It’s so tricky. We get into something new (or we get told to get into something new) and we suddenly reduce it to a pattern. “I’m going on Twitter and I will tweet for 30 minutes about our products and services. I will write a blog post and I will post a link to all 14 places I share it, especially Facebook.” Robot behavior. We reduce it to repetitive patterns.
Somewhere in this process, we often time reduce the sense that there’s a human relationship element to it all. Sure, we have a lot to do. Sure, we want all our efforts to have plenty of impact. But is that to be gained to the detriment of acting more human?
How do we keep our eye on that? How do we work towards staying human?
Review Your Output
Take some time every few days to see what you’re putting out there. Are you still building relationships? Are you moving things forward with a human intent? Are you delivering the business’s goals, but still throwing your own flavor on it?
Mix it Up
Maybe you do a lot of text. Consider adding some video to your projects. For Man on the Go, it’s 100% video, because I wanted there to be a more human element to the sharing of media. On this site, I do video and photos of myself and others as often as possible, so that we can keep the human elements alive.
Get Out and Comment
One of the best ways to stay human is to get out and comment on other people’s stuff without pushing any obvious visible gain back to your own stuff. Just be there. Just connect. Read their stuff. Add some value. Share it with others. Comment. It’s that last part that shows you’re still there. We forget this when we just read people’s RSS feeds all the time.
Keep Flavor IN
Finally, stop whitewashing everything. Flavor matters. Imperfection matters. Humanity is made up of imperfections. Celebrate them instead of washing them out. If we’re different and unique, we’re human. Leave those unique bits in there. Your kid shows up at 35 seconds into your video? Leave it in. (That’s the #1 thing people comment to me about in person about this video.)
It’s all part of being human.
So, are you with me? You willing to stay human? How are you helping others with their humanity?
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