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What is your level of TMI?

Chip Conley, the CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, shared his internal struggle with posting his Burning Man pictures on his Facebook page at http://bit.ly/2qIml5 His pr advisors told him those pictures and his CEO persona could cause a misunderstanding about what is proper behavior. (I think it was his tutu picture that was the point of the discussion.)

Burning man is a one week retreat in the middle of a dust bowl with no food, no water, no showers, no cars, just what you carry in on your back or bike. It is intended to be an “out there” experience and from what people who have attended told me, you will see anything and everything going on at this retreat. When I say everything, suffice it to say, it is impossible not to be shocked at Burning Man because it attracts the freest of the free spirits and the edge is pushed more and more each year. I would guess not many CEOs attend Burning Man.

Which brings the question for all executives: What is proper to share on social media? The challenge with social media is that your personal and professional lives collide and for the “In the full disclosure of who I am” category it is actually a great resource for people to investigate who you are. Everything about who you are.

Employers are looking at social media pages such as facebook, twitter, and linkedin to see what employees and prospective employees are saying. The same goes for executives who are being “checked out” by employees, clients and competitors.

I have a number of clients who follow me on my personal pages as well as my fan page www.facebook.com/russelljwhite2 and they get the full me. But where is the Too Much Information (TMI) line drawn?

Would I share about my Saturday night in the strip club where I got 5 lap dances, had 8 beers, and was escorted out of the club by the bouncer for rude behavior? Would I share my disappointment about my employees letting me down? Would I go on a rant about how I hate Mondays?

Curiously, I have read each of these remarks by people who at that moment were employed somewhere. Is there a different standard for executives? I don’t think so.

Based on my observations the level of TMI has more to do with the age of the person posting than anything else. The younger people feel more open with their expressions and are willing to broadcast an almost open stream of consciousness. Conversely, some executives resist any contact with social media and prefer to remain a closed book. In either case, this is a misuse of a medium that is here to stay in some form or another.

Everyone needs to find their comfort zone. As with all media, there are the extremists on both ends of the spectrum who enjoy the shock value of what they put out there. Everyone has their hot points where they enjoy a good rant. For some people social media is their bullhorn to the world. Just keep in mind each post is an entry into your internet record which has public access.

The best advice I’ve heard about social media postings is to consider everything you write, link, or post would appear on the scroll at the bottom of a TV program and everyone you know or has contact with you is watching.

As a three year old I apparently walked into the middle of a ladies group home meeting and announced, “This is what my daddy does in the bathroom.” And I started to grunt. A three year old doesn’t know the difference between what public knowledge is and what should not be shared. As a three year old doing this, the ladies’ laughter to the point of tears was an expected reaction. What if I had been 18 year old? I image the reaction would’ve been very different.

Some things are best left unsaid in an open forum. As a guide for your social media postings, find where you audience is comfortable with your level of TMI, instead of where you are comfortable with your level of TMI.

3 Ways to Avoid “Map Wars”

In other words: How to prevent the competition from telling everyone about your weakness.

The Verizon map ads seem to appear on TV every 10 minutes. Their unrelenting message caused AT&T to fight back with Luke Wilson ads that just don’t work. Why? Because Verizon found the glaring weakness of their competitor and cleverly got the word out to potential customers while the AT&T ads are just attacks on a competitor. Sour grapes does not gain market share.

What is AT&T going to do about this?

AT&T Will Spend $2 Billion To Improve Wireless Network http://bit.ly/d8db63

Now they are making upgrades they should’ve done before. Instead of gaining momentum with upgrades it appears they got caught with their pants down and appear to be reacting to the competitor’s ads. Meaning, instead of gaining customers for the upgrades they appear to be simply trying to keep the customers they have. That is a dramatically different return for a $2 billion investment.

How could they have prevented this from happening?

1. Be honest with yourself about shortfalls

When I work with organizations on strategic planning we often discuss the problems they have in-house and problems the competitors have. Which list do you imagine is longer? Many executives are blind to their own in-house problems and seem more focused on justifying why their situation is like it is.

You must take the objective look at where your competitors are beating you. If you can’t see it, get someone to help you. Because, if you are myopic enough to miss your weak spots, don’t worry your competitor will show them to you and all the customers you have or had.
Identify the critical areas you must improve quickly to be more competitive. Remember, sometimes you have to ask someone outside of the family whether your baby is ugly or not.

2. Know when the game has changed

People with knowledge have a great understanding of how to be successful in the way things used to be. Still advertising in the phone book? Still think social media is for fun and games? Still think if you build it they will come?

How do you know when the game has changed? When the traffic patterns in front of your location (that you rely on for business) reduces to a mere shadow of what it once was, you need to recognize you are in a new game. Once upon a time people wanted a bank branch on every corner, now they want those services on their phone.

AT&T fell asleep on the importance of 3G upgrades and it gave the advantage to their competition. How has your game changed? New technology? New competitors? Your energy isn’t what it used to be and the job is more demanding now than it ever has been? These are all import things to evaluate because the game changes daily, and last time I checked it isn’t getting any easier.

Once you can grab an understanding of how the game is played today, you have half the battle over. The next step is what you are going to do about it.

3. Proactive is under your control, reactive is under their control

I used to have a picture on my wall of a stampede with the caption: “If you don’t make dust, you eat dust.” The ones in the front only make dust, the rest are eating dust. Making proactive change and getting in front of the curve is where success happens. Once upon a time in the 90’s the economy was so good everyone did well regardless where you were in the herd. Not today.

Today only those who are proactive in making changes, anticipate customer needs, and take the risk to be in front are the only ones making the success we all used to see. Laying back and following the lead of others means by the time you “arrive” the customers have already moved on. That is how fast business is traveling. Are you being proactive or are you like AT&T having to spend too much money to simply keep what you have?