john haydon

Community doesn?t mean hippie love by John Haydon

Everyone’s talking about community. Brands are shifting strategies to demonstrate how much they care about theirs. Small businesses and nonprofits are being told that engaging with theirs leads to more sales and donations.

Not just hippie love

If you haven’t defined your community, you could be wasting a lot of time pulling the wrong levers.

Think about it. If you define community as everyone who follows you on Twitter, you’ll waste time tweeting with folks who will never buy and never tell others about your company. A little hippie love is nice, but it won’t pay the rent.

Sure, it would feel pretty great for me to claim that my community is over 14,000 strong. But I’d be lying myself and I’d be looking like a fool to everyone else.

The quickest way to define community

If you define community as?the people you share common interests, resources and needs with, then you’re getting somewhere.

I like to keep things simple. Simple is easy to manage and easy to scale.

In my business, people who talk about what I do are like gold. And I do my best to treat them so. I promote what’s important to them. I retweet and share things that they want me to share. We go back and forth on Facebook, Twitter and comments about a number of topics – both personal and professional. The more I do this (and I’ve measured the hell out of this), the more they’ll talk about me to their friends.

So I define community as: People who are talking with me about shared needs and interests.

Is community conversation?

If someone is talking to you and about you, it means that to some degree you both matter. You become part of a community when you talk about what’s important to that community. But what about people who just read your blog and don’t comment? What about the Lurkers?

How do you define community?

About the author: John Haydon advises non-profits and small businesses how to implement inbound marketing strategies with the social web and social media marketing strategies. Follow @johnhaydon on Twitter.

Ten for 10 in 2010 – John Haydon

This is a guest post from?John Haydon , who has a brilliant blog over at JohnHaydon.com. John inspires me every day and is one of the most giving and genuine folks around.

Every New Year, I think about what I’ve accomplished the previous year. When I’m done, I’ve felt refreshed and ready to get to work.

But many times, looking back doesn’t feel so good. Five years ago I had a bone cancer scare. Three years ago, I went though a divorce. I went from seeing my son seven days a week to less than three which, as any father knows, is heart breaking.

In 2009, I also had a string of heartbreaks, challenges and set-backs. I’ve also had many, many victories. Having hope and conviction is easy when you’ve just had a victory. Not so easy with set-back.

I promise this ends on a positive note, so stick with me, ok?

Firewood

There’s a Buddhist saying that “a fire burns brighter when logs are added.” The idea is that only through challenges does one forge a brighter, more expansive way of living. I mention this because we sometimes tend to see obstacles and set-backs as a negative. We fail to see the growth rings.
Maybe this is because it’s easier to just say?“Oh, I’m sorry… that must be tough”, and think we’re lucky not to be in his/her shoes.

But why?not be in their shoes? Why?not be excited about an opportunity for self-transformation? Is it that deep down, we don’t believe in ourselves?

We see people “crushing it” all around us. Not?despite the obstacles, but?because of the obstacles!

How Mama and Mark Crush It

Mama Lucy lives in Tanzania with her kids. When her children were old enough to attend school in the 1990s, her country had no schools. She had to take her kids to Kenya to get an education – separating them from their home. She stood up against this injustice by building a school with money she earned on as a chicken farmer. And now she has a school with over 350 kids.

Mark Horvath had a promising career in television, but because of his drug addiction, he became homeless. He lost all his possessions and his family. With nothing left, he considered suicide. But then he had a spiritual awakening that put meaning around his struggles. Through his faith he quit drugs, pulled his life together, and eventually launched?InvisiblePeople.TV.

The one thing Mama and Mark have in common is fire. They both burn for different reasons, but have used their struggles as the fuel.

Remember that feeling of failure I mentioned? Now I know that feeling is based on a misconception that winning in life means no challenges. Winning is inside – how we respond to life. To “crush it”? is to burn brightly. To “crack” is to confuse ends and means.

So for 2010, my goals focus on cause rather than effect. On learning how to better start a fire, and fan it with hope.

My sincere thanks to John for sharing his thoughts on what made his past year, and what he hopes for next year – I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. I hope you?ll join me tomorrow when I offer up ten of my personal favourites from this blog over the last 12 months.

You Can Find Me…

…over at John Haydon’s blog today and tomorrow.

After having my blog hijacked by the mysterious Jack Tweet, I’ve finally managed to get around his firewall and take back control.

While I give the blog a thorough search for any hidden clownware, I’ll be looking after John’s blog while he’s at the SobCON event over in Chicago. Feel free to drop on by and say hello.

The Difference Between Heaven and Hell in Social Media

This is a guest post from John Haydon. John is a guy of many talents. He’s a teacher, a learner, a singer, a comedian with a very dry wit and one of the nicest guys you could meet.

He’s also a damn fine blogger and the Blogger Outreach partner for 12for12k. I’m delighted to have John here today.

An ancient Buddhist parable involves a young Zen monk asking his teacher about the difference between Heaven and Hell.

His teacher replies, “Both Heaven and Hell have an expansive dining hall with a steamy vat of noodle soup at the center of the hall. The soup smells delicious and everyone has equal access to the soup. The strange thing is that each diner has to eat this soup with chopsticks that are 4-feet long.”

Puzzled, the young monk asks, “So, if both Heaven and Hell have this huge dining hall with this great soup and these strangely long chopsticks, then aren’t they the same?”

The teacher replies, “Yes, they appear to be the same. But how the diners eat is the critical difference.”

“How’s that?” asks the student.

“In Hell, everyone starves because no matter how hard they try, they can’t get the noodles into their mouths. The chopsticks are too long.

“In Heaven, each diner feeds the person sitting across from them at the dinning room table. Everyone is happy and eats to their hearts content.”

How does this relate to social media?

Understanding technology is important. Twitter’s potential is lost if all you do is post what’s new with you, just like long chopsticks aren’t placed at tables for one.
Giving to others nourishes our souls, just like feeding each other brings joy and full bellies. Supporting other people’s agendas with social media has surprising and immeasurable business value.
Everything works better if you put them together, like the two pairs of chopsticks work by feeding each other. There is no “Twitter or Facebook?”, only “Twitter and Facebook.”
Are you ready for another bite? There is a very good reason that Listening is the very first step in most social media strategies. Why boil more Spaghetti when all along they wanted Soba?

And finally:

There is enough noodle soup for everyone.

John Haydon does social media strategy and training for non-profits and small businesses. He is also a songwriter and a father to a 5-year old boy. You can find out more by subscribing to his blog or connecting with John on Twitter.