Think of people you like. What characteristics to they have? I bet they are kind, considerate, funny, sharing, trustworthy, respectful, appreciative, honest, caring, genuine, warm, friendly, approachable etc. They listen to you. They speak to you when you speak to them. They respond to feedback. They don’t shout at you. They respect your time. They aren’t pushy. They arrive on time. They say nice things about you. They are honest with you. You get the idea.
Now think about the people you don’t like. What characteristics do they have. I bet they are stingy, thoughtless, boring, untrustworthy, ungrateful, dishonest, fake, cold, unapproachable etc. They don’t listen to you. They talk over you or interrupt you. They have their own agenda. They don’t always respond to you. They shout at you. They ram things down your throat. They are late for stuff. They say nasty things about you behind your back. They don’t always tell you the truth. Again you get the idea.
So, what I’m trying to say is that this whole social media thing is simple. Just be human. Brands need to behave exactly the same way as real human beings. In fact, what are brands anyway? They are things created by human beings. Companies are collections of human beings. The walls of companies are being pulled down by social media. Quite literally, people are emerging from the shadows of companies and creating our perception of companies and brands, rather than their marketing.
To me, Rax is Splendid. James is Spinvox. JP is O2. Mike is Techcrunch. Will is NixonMcinnes. Wadds is Rainier. Steve is 3W. Iain is Poke. Again, you get the idea.
So, be a decent human being. Be all the things that people like about the people they like. And if you look deep into yourself (as a brand, a company or as a person) and don’t like what you see, then change it. Social media is an amplifier. All the bad stuff gets worse. All the good stuff gets better.
James is onto this. As are other people. It’s not something new. It’s not something that clever, or complicated. The hard part is when you do look inwards and find some of those nasty characteristics are a lot closer to home than they should be.
And that’s it – my thought for today. Just be human. And if you can’t be a decent one, you need to change – as in a world where technology adoption is growing at an ever-increasing rate, it’s becoming even more important.
Photo from a great collection of slides from Will Lion
Top image from Jared Donovan
Update – some people (quite rightly so) have likened this to Jimbob’s “Be Nice” post. One that I most definitely read at the time and agreed with – I even left ‘be human’ in the comments. So, as a nice person would, I just wanted to make sure that you guys know that and in honour of that have amended the title. Jimbob is a top bloke, a genuinely nice human being!
As is Faris, who also thinks we should be nice. And admits too to probably stealing the idea off Jimbob . . . .
10 Comments
Good stuff Jonathan, very sensible. Not unlike Warren’s BE NICE strategy (http://jameswarren.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/successful-digital-strategy-in-two-words/) but no less valid for that.
Listening’s central isn’t it? Social media gurus have banged on for ages about how brands need to listen to the conversation in the world of social media but, to your point, listening is one of the core elements of a decent human being. Good people listen to you, hear what you’re saying and respond to it. Simple stuff.
People (and brands) that don’t listen are some of the least rewarding to meet, I find.
Nice post reminds me also of James Warren’s be nice. The thing that amazes me is the way some people divorce common sense when it comes to online / social media, but that’s a rant for another time.
Lovely post. You observation is spot on and I’m not sure there’s anything more I could add. Thanks for the name check. Cheers, Wadds
Hello there – thanks for your ‘nice’ comments. Have updated to reflect the subliminal messages Jimbob is implanting in me
Nice post. I totally agree – both with the sentiment, and the examples.
Which reminds me. I promised you a beer and never sorted it out. Not very nice at all. Will sort.
(also, I spent a fair old while the other day enjoying hte musical interludes you posted on here a while back. Most excellent).
Ha ha . cheers Chris. No worries on the beer front. All sorted now. Glad you enjoyed the musical things. Not quite sure what they might have been, but good!
Amen to that
A.
jayaitch, hi. sorry to come to this late, but i’ve been elsewhere lately. clearly i’m splidding hairs, but some instances being human can actually mean being pretty horrible. while you have to be ‘human’ in order to be ‘nice’ by the same token it is possible to be human and yet deeply unpleasant, antisocial and obstacular (which is a new word i just invented). that adolf chap from a few years back was – i believe – flesh and blood. obviously it all comes down to semantics (calm down adolf, i said semANtics), but i did wrestle with all these nuances before boiling it down to ‘be nice’. we’re saying the same thing of course. i’m just being a dwad about being a nice human as opposed to a nasty one. not all aspects of human nature are conducive with excellence in digital communication, more’s the pity. keep on keeping on, dude. jaydub
@jaydub (blimey are you now a rapper or summit?!) good point and agreed. oh and i LOLd at the same time. you are NICE.
and you, my dear chap, are HUMAN. in a terribly nice way, natch. we rock.
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