I’m not sold on Google Buzz. It’s very noisy. Heck, if you’re following me there, you’re probably wondering what it’s about. It reminds me of Friendfeed, with the conversations looping under every piece of information. It’s also a lot like Facebook, in that sort of “wall post, comment” dance kind of way. I’ll probably come to tell you why I love it in some future post, or maybe I won’t. I never liked FriendFeed, though Robert Scoble always raved about it. Now, not all noise is bad, but allowing yourself to be buried in it isn’t very helpful.

I am thinking of attention as currency, and am going to recommend that you set a budget.

Attention as a Currency

Part of what Julien and I wrote about in Trust Agents is that attention and reputation and trust are all currencies that aren’t as easily swapped out. You can pay for attention, at least for a little bit. Advertisements are a purchase of your attention. You can’t exactly pay for reputation, though you can buy the trappings of reputation quite easily. And you can’t buy trust. But things like Google Buzz are about attention, and that’s kind of the baseline currency for the higher-level instruments of reputation and trust.

Attention is worth something to me. Your attention is very important to me. (And when I say “me,” replace this with your company name, and you’ll see what I’m driving towards.) Being responsive and attentive in two directions is very important to me.

How You Use Attention Decides a Lot

I have many projects on my plate right now. Too many. I have things I’ve promised friends that need my attention. I have client obligations for New Marketing Labs. I have new friends that I want to explore and get to know. I have lots of places where I can spend my attention.

But attention is finite.

With that in mind, it becomes a matter of budgeting and management. How much one-on-one can I invest, because that’s where the real value of social media kicks in. How can I get more information to more people in a one-to-many format, because that’s my only hope at scaling. This is what we have to ask ourselves daily.

How NOT to Get Sucked Into Buzz/Twitter/Facebook

Ask yourself this question CONSTANTLY: where can I add the most value to what matters most to me and the people who care about me?

I love spending time on Twitter and getting to know people. I do a few hours a day inside Twitter, but for every bit of time I spend just talking back and forth with people to prove I’m human and that I care, I’m also collecting information for work, for clients, for story ideas, and more. When I feel like I’m just chatting for chatting sake, I ask myself, “where can I add the most value to what matters most to me and the people who care about me?” The answer is rarely, “by chatting about plane delays.”

If that doesn’t work, use a timer. I have a very simple egg timer software application for my Mac. I set it often. Want the real one? Go to a kitchen store (do they have those any more?) and buy a green pepper egg timer or a cat-shaped one. Whatever. Simple, and yet it works. Allot yourself time.

Budget. Set an attention budget.

Spending Some of Your Attention

My current favorite tool on the web is Google Wave. Wave is like Google Buzz’s stuffier older brother. When used right, it can be a place to share collaboratively around projects. Julien and I are writing the paperback version of Trust Agents with the help of Wave. I’m planning my next business with Wave.

Why? Because it’s where I’m getting value for my time.

I spend my attention on my blog. Why? Because it’s what matters most in helping others and building my community.

I spend my attention on my book writing. Why? Because it’s going to help me grow new community members and find people who aren’t already in the circle.

See where I’m going?

Set Up a Real Attention Budget

What if you did something as simple as take a spreadsheet and put in the top 3-5 things you wanted to spend time on in a day? Just list them out. Put the first thing first (Thank you, Dr. Stephen R. Covey). And so on. Now, what if you made that a sticky note? What if you made that your desktop background? What if you followed your own attention budget?

What would you be able to accomplish then?

And what does your attention budget look like? Want to share?

Photo credit 4000f

Otherwise, you’ve gotta shell out to get in.

The venue, Gillette Stadium, is home to the New England Patriots. They charge me money to be there. The food costs me money. The power, the booth construction, all that stuff. This is simple, right? It’s a transaction. I ask people for something, and they tell me how much it will cost. Sometimes, I get a discount if I buy in bulk.

Where things get harder to understand are when they are intangible.

My friend Justin Kownacki wrote about this yesterday.

The sense of walking into somewhere and listening to sage words doesn’t seem like it should cost money. I understand this. It’s just sound moving through the air to your ears, right?

Let’s move the discussion away from what it costs to make a conference, and let’s talk about value overall, and what we need to consider

The Audacity of Free

There Are Costs to Things – Information is write once, repeat forever, but there are costs to things like time, presence, access, etc. Real costs, not just assumed ones.

Some Costs Help Gate – Seth Godin just wrote the other day about what if Craigslist cost $1 a post, and he was spot on. It would cut down annoyance. Darren Rowse just launched Problogger.com for really cheap (too cheap, if you ask me), and there’s a reason for this. Paying something for a service or good helps us value it more. Christopher Penn and Whitney Hoffman and I decided to charge money to attend PodCamp Boston, because that made people commit to showing up. They weren’t willing to walk away from their investment, and that ensured our attendance numbers would be accurate.

Free Makes It Harder to Charge Money Later – There’s a great post in Entrepreneur magazine pitting Chris Anderson (Free) against Jason Fried (37 Signals), and I agreed with what Fried had to say on the matter. Free can cause wild growth, but is that the real goal? See also Raul’s post on free for more ideas.

Free Encourages Waste – Permit me a moment of sour grapes. I volunteered to attend and speak at an event recently. I paid money to book a flight and hotel, so not only didn’t I charge a speaking fee, but I paid for the privilege of helping this event attract an audience. They chose to move the event (hey, I run conferences: this happens), but forgot to contact ME about it. I’m out money because I did something for free. Do you think this makes me feel inclined to do that again? (hint: no).

Charge For Value, for Gating, for Your Needs

I charge what I’m worth to speak and to consult with companies. My agency charges for the work we perform for clients (and we’re less expensive than most). Wiley charges for Trust Agents because they have tons of costs behind it (remember: I make like $1.40 a book).

Don’t ever feel embarrassed to charge for value. Never apologize that something costs money if you’ve determined the value of it.

Sometimes free is a promotional matter, a loss leader, the chance to build some buzz, but sometimes, we get confused on how that works, too. When companies send something for free, they’re hoping that you’re so moved by trying the thing that you’ll be motivated to tell others if it’s worth it. That’s in their marketing budget. They expect that.

I’ve been running a promotion since August that trades values. I made a deal where if someone bought 200 copies of Trust Agents, I’d speak for 1/2 day for free. When those sold out, I made the same deal for 300 copies (still 1 of those deals left). In doing this, I give up my speaking fee (which is much more than the cost of the books), but I do so because it’s a chance that those 200 or 300 books will get into the hands of people who might be able to use the ideas, and also into the hands of a select few who’ll want me to speak professionally or consult or work with my agency.

Free can be a wonderful thing, and there are some really great things that are (and should be) free. But free is a choice, and it’s not your buyers who decide this, no matter what we like to think in social media kumbaya-ville. Free is beautiful, and costs are part of life.

Photo credit Koka Sexton