The Albert Einstein Guide to Social Media

Comments | Add yours

Albert Einstein knew an awful lot. And if you pay attention to his work and his most famous statements about it, you might just think he was talking about us, the social media crew.

We might not be looking for a unified theory for all things quantum in our day jobs, or pondering the discrepancies between particle theory and relativity, but here are a few things Einstein has managed to summarize for us just the same. Funny how some concepts apply pretty universally…

A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem.

It all starts with the goals and objectives, but look around you, and you’re sure to see the folks that still think the Facebook Page is the holy grail of social media success. Know what you’re aiming for before you choose any one path to get there.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

We’re hell bent on creating convoluted indexes and formulas to calculate and measure the fuzzy stuff like influence, affinity, or loyalty. As if somehow putting an algebraic formula to it will make it legitimate. Are there simpler ways we can be approaching these seemingly complex problems from a more human level? Is it ever enough to just say “this feels like the right thing to do”, even if we don’t have a spreadsheet upon which to demonstrate the results?

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.

You can count a zillion fans and followers but what are you going to do with them when you have them? Are they moving you toward something, or are they just there? And things like having genuine intent or an authentic mindset (not one on a mission statement somewhere) are much harder to quantify and put on a report, but they matter a great deal. They’re part of the untouchable essence of outstanding companies. It’s like porn. You know it when you see it, but it’s awfully hard to define.

Information is not knowledge. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

Case studies, case studies, case studies. Oh, how we want to read about what everyone else has done in hopes that it will be the safety net for us not having to do our own planning and strategizing. There are, however, no shortcuts. Precedent isn’t proof, and someone else’s story isn’t likely to be in the right context. There’s a fine line between not wanting to reinvent the wheel, and not wanting to do the thinking for yourself and be accountable for your decisions.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Loosely translated: majority isn’t truth. Just because “everyone” is doing it doesn’t mean it’s great. Conversely, just because you’re being the perpetual contrarian doesn’t mean you’re any smarter than the rest, you’re just joining the complaint flock. It takes courage and thought to go against the grain, illustrate a new approach, own it, and take actual risks in execution, not just on paper.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

We don’t need a bunch of internet famous people and a confluence of empty personal brands. We need people that do good work and make a difference to the people in their universe, whether on a business or personal level.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

We need more clarity, accountability, and translation of social media into terms that everyone can relate to. Enough with the buzzwords and lingo already. “Joining the conversation” doesn’t explain anything.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Teaching and guiding adoption of social media can be an arduous task. But forcing too many rules without context and understanding is a recipe for resistance and resentment. And dragging people unwillingly into the social web before they’re truly culturally equipped will undoubtedly end in failure. Understanding new concepts and ideas takes time, patience, and the willingness of some to make small strides instead of huge leaps.

People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.

We all wish that you could just throw up a blog and instantly see a lift in your sales numbers, but it doesn’t work that way. Cultivating a social media community takes more time than many businesses would like. They’re so anxious to know whether they’ve made a good or bad investment, so they demand results and guarantees before they start. But much like the business relationships you’ve built the old fashioned way, creating trust and loyalty is an investment, not a transaction.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

In a world where content is everywhere, it’s not enough to just have a bunch of eyeballs see what you do. Value is a wonderful aim, if you understand that value is defined differently for everyone. Your definition of value doesn’t matter when it comes to offering it to someone else. You have to figure out how your customers, prospects, and community define it, and deliver that to them, relentlessly.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Social media is, in many ways, a solution to some of the problems we’ve created ourselves. The divide we’ve created between the company and the customer is one of our own design, and social media is helping to shorten that distance again. As a result, we cannot try and cram social media into the same mindset we’ve used for sales, marketing, and customer service for the last several decades, or we’ll just end up right back where we started, and end up blaming social media itself for not living up to our expectations.

The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.

