Two different people emailed me the same link at two different times yesterday. You may have seen it, it??s the ??Bring The Love Back? video put out by Microsoft. This post, though, isn??t about the video. There??s been plenty of talk about the video out there in 2.0 land.
The talk. That??s what this post is about.
More precisely: Being ahead of the curve, learning new things first.
My first exposure to the video was a David Armano tweet on May 16:
??Stop what you are doing and watch this video: http://tinyurl.com/ytgkga 03:13 PM May 16, 2007.?
So I did. And as a result, I was in the loop early.
Since then, the video has been pointed to countless times. Back and forth, up and down. Then, yesterday, the two emails came in. A full week later. Seven days on the web ?? an eternity.
Here??s where it hit home for me: Because I??m connected to you and others and this whole community of smart people who are sharing information in an around-the-clock cycle, I??m in on things before a lot of my other colleagues are. A whole lot earlier, as it turns out. Doesn??t have to be this video, it could be any bit of information, news or creative execution. Blogging, reading feeds, getting into ??it? buys me this privilege for free.
Gaining this information, though, is one thing, what you do with the information is another. And here??s the cool part. Sharing that information allows you to make others feel smart, in the loop. Write about it, talk about it, trickle it down ?? spreading the word makes you generous.
And, as a business person, someone responsible for educating people ?? who wouldn??t want to accept this easy-to-obtain advantage? You can help others get ahead of the curve and help yourself appear on top of things. Because you are. Think of it as a little Take + Give, if you will.
Clients will like it. Employees will like. Your neighbours will too.
So, want to be early in? It??s never too late to start.
UPDATE: Douglas Walker expands on this post, examining why people forward stuff. It’s an interesting look at what motivates people to share information. Give it a read.
UPDATE 2: Alison Byrne Fields at 360 Digital Influence picked up on Douglas’ post and builds on his list. Here are her six additions to the list of why people forward stuff. Very interesting insights here.
May 25th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Thanks for the conversation and inspiration for my follow up post to yours. Always nice to cross thoughts.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Thanks, Douglas. I really enjoyed the way you expanded on the idea. Hope to see you around here some more often.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:24 am
I built on Douglas’ post over at the Ogilvy PR 360 Degree Digital Influence blog. Thanks for getting me thinking.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Glad you did, Alison. I’ve added an update above to reflect your post. Be interesting to see if this gets picked up and built upon by other bloggers. If you see anything, please pass it along!
May 30th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I really like your post. The shared learning that takes place in the social networking world is generous.
But I have a question; how do we avoid the danger of being little more than an echo chamber?
It seems that at times there is very little “building upon”. Instead it is more like a rehash of information.
Glad to have found your site via Valeria!
Keep creating,
Mike
May 30th, 2007 at 11:34 am
That’s an excellent point, Mike. Being generous is one thing, being able to add value is quite another.
I think your question has two answers (if not more):
1. Generally, in your circle of contacts, you know who’s plugged in or not. In some cases, you may need to add value to what you pass along in the form of comments, analysis or other relevant links. In other cases, passing the information along may be enough because it’s likely certain people just haven’t seen it yet.
2. Depending on your reason for passing the information along, you may be more inclined to build up it. So, for example, if your reason is to establish yourself as being an expert in the area related to the information you’re passing along, you may want to explain why it’s relevant or worth of sending.
Check out the links in the updates above. There are two excellent lists describing what some motivations for forwarding things are.