Why You Need To Be In The SM Game

​"Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable" is what separates the star players from the haters and those negative nay-sayers in business.  How many employees, coworkers, industry executives, people on SM that love to sit in the shadows and criticize or are just negative?  Or better yet, don't know how to use or truly understand social media platforms.  Just because your kids and junior level staff are on it doesn't mean you shouldn't be or at the very least understand consumer attention.   Stop being a spectator and get in the GAME! 
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Understanding SM platforms and HOW they are consumed on a daily basis is 90% of the challenge.  It's about understanding consumers attention. When you think about the 100+ million posts on Facebook each day that should be a pretty good key to it's value.   Just because you are a 50+ year old CMO doesn't mean that you should rely upon the 20 year olds or your kids to help you understand SM. It's YOUR job to be engaged and understand the power and massive shift in the market of peoples attention. But you need to be a participant first. Understanding how real data and digital analytics such as clicks, likes, comments and shares are much more powerful than Neilson ratings assumptions based a percentage of DMA's.  Who's taking those survey's anyways?  Seniors and those that are unemployed?  Last month 10 million customers canceled cable, so common sense I assume is how do TV ratings go up if consumers have shifted how they consume content? 
Not many of us are really comfortable throwing our ideas and POV out to the world to judge us in social media like this platform.  Heck I know my grammar and spelling is brutal, but what you are getting is an authentic me.    How many times had you wished in a staff or client meeting that you spoke up but didn't in fear of saying something really stupid or off point? "I will reach out off line" What that heck is off line anyways?  
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Do you think Mark Cuban, Richard Branson and other highly successful executives and entrepreneurs have that same mentality?  Yes they listen but aren't afraid to be heard, give their opinion or be in the game. I'm sure they weren't that way before they were Billionaires.  They understood then and even more so now where consumers attention was in that particular moment.  You have an expertise in what you do everyday or something you're passionate about, stay in that lane...but Get In The Game!  
I grew up with dyslexia and never knew it until I got to college.  I was a horrible student who struggled from day one.  Fortunately,  I had a college summer school teacher my freshman year and in a class I had to take just to be allowed into the fall semester.  She discovered my dyslexia this first week of class and helped me work through my learning disability (How I was able to go through public schools for those early years and no one caught it is another story). Up to that point before college, I was always uncomfortable to raise my hand and petrified to speak up.  I basically accepted the fact that I was a bad student.  

​The fear continued to suffocate me until I fought through it and became comfortable with how I delivered my opinion and that was through writing.    I continue to do so today but have more confidence which I gained from just diving in and challenging myself everyday, but my platform changed.  So you aren't alone if you have faced the same challenges, just fight through it and find the platform via video Vlog or writing but start somewhere that you feel comfortable with either here, Medium, Blog, twitter, FB,  etc. But start today.    

Even on this platform, I decided to stop being a spectator a few years ago with just reading and commenting on other's posts, I made a decision to become really uncomfortable and started my own website where I interview influencers in my industry (1 on 1 Interviews above tab) who I feel can help others with their personal stories. Believe me is not in my DNA to self promote. But what has happened as a result is my network has drastically increased my connections and followers quickly and it has massively grown my network and attention in my industry ...now I'm in the Game!  And you should be too.  It's not who you know...It's Who Knows You! 
Get In The Game!