Web Business by Ken Burbary

The Age of DIY

I’m a big believer in DIY – Doing it Yourself. Call me old fashioned but it’s something I learned at an early age from my late father. If you don’t know something, learn it. Need a piece of info? Find it. Need specialized expertise? Seek it out. No one else is going to do it for you (usually), so you better take the initiative and get it done yourself. Like life, business is littered with challenges and obstacles that you will encounter along the way. How you handle these obstacles, what you do next, usually determines whