Share Share Share Share Share

September 10, 2008 · Comments

PAB 2008 One of the things people will get wrong when trying to determine how to make a more human-shaped web for their company is sharing. Sharing is something that was left out of the business books for the last forty or fifty years. Your company isn’t set up to share. It’s not in the genetics, and as such, the people responsible for figuring out how to collaborate and do something in this whole new web are going to run into a problem quickly.

We Share Everything

Why do these web tools make so much sense to digital natives? Because they have sharing built into the infrastructure. We use Flickr because it’s easy to share the photos. We use Del.icio.us because it lets us share bookmarks easier. We’re blogging, podcasting, mashing up, remixing, sharing files, sharing everything because it’s easier.

Share Business

I won’t give the details but Shel Holtz has now twice shared with me business opportunities. He’s sent them through to me in such a way that the person contacting me makes me feel like Shel convinced him or her that I am the ultimate person ALIVE to do whatever they request of me.

Today’s request like that was to speak at a really great company. I couldn’t make the date, as I have a conference of my own during that time frame, so I did what Shel did. I shared. I passed the person on to a friend in Atlanta who would be able to do exactly what I would’ve done.

How This Will Work

I tell you this now so that it doesn’t shock you. I will be sharing the hell out of business in the coming years. Why? Because I can’t possibly fulfill all the really great opportunities I am given in a day, and I have lots of other obligations that keep me from it.

But I plan to share them with people who are capable, who can fulfill, who know more than just how to talk about how cool blogs are.

I’m doing this with CrossTech Media right now. I’m figuring out in the coming several weeks who out there should be helping guide the content for some of our upcoming events. If you’re into social media and marketing stuff, and you can get to Boston this October, this might be a really great trip for you. Come to the New Marketing Summit. Heck, use my VIP code to get $100 off (chrisvip). And if you think you are capable and interested in doing some of what I’m doing in some other hot city in the US (or in some cases, the world), reach out to me about that.

If you think you can make media like me, speak at conferences like me, talk about upcoming trends in a way that helps businesses understand what’s next like me, I want to talk with you about that for some potential future opportunities. This isn’t a “you can come and grow” type of opportunity, but if you’re reasonably figured out in what you know how to do, and if you have a decent body of work that I can find on the web, etc, we should talk.

Back to Sharing Overall

Sharing is a new business tool. And it’s not really obvious. You have to think about the ways you can share, the ways you can’t. You have to weigh whether you’re giving away the best part, or if there’s plenty to go around (so often, the answer is B).

This isn’t cumbaya. This is cultivating and growing capabilities, vetting the parts that we can manage, and building functional business exchanges that will allow us to support these companies that want to dive in, have heard “join the conversation” until they’re sick of it, and are eagerly awaiting the strategy, the pilot plan, and the “when does this look like business” part.

Are you sharing? Have you been sharing opportunities that you can’t service?

Are you READY to take on what others give you? Have you built your blog for business? Make sure you’re sharing, and make double sure that you’ve made your capabilities known loud and clear on your platforms.

This isn’t coming. It’s here, and if you’re not feeling it yet, there’s a reason. Get looking into that.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tagged as: , , , ,

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • Internet is the biggest platform to share thoughts online and I thing blog is the greatest creation of the internet, easy to interact with thousands of people from home.
  • Having you as in my no 1 priority on Social media has never failed me.. Chris you are simply awesome and you really know what you say jo! Hatz Off to you!
  • When I first started my business, Mary Yerrick, a seasoned publicist, shared great wisdom with me. She shared her experiences, written materials and gave me some advice that was hard for me to hear at the time. I offered to pay her, even though I was totally broke. She told me that she would accept no money on the condition that, when I was in a position to do so, I helped other young women trying to start a business and get favorable press coverage. Today, I lead a worldwide network to help women in business. And I pay Mary Yerrick every day.
  • Yet another great post Chris.

    What do you do about those who never share?

    Do you continue to share with those who don't get it and never give anything back?
  • Using flickr for an example, how many times do you hear someone say, "But if I put my photo on flickr, what's to stop someone from taking it and using it on their own website?" The idea that this might be a good thing doesn't even occur to most of us naturally. It's like we've compartmentalized our childhood and our adulthood. Childhood is where we shared. Adulthood is where we don't.

    Another great post, Chris. I missed meeting you at Gnomedex, and I'm sorry now that I did. But I'll be at Blogworld and maybe we'll run into one another for 5 seconds amidst the huge crowds.
  • Chris - another thought-provoking post. Much thanks.

    @Luke - For those who "never share," I personally consider how I was connected with those folks in the first place. My own approach to networking and connections is to first determine how people add value to my network or are they just taking-up bandwidth. If I find they take more bandwidth over time than engaging in a "sharing" business relationship, it's time to refocus my efforts elsewhere.

    I think Chris makes an excellent point regarding the ease of sharing today: we share because it's easy. While it goes against our grown-up nature to give openly rather than hold things closely, sharing is ultimately a win-win. It will eventually net you the desired results and the ability to ASK others to help you share good information. I think a great deal of strength rests in the mettle of the network you choose to build and how you develop a synergy with them.

    I spend my days sharing on applications like StumbleUpon, Twitter, FriendFeed and Delicious. It's been an incredible source of quality information flowing TO me and has yet to bite me in the behind :)

    @redheadwriting
  • I don't think that it's appropriate for businesses to share everything. I do something I like to call "strategic sharing".

    There's a time and a place for confidentiality in business - especially with projects in development. However, knowing when to share and with whom to share is key. Before sharing with the world, one must know who they can trust and how much to share.

    I do agree that sharing is a two-way street. My company's best partnerships are those where we share opportunities and ideas amongst ourselves evenly - sometimes we come to the table, sometimes our partners do. It works well.

    Finally, strategic sharing means finding that balance between giving away the world and holding back everything. It's a bit different for everyone, but worth paying attention to.

    Thanks for sharing!
  • Chris, I love this, for a couple of reasons in particular:

    1. Sharing goes hand-in-hand with an abundance mentality. I don't need to hoard anything, because there's more than enough to go around. This is a great way to have more abundance (physical, psychological, etc.) in life.

    2. I've been playing with the idea that social media, when it's used right, takes companies back to the honorable profession of being *merchants*. The good face-to-face merchant listens closely to what you need, then meets you at that point of need. The guy who owns my local hardware store knows me on sight, and he's not afraid to send me to Lowe's if I ask for something he doesn't stock. He'd rather share some business with Lowe's today so that he can earn my loyalty for years to come.

    All of this is *relational*, not *transactional* - which is the default mode of thinking for savvy users of the social media.
  • Eileen O'Brien
    Great philosophy to live by Chris. It reminds me of a book I read a few years ago (that someone lent me) by Tim Sanders called Love is The Killer App.
  • Um... I hate to burst your bubble, but the concept of sharing in business is NOT new. It's called "subcontracting" and has been done for a very long time.

    Also, businesses have been building partnerships for a long time without the advent of teh interwebz. When we forget our own history we are doomed to repeat it.

    All we have now is new tools to better do things we have done before.
  • Excellent concept. Someone should write a blog about sharing at work. Ahem.

    Seriously though, great post. I like your take on the issue and I think I'll be riffing on it in a post of my own soon.

    I developed my appreciation for sharing by spending three years in a corporate IT department and wondering why I so often had to duplicate the efforts of others or wait around for new work to find me. Today I'm doing my best to make sure our lessons learned are captured online and highly visible for those who come after us.
  • @Peter Gulka - You haven't burst anyone's bubble. If I read him right, Chris is talking about something that goes well beyond subcontracting. Also, while it's certainly and obviously true that "businesses have been building partnerships for a long time," the new tools allow us not only to do better the same things we've done before, but also to do new types of things.
  • I don't think Chris is urging anyone to give up the recipe for any secret formula here.

    The bottom line is that in this new web-based economy, the best sharers will stand to reap the largest rewards since they will become valuable contacts for others who are also very good at sharing. Tight networks of great sharers will form around certain types of information and extend outward to looser networks that eventually connect to other tight networks.

    Yes, strategic sharing and strategic philanthropy definitely predate the internet, but now the currency being shared is access to my network and sharable content in addition to money and other kinds of political clout that have always been valued.

    Since time and attention are increasingly valuable, why should I spend my time searching and vetting information if someone I trust in my network has already done the heavy lifting? This shared information then has the potential to provide raw materials to make new content and add more value, thus providing me with something to share in kind... and the cycle continues.

    This is really a nice post. I hope I am making sense here - it's all very abstract. It makes me want to draw a picture and I'm no artist. :)
  • Isn't sharing what we try to teach our kids from the time they are born until they move out!

    It's funny how this is lost (or made less important) in the grown up world of business. We need to remember what really matters.

    I love the fact that social media tools are making sharing and collaboration more readily available to all businesses. It's also exciting to see the early adopter large companies get their feet wet (i.e. all the companies using Twitter).

    I think the idea of sharing (or lack of sharing) is why some of the large companies out there have been left in the dust by new start ups (twitter, rtm, facebook, etc ...) The new companies thrive and understand sharing. It's exciting to see how everything is unfolding/changing ...

    --
    http://twitter.com/franswaa
  • Great post and interesting concept.

