourself relevant to your audience is by asking them what they need, provide customer service to win points for yourself. Keep communication and creating connections under control. In ages in which , according to Shankman, there is going to be only one network, the way people within a network link to each other matter and these links need to be nurtured because they are interconnected with keeping honesty and trust.
3. Brevity. In times, when the standard text message has become 160 symbols it is unforgivable to be verbose. Technology is teaching people to be less patient and more concise in presenting the information they are trying to communicate. According to Shankman the right way to communicate using Social Media is to be short and precise, and learn to appreciate time.
4. Top of the mind. This principle Shankman explained as the routine to be constantly active in doing little things that mean a lot to other people. For example, say “Hi” to all of the people in your network, use its speed and language of short messages to demonstrate attention and care. Be at the place of a meeting 30 minutes earlier than the time you are supposed to be there. Take advantage of the things Social Media can do. Use technology to create connections in a limited amount of time.
