RonAmok!

Last Wednesday evening, I attended a local Linked Orange County meetup that was sponsored by Bryan Elliott of the SoCalSportsActionNetwork. The crowd consisted of everything from unemployed folks looking for jobs, to consultants, marketeers, personal coaches, nonprofits, and of course, one New Media Evangelist

One gentleman was there to promote himself for a new job. He described himself as a 20-year veteran of the apparel industry and when I asked for specifics, he rattled off manufacturing facts for all kinds of apparel, from sportswear to denim.

Impressed with his knowledge, I asked, “Do you have a blog?”

Sheepishly, he said that he didn’t. His next words were something that I hear often. “I should, but I just don’t know what to write about.”

Grrr…this answer really gets me going, because too many people sell themselves short. Everyone has a unique perspective on the world and Apparel Guy is not the exception. With 20 years of experience, he obviously has unique knowledge that a very specific audience would love to tap into.

About five minutes later, a trendy looking, twenty-something wearing a sports jacket, white shirt and stone-washed bluejeans, wandered over to our little group.

Somehow, the subject of denim came up and Apparel Guy transformed before our very eyes. The same dude who earlier claimed that he had nothing to write about launched into an enthusiastic explanation on how Trendy Guy’s pants were manufactured. Without taking a breath, he did a similar analysis of another guy’s jeans–guessing that they were probably cheaper because they hadn’t gone through as many processing steps as Trendy Guy’s had.

Apparel Guy was PASSIONATE about DENIM. He knew more about denim than anyone else I’d ever met and he loved to talk about it.

I interrupted him midstream. “I thought you didn’t know what to write about,” I said through a sarcastic smile. “You need to write a blog about denim.”

“I could do that!” he said, before jumping back to thread counts, weave patterns, and softening techniques.

What are you knowledgeable and passionate about? Do you have a blog?

Photo Credits:

Flickr Photostream from Six Revisions

Flickr Photostream from Chris Lorenz (@chrislorenz on Twitter)

Tags: blogging resume job-seeker passion experience denim New Media Evangelist

While sitting in the audience at a SoCal Action Sports Network event last month, one of the panelists, Tim Young, CEO of Socialcast, said something that caught my attention.

“The way we communicate is different than upper management.”

The “we” in his statement referred to the Millennials. “Upper management” was code for Baby Boomers.

Tim described how millennials are entering the workforce with a new set of communications skills that the Baby Boomers just don’t understand. At first, I took the statement personally. I mean, this boomer doesn’t need some new-hire to teach me how to communicate! Right?

Just as I was about to write him off, though, Tim offered another insight.

“Millennials can help Gen-Xers and Boomers communicate, and Gen-Xers and Boomers can help ‘onboard’ Millennials.

“Onboard?” I thought. “What does that mean?”

And then it hit me. Tim was describing the experience-gap between the groups. Although millennials are natural collaborators who can teach the “me” generation something about communication, they are still green when it comes to the ways of business. In order for businesses to succeed in the future, Tim simply pointed out that these groups will need to learn from one another.

This experience-gap reared its ugly head during last week’s Dominos Pizza fiasco, when two millennial employees collaborated swimmingly to create a sickening video. Unfortunately, their youthful inexperience blinded them from the fact that the food preparation business is all about trust, which the young communicators napalmed in the amount of time it took to upload their video to YouTube.

Dominos responded by releasing its own video response, a two minute video of Dominos’ President, Patrick Doyle, describing the seriousness by which the company was taking the situation. Although the corporate video contained all the right words, it fell flat because some public relations genius puppet-stringed Mr. Doyle’s performance, having him look off-camera to read a prepared speech.

ATTENTION PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONALS OF THE WORLD. Executives responding to a crisis don’t need no stinkin’ teleprompters. Nobody cares whether it comes off as polished or not. All we care about is that the message is authentic and real.

Ironically, the millennial employees actually produced a “better” video than upper management. Think about it. Rather than reading from a script, they looked directly into the camera and clearly communicated their stomach-turning message.

Tim Young was correct. Millennials and Boomers do have a lot to learn from one another.

Photo Credit: Photo Mojo

Tags: Millenial Gen-X Baby Boomers onboarding business collaborate communicate

Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, at The University of California Irvine, the school where my son will be matriculating this fall. During the visit, I learned about the field of Informatics–the study of human/computer interaction. Anyone serious about a career involving New/Social Media should keep a close eye on Informatics, because it holds the keys to our collective futures.

Think about how we interact with computer devices today. We’re constantly updating our statuses, letting others know what we are doing, seeing, and feeling. Our GPS-enabled portable media devices know both our physical locations and our calendars, thus have the information necessary to get us from point A to point B. Add wireless connectivity to vast networks of information and these devices can route us around traffic congestion while also helping us to decide whether or not we should  carry an umbrella when we get there. The study of Informatics will add decision-making capabilities to these devices, making them Super Personal Digital Assistants.

For example, it’s almost noon on a cold and rainy Tuesday in the not-so-distant future. You haven’t eaten breakfast, are physically thirty minutes away from your 1:00 p.m. appointment and need to grab lunch. Your Super PDA takes all of this into account and recommends a restaurant less than a mile away.

But the choice isn’t arbitrary. After culling through a list of local restaurants that can get you in and out in less than thirty minutes, it suggests the one that just happens to have your favorite soup on its “Specials Menu.” Had it been 85 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny, it would have suggested a local deli that is adjacent to your favorite frozen yogurt shop.

We in Social Media need to pay close attention to places like the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and its study of Informatics. As the Social Web expands, adding millions of people with billions of more messages, opportunities will arise for us to help our clients make contextual-based marketing connections with their customers.

Ah, to be 18 again.

Photo Credit: Kevin Coles

Tags: Bren UCI University of California Irvine Informatics New Media Evangelist