    Just one follow-up question: If you are so fond of sharing, would you share with people who may have a lot of insight but who don't have any showcase examples yet? I mean, there's a start for everything, and only limiting the sharing to fellow rock stars is not broadening the concept very much IMHO.
  • I will say that when I spoke to members of the furniture industry in High Point, NC last Spring, I learned that there is great opportunity to educate that particular industry and help them understand some of the tools at their disposal. They're afraid of it because they don't understand it. I just got a referral from someone else who heard me speak there and now wants me to talk to her organization. I think that sharing is a new model that could work wonders. I'd love to take part.
  • R
    cumbaya is an interesting way to spell Kum Ba Ya.
  • @Tim Walker Your metaphor about Lowe's reminds me of the classic "Miracle on 34th Street," where Macy's sends customers to other stores if they don't have what the customer wants. Macy's winds up making True Fans out of the customers.

    Chris, I love the reminder that there's "plenty to go around." With my writing and art, it was my nature to be protective of content. But I'm learning that sharing my work helps spread the word; and unless I limit myself, there's definitely more where that came from!
  • sharing without attribution however is where the rubber meets the road ... I love to share with blogs, hey doin it now & I'll do it again, & aggregator sites (plurk karma? kudos? likes? golden stars? brown jellybeans? reputation?) - BUT as has been pointed out much of this sharing is time the sharer never considered a value ... those that can equitably share value with the creator/writer will likely win the battle as trust is still the ingredient that remains inherently fungible ... And sharing in the upside is a bit more of what it means to monetize (let's start by monetizing bandwidth)
  • This was great food for thought. It actually inspired my blog post for the day.

    You know, your shares have been incredibly helpful to me as I've been exploring social media. I should have said thanks a lot earlier.

    Thanks.
  • I bet Google penalizes you for keyword stuffing ;)

    Share Share Share Share Share!!
  • This, Chris, is what I LOVE about you. You are an incredible man of wisdom, love, courage, strength and hope. You, my man, are someone who walks the talk.

    Why?

    Because you SHARE. You didn't hestitate to send people to my blog because of some post I wrote that inspired you. You didn't hestitate to encourage people to follow me on Twitter.

    You didn't hestiate to share your time with me when I first met you at SOBCon08. You made me feel like I was the most important person in the room when we were talking. Now, that's priceless. I never forgot it.

    So, to answer your question, yes, I most definitely share. I believe in the value of sharing information via my blog or private email whenever I think someone will benefit from something - whether it's a book I read or a speaking event or whatever.

    Thanks for being all you are - it's no small wonder you're so in demand that you can't possibly fulfill all the invitations that come your way. What goes around comes around. That's why you're so in demand, my friend.

    Keep the light burning bright and you'll go places you never even imagined would be possible. Trust me. I've been there and so will you.
  • Chris, you continue to share a wealth of insight, knowledge, and personal experience to all of us on a daily basis, and you need to know we greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
  • I have got to stop reading your blog at the end of the day. I have got to get some sleep!

    Aside from that here's my dilemna - big fish in a small pond, that's me. No doubt your insights and others could be beneficial to folks in my niche industry, but I'll be damned if I'm going to show my hand to my #1 competitor. I am all for the greater good of the whole, but I just can't give away the recipe to the secret sauce and right now, you and a few others are a key ingredient to my simmering sauce.
  • I think the sharing is about to become part of the genetics of all corporations.

    Yesterday ChangeThis released my manifesto elaborating on this idea called Social Capital Value Add, which is an approach to value based management that is centred on the kind of sharing that you are talking about.

    Details are here: http://socialcapitalvalueadd.com/2008/09/10/how...

    The idea behind ChangeThis is that you share good ideas with folks who trust you. I hope that you like this one.
  • Chris, this is a great post. One my business partners is always reminding me that you have to give to get and this article really emphasizes the value that is often created through sharing.

    John P. Kreiss
    MorganSullivan, Inc.
    http://www.johnpkreiss.com
  • A very good example of a successful business model, based on sharing is www.manager-tools.com

    This website contains more than 100 very practical podcasts on tools for managers; most of them are free. A limited number of them can be downloaded by premium users (paying a small monthly fee).

    Jeroen de miranda

    Some comments I have made on manager-tools:
    http://jeroendemiranda.wordpress.com/category/m...
  • Chris:

    I am new to this site but I just love your knowledge, wisdom, and encouragement. I have been blogging for a year now and I have found that sharing information is beneficial to those receiving as well as giving. It is good Kharma and it does come back to you by the bucket loads. I just love this blog! Keep sharing Chris!

    Latoicha Givens
    www.phillipsgivenslaw.com
    www.luxetips.com
  • I have a theory we need to blog instead of email. This way - instead of figuring out who to send the message to, it's about a rare email is needed for person messages. It would allow people to opt into your messages.

    Good article.
  • Lyudmila
    Dear Chris,
    I would like to share the idea... what could you tell me?..
    http://opp.sunrider.com/masteryourprosperity

    Too many thanks for given opportunity to sent my comment.
    Lyudmila.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post: Growing New Crops

Next post: Will 9/11 Ever Feel Normal