Authenticity. Trust. Transparency. Community. They’re a bunch of buzzwords – and empty ones at that – unless they’re backed up at a root level, and driven by concrete intent and execution. A poster on a wall or a vision statement drafted in a boardroom doesn’t mean jack unless you’re empowering and allowing the actions that help people deliver on those promises. Period.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We collected impressions for ads as if having a million people see a billboard without any notion of what they did with that information was actually effective. We build call centers to automate customer service. We talked in “key messages” and soundbites, and we buried our mistakes under PR gloss-overs. Customers are now pushing back on those ideas and demanding better from businesses. Yet, we’re approaching Facebook as an eyeball collection tool, or Twitter as a press release distribution service, or throwing interns to manage our customer support forums, and we’re wondering why we’re having trouble seeing value in these tools?

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

We’re talking about new approaches to business problems, here. We’re talking culture shift. Adjustments to our approach, the courage to evaluate our weaknesses, and the willingness to invest in things that aren’t the same as we’ve always done. All that means that mistakes are inevitable. And rather than lynching and publicly vilifying those that fall short, let’s learn from each other, from ourselves, and start allowing social media a legitimate place in business process innovation.

Not bad for a guy with crazy hair who never tied his shoes, but who managed to single-handedly and drastically change our understanding of the universe around us. I’m thinking we can help businesses do the same for the online world we’re creating here. You?

public domain image posted by BlatantNews.com

Find more like this: Communication, Culture, Featured, Social media , , , , , ,

← Older Comments
  • http://www.ef-ent.com Brent Friedman

    Fantastic post, Amber. I am going to use social media channels properly and spread your insightful message. Because it seems to me that the true power of SM is not just to improve how we conduct business, how we market media or even how we communicate… but how we learn. At its core, SM is a cultural tool. A way to assimilate and process information with meaningful discourse.

    Of course, the irony is that SM — a digital phenomenon enabled by technology — actually replicates the ancient oral tradition of storytelling. Sitting around a campfire, sharing the triumphs and tribulations of the day, learning through others’ experiences. As the world grows larger and more chaotic, maybe all we’ve ever wanted as a race is to return to the old ways, grouping into our respective tribes of like-minded hunters and gatherers. So maybe the higher purpose of SM is to satisfy those basic human compulsions for connection. To serve as a catalyst for evolution and, if we’re fortunate, enlightenment.

  • http://www.ef-ent.com Brent Friedman

    Fantastic post, Amber. I am going to use social media channels properly and spread your insightful message. Because it seems to me that the true power of SM is not just to improve how we conduct business, how we market media or even how we communicate… but how we learn. At its core, SM is a cultural tool. A way to assimilate and process information with meaningful discourse.

    Of course, the irony is that SM — a digital phenomenon enabled by technology — actually replicates the ancient oral tradition of storytelling. Sitting around a campfire, sharing the triumphs and tribulations of the day, learning through others’ experiences. As the world grows larger and more chaotic, maybe all we’ve ever wanted as a race is to return to the old ways, grouping into our respective tribes of like-minded hunters and gatherers. So maybe the higher purpose of SM is to satisfy those basic human compulsions for connection. To serve as a catalyst for evolution and, if we’re fortunate, enlightenment.

  • http://brendah@hware.com Brenda Horton

    Amber, I want to highlight the “Strive not to be a success, but rather of value.” Too many entrepreneurs jump too quickly to “wanting to make a lot of money” versus asking “What value does my product/service or non-profit/business bring to the market or my community and how does it solve a problem or meet a real need? It’s unfortunate that most start-ups and businesses fail rather than succeed. It is by being of great value that success is a byproduct. Walk into any retail box store in America and you will find that we don’t really need most of the products on the shelf. There is no denying that “trinket capitalism” has been a fun and fantastic diversion from what really is of value. I believe with a new and emerging economy, we are going to start seeing products that come to market with much greater value that meet the needs of the new emerging entrepreneur and consumer.

