Inspiration is e verywhere, and today I found mine in an interview with Seth Godin that was posted after his keynote at the recent MIXX Conference in New York. ( Seth’s Interview )
The interview is mostly about the concept of building tribes – as opposed to brands – all of which is in itself inspiration. But at the end of the interview Godin is asked why he doesn’t Twitter. His answer was basically: he wouldn’t be good at it. It’s not ‘his thing.’
I love social networking and it has brought an unparalleled shift (or revolution – depending on your perspective) to how marketing is done. And of course, just because I do marketing for a living it doesn’t mean that I embrace all of the new media for my own use. I don’t. I do not twitter. And aside from particular applications for which I think Twitter is the greatest thing since sliced bread, I otherwise have an aversion to the whole concept of twittering.
I can now come out of the closet, thanks to Mr. Godin.
I don’t twitter because I wouldn’t be good at it, and it would distract me from the things I am good at. I am good at running a small agency; I am very good at working with clients, and bringing inspiration and organization to their marketing efforts; and I am especially good at getting things done. (The latter being perhaps the most critical, yet most underrated skill in business today.)
Staying good at what I do well is already a challenge in an industry that is going through tremendous change, and a lifestyle filled with distraction. I choose not to add to that distraction – my own or others’. Nothing I have to say in a twitter feed will save anyone’s life or change the course of world events. To ask people to “follow me” would be a conceit so totally outside of my persona.
This is not a Twitter-bashing. On the contrary, this is about making good choices. (Another of today’s underrated skills.) Adopting new media simply because it’s there is bad business. It was tempting at first, and natural, to try out every Internet and social media tool that came your way. But now it’s time to apply judgment, and to determine what is appropriate for your brand and genuine to whom you are.
I’m not going to deplete my focus to become, as Seth Godin says: “a wandering generality instead of a meaningful specific.” I know what ‘my thing’ is and I’m going to spend my precious time on getting better at it.
