I make great use of my afternoon lunch breaks. Daily, I run 4 miles. I take advantage of this time during my runs by not only exercising, but by also listening to audio-books. Mostly, I listen to nonfiction. More times than not these audio-books are business related. I'll listen while running, and then by the time I get back to my desk, I'm ready to take on the world. I have new ideas, and I feel great. I'm in the midst of one audio-book that has my creative juices flowing, and has me thinking about habits - both good and bad. I love when this happens. While I'm running and my endorphins are popping, synapses are firing and BOOM - ideas start to flow. Right now I'm listening to The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. This book is riveting. In part three of the book - The habits of Societies, Duhigg takes on understanding the real reason why the Montgomery Bus Boycott started by Rosa Parks' refusal to give us her seat on a bus - worked.
The book recounts numerous similar incidents that had occurred in Montgomery. Each of these related incidents happened, and then fizzled out. People had been arrested for the same violation before. So why was it different when Rosa Parks was arrested? Why did Parks refusal spark the modern civil rights movement? The conclusion, and the reason why I'm writing about Rosa Parks on a social media blog is because....drum roll please..
Rosa Parks had a thriving social network.
This network was her power. This network is what started the revolution. This network is what allowed the leaders in Montgomery to mobilize otherwise passive civilians. Rosa Parks has spent her whole life giving to her social network. Serving them, and helping them thrive. So when she was in her darkest hour, and in need for support, they snapped into action.
Wikipedia helps to tell the story -
"Rosa was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for workers' rights and racial equality."
So to be clear - Rosa already had a social network of people and organizations that were aware, organized and could mobilize large groups of people by simply mentioning that she (Rosa Parks) was in need.
By no means do I want to trivialize what Rosa Parks has done for our culture, and our nation. I just want to extract what I feel is an important lesson for us as marketers. I want to point out is that Rosa understood what it meant to be a good human being - by giving of herself. This giving, social interaction and strong social network of friends, colleagues and family is what made her arrest the keystone event in the civil rights movement. Had she been a loner, without this social network she would have not been the Rosa Parks we know today.
So give back, enrich your community, share, don't ask for anything in return and allow for yourself and your clients to thrive in our modern day accelerated version of Montgomery. Stop seeking what's in it for me, and just produce great content - and then - one day when you need it most you may be able to mobilize a network of like minded people to help you. Just makes sense, doesn't it?
It's up to us as social media marketers to inform our clients to give more. It's up to us to give more ourselves. Never before in history have we been able to reach more people with the click of a mouse, or keystroke. So take a breathe, curate your content, and give. Give until you're blue in the face. I'm not asking you to start a civil rights movement - just keep this story in the back of your mind the next time you create a blog post, or tweet, or Facebook status, or Pinterest board. How is your content helping someone else?
Let me know what you think? Am I way off the mark here? I'd love to hear from you - Tweet me your thoughts - @cdessi or comment below.