  • Cleon McClure

    Insightful information, well written Amber – thank you very much. There is a significant need to understand the real value of Social Media. Your points, comprehensive and structure so well, certainly bring clarity to using a very powerful, yet misunderstood (I believe), means to build relationships.

    Bruce Kneuer, a good friend and colleague, and I were discussing the simple yet complex aspects of Social media, here’s his comment

    “I am more and more convinced that the success in using social media/social networking tools and approaches inside a firm will be correlated with the success a firm experiences with social media externally.”

    Your thoughts Amber? Internal use and success of Social Media related to external? Thanks again
    Cleon

  • Cleon McClure

    Insightful information, well written Amber – thank you very much. There is a significant need to understand the real value of Social Media. Your points, comprehensive and structure so well, certainly bring clarity to using a very powerful, yet misunderstood (I believe), means to build relationships.

    Bruce Kneuer, a good friend and colleague, and I were discussing the simple yet complex aspects of Social media, here’s his comment

    “I am more and more convinced that the success in using social media/social networking tools and approaches inside a firm will be correlated with the success a firm experiences with social media externally.”

    Your thoughts Amber? Internal use and success of Social Media related to external? Thanks again
    Cleon

  • Pingback: Social Media Review | Wizards of Alchemy

  • http://www.blogmuseupicassobcn.org/en Conxa Rodà

    This post is really inspired and inspiring, thank you, Amber.

    Observing Social Media performance of some companies / individuals I often have the feeling that to thrive on SM you “only” need is common sense. Add to that a collaborative approach, a longing for learning and sharing, knowledge, good content, a deep respect for your fans/followers/users and for users’ contributions, generosity, effort, patience and… a bit of sense of humour and there you have a SM recipe that might succeed.
    But still, most important, common sense.

    The quotes of Einstein you selected are much to the point and your comments on how they apply to SM are both witty and useful. I’ll tweet it and re-read it now and then. Definitely bookmarked!

    All the best
    Conxa
    @innova2

  • http://www.blogmuseupicassobcn.org/en Conxa Rodà

    This post is really inspired and inspiring, thank you, Amber.

    Observing Social Media performance of some companies / individuals I often have the feeling that to thrive on SM you “only” need is common sense. Add to that a collaborative approach, a longing for learning and sharing, knowledge, good content, a deep respect for your fans/followers/users and for users’ contributions, generosity, effort, patience and… a bit of sense of humour and there you have a SM recipe that might succeed.
    But still, most important, common sense.

    The quotes of Einstein you selected are much to the point and your comments on how they apply to SM are both witty and useful. I’ll tweet it and re-read it now and then. Definitely bookmarked!

    All the best
    Conxa
    @innova2

  • http://playitforward.posterous.com Kat Jaibur (@katjaib)

    Wonderful post, Amber. As you and others have said, enough about clinging to case studies and ROI. The real gains go to those who are willing to create, invent, try something new. The very reason we admire Einstein is that he was willing to go beyond what was done before. I believe it’s called “risk”.

    My fave Einstein quote:
    “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
    .-= Kat Jaibur (@katjaib)´s last blog ..In praise of do-overs. =-.

  • http://playitforward.posterous.com Kat Jaibur (@katjaib)

    Wonderful post, Amber. As you and others have said, enough about clinging to case studies and ROI. The real gains go to those who are willing to create, invent, try something new. The very reason we admire Einstein is that he was willing to go beyond what was done before. I believe it’s called “risk”.

    My fave Einstein quote:
    “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
    .-= Kat Jaibur (@katjaib)´s last blog ..In praise of do-overs. =-.

  • http://royadvertising.com/ jared roy
  • http://royadvertising.com/ jared roy
  • http://www.septemberclues.info Twitter Blows

    Pfft …Albert Einstein is a very poor icon for your article. Einstein was a mental midget, an adulterer, a poor father, a liar and a career plagiarist …history distorts the reality of his “achievements” …not to mention he lent his “fame” to further the development of nuclear weapons, which incidently will probably be the demise of mankind.

  • http://www.septemberclues.info Twitter Blows

    Pfft …Albert Einstein is a very poor icon for your article. Einstein was a mental midget, an adulterer, a poor father, a liar and a career plagiarist …history distorts the reality of his “achievements” …not to mention he lent his “fame” to further the development of nuclear weapons, which incidently will probably be the demise of mankind.

  • Pingback: Weekly Social Links: February 14, 2010 | UpYourSocial

  • Pingback: Social Media Metrics: Count Thank You’s, Not Click-Throughs | Cheeky Fresh

  • Pingback: Box Scores, Feb. 8-14: “Valentines, Dabblers & Albert Einstein” « Work. Play. Do Good.

  • http://www.marketingbyDM.com Diane Meyer

    Great post. Common sense approach to Social Media. Love the sub-head “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

  • http://www.marketingbyDM.com Diane Meyer

    Great post. Common sense approach to Social Media. Love the sub-head “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

  • robin mcpherson

    Wow, fantastic post. So many great points for me to keep in mind as we prepare for a lunch and learn session with a group of small business owners. Thanks!

  • robin mcpherson

    Wow, fantastic post. So many great points for me to keep in mind as we prepare for a lunch and learn session with a group of small business owners. Thanks!

  • http://TheRECoach.net TheRECoach

    This was just an incredible post! Bravo for saying what so many of us, trying to figure this whole thing out, are thinking. I am almost ashamed I didn’t say it 1st, though I am not sure I could have done it with such elegance. This industry (Real Estate) is being over-run with career chasers, trying so hard to carve out a position as an expert, thereby creating a need for them as a “Social Media Director” or some other goofy title, that we are forgetting to help the 92% of The Realtors & Brokers who are so very confused about what SM, The Web, Blog, ect… can do for their business. They are chasing an answer out of desperation. Let’s just stop BS’ing everyone, and just work on teaching the community what this, very special, opportunity is and how it works. Then, after we have spent a little more than a year learning it, we can start to find the true “Experts”. I am guessing, we will find them amongst the traditional Marketing “Gurus”, because Marketing is Marketing, this is just a new pool to swim in!

    Thanks again for a brilliant look at reality!

    Stay Blogging My Friends!
    .-= TheRECoach´s last blog ..A Google Buzz Concern..A Post Wirth Reading! =-.

  • http://TheRECoach.net TheRECoach

    This was just an incredible post! Bravo for saying what so many of us, trying to figure this whole thing out, are thinking. I am almost ashamed I didn’t say it 1st, though I am not sure I could have done it with such elegance. This industry (Real Estate) is being over-run with career chasers, trying so hard to carve out a position as an expert, thereby creating a need for them as a “Social Media Director” or some other goofy title, that we are forgetting to help the 92% of The Realtors & Brokers who are so very confused about what SM, The Web, Blog, ect… can do for their business. They are chasing an answer out of desperation. Let’s just stop BS’ing everyone, and just work on teaching the community what this, very special, opportunity is and how it works. Then, after we have spent a little more than a year learning it, we can start to find the true “Experts”. I am guessing, we will find them amongst the traditional Marketing “Gurus”, because Marketing is Marketing, this is just a new pool to swim in!

    Thanks again for a brilliant look at reality!

    Stay Blogging My Friends!
    .-= TheRECoach´s last blog ..A Google Buzz Concern..A Post Wirth Reading! =-.

  • http://www.cision.com hans gieskes

    One of the things that has not changed as to impact of messages conveyed via social networks since Einstein’s days is that while within social networks “people do not keep the score, they all know the score”.

    i.e. once you see a name / picture of the person connecting you to a message you instantly make a value judgment about the relevance of the message. There are the 450,000 i-Report video news items on CNN, and many of those will have Anderson Cooper anchor value only to people who know the particular i-Reporter.

    As the handful of formal news anchors in our lives fade away, we need the tools to get better handle on the few dozen personal anchors who replace them.

  • http://www.cision.com hans gieskes

    One of the things that has not changed as to impact of messages conveyed via social networks since Einstein’s days is that while within social networks “people do not keep the score, they all know the score”.

    i.e. once you see a name / picture of the person connecting you to a message you instantly make a value judgment about the relevance of the message. There are the 450,000 i-Report video news items on CNN, and many of those will have Anderson Cooper anchor value only to people who know the particular i-Reporter.

    As the handful of formal news anchors in our lives fade away, we need the tools to get better handle on the few dozen personal anchors who replace them.

  • Pingback: pligg.com

  • http://creativeglasses.posterous.com/ Christian Riedel

    Thank you for the great inspiration. I especially like the paragraph on case studies.
    Sure case studies and best practises are an important sources of knowledge – and great party talk. But they never replace your own thinking. I had a teacher in the university who said: “If you want to make an ad. Don’t look at ads. Look at people.” I guess he was right.

  • http://creativeglasses.posterous.com/ Christian Riedel

    Thank you for the great inspiration. I especially like the paragraph on case studies.
    Sure case studies and best practises are an important sources of knowledge – and great party talk. But they never replace your own thinking. I had a teacher in the university who said: “If you want to make an ad. Don’t look at ads. Look at people.” I guess he was right.

  • http://lpalma.com Luciano Palma

    Congratulations, Amber, for being courageous to discuss so openly about the challenges (and potential) of social media. It’s not about switching buttons like written in a manual. It’s not about producing numbers to turn a scorecard green. It’s about people… and people ARE complex. You need TALENT to deal with them. You need feelings. You need a great amount of information as well, so study/research are also important. But you DO need to be human. Even with the best tools in your hands, you still need a beating heart to understand – and inspire – people.
    Cheers!
    .-= Luciano Palma´s last blog ..O ser humano e seu potencial. Porque ambos são tão mal explorados? =-.

  • http://lpalma.com Luciano Palma

    Congratulations, Amber, for being courageous to discuss so openly about the challenges (and potential) of social media. It’s not about switching buttons like written in a manual. It’s not about producing numbers to turn a scorecard green. It’s about people… and people ARE complex. You need TALENT to deal with them. You need feelings. You need a great amount of information as well, so study/research are also important. But you DO need to be human. Even with the best tools in your hands, you still need a beating heart to understand – and inspire – people.
    Cheers!
    .-= Luciano Palma´s last blog ..O ser humano e seu potencial. Porque ambos são tão mal explorados? =-.

  • http://jorge.threefivesup.com Jorge

    Great Post Amber. I fell a bit behind reading your posts, but I’m catching up. Recently I started to develop a social media strategy for a university and it’s been great so far, this post outlines most of the things my team needs to take in consideration. I’ve found that I have been asked to do some stuff that shouldn’t be done like launch the Facebook page before having goals and objectives written down. Giving the fight for social media is a huge job and now I get it clearly from the trenches. The teachings in this post have helped me outline some serious things I may need to discuss with my boss in our following meetings.

    I’ll have to add that no matter if 10,000 people say we’re crazy we need to know that in the end what we’re doing will work. That’s another teaching i got from Einstein.
    .-= Jorge´s last blog ..Freemium for education =-.

  • http://jorge.threefivesup.com Jorge

    Great Post Amber. I fell a bit behind reading your posts, but I’m catching up. Recently I started to develop a social media strategy for a university and it’s been great so far, this post outlines most of the things my team needs to take in consideration. I’ve found that I have been asked to do some stuff that shouldn’t be done like launch the Facebook page before having goals and objectives written down. Giving the fight for social media is a huge job and now I get it clearly from the trenches. The teachings in this post have helped me outline some serious things I may need to discuss with my boss in our following meetings.

    I’ll have to add that no matter if 10,000 people say we’re crazy we need to know that in the end what we’re doing will work. That’s another teaching i got from Einstein.
    .-= Jorge´s last blog ..Freemium for education =-.

  • http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=366191460311&index=1 M

    Hebrew University is having a celebration for Einstein’s birthday March 14th- you can go to their Facebook page The Hebrew University and Ask Einstein a question and get an answer!! Or you can email them with a question at PRMedia@savion.huji.ac.il Check it out and help celebrate!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=366191460311&index=1 M

    Hebrew University is having a celebration for Einstein’s birthday March 14th- you can go to their Facebook page The Hebrew University and Ask Einstein a question and get an answer!! Or you can email them with a question at PRMedia@savion.huji.ac.il Check it out and help celebrate!!

  • Pingback: 40 of the Most Useful Social Media and PR Blog Posts of Q1, 2010 (Jan – Mar) « urban-listening

  • http://www.billselak.com Bill Selak

    This article shines a light on the sameness in our communication. The only change is the way we communicate. Huge corporations no longer hold all the keys; everyone has a chance, an at-bat. It’s up to us, as individuals, to work hard and make choices that are best for us, and our personal brand.
    .-= Bill Selak´s last blog ..Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk =-.

  • http://www.billselak.com Bill Selak

    This article shines a light on the sameness in our communication. The only change is the way we communicate. Huge corporations no longer hold all the keys; everyone has a chance, an at-bat. It’s up to us, as individuals, to work hard and make choices that are best for us, and our personal brand.
    .-= Bill Selak´s last blog ..Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk =-.

  • http://www.independentcardservices.com Steve Reed

    Great Post! What makes SM so different from any other form of “Marketing” we have ever encountered is two “huge influences” People and their use of the internet.

    I find one of the biggest challenges is staying informed and aware while still having time to get the “work done”.

    One new SM really starts to take off and be used. That can change your plan. One person RT’s to someone with a large circle of influence and they indorse it. It takes off in a “viral spiral” That can change a lot of things.

    Oh if there were ever such a better medium for us to express not only our knowledge but our originality. I’m not sure what it would have been.

    Thank you for your thoughts and best wishes for continued success!

    Steve

    http://twitter.com/IndependentCard
    http://www.facebook.com/100000753913907
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/independentcardservices

  • http://www.independentcardservices.com Steve Reed

    Great Post! What makes SM so different from any other form of “Marketing” we have ever encountered is two “huge influences” People and their use of the internet.

    I find one of the biggest challenges is staying informed and aware while still having time to get the “work done”.

    One new SM really starts to take off and be used. That can change your plan. One person RT’s to someone with a large circle of influence and they indorse it. It takes off in a “viral spiral” That can change a lot of things.

    Oh if there were ever such a better medium for us to express not only our knowledge but our originality. I’m not sure what it would have been.

    Thank you for your thoughts and best wishes for continued success!

    Steve

    http://twitter.com/IndependentCard
    http://www.facebook.com/100000753913907
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/independentcardservices

  • http://beth.typepad.com Beth Kanter

    Love this! I did an Einstein Social Media piece as part of a workshop back in December 2008. Had a lot of fun with his blackboard
    http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/12/how-to-think-like-a-nonprofit-social-marketing-genius-whats-your-brilliant-thought.html
    .-= Beth Kanter´s last blog ..Foursquare and Nonprofits: I want to Be The Mayor of Brooklyn Museum =-.

  • http://beth.typepad.com Beth Kanter

    Love this! I did an Einstein Social Media piece as part of a workshop back in December 2008. Had a lot of fun with his blackboard
    http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/12/how-to-think-like-a-nonprofit-social-marketing-genius-whats-your-brilliant-thought.html
    .-= Beth Kanter´s last blog ..Foursquare and Nonprofits: I want to Be The Mayor of Brooklyn Museum =-.

  • Pingback: The 40 Most Useful Social Media Posts of Q1, 2010 | vinuz.com - blog

  • Pingback: The Albert Einstein Guide to Social Media « Shylajoolz's Blog

← Older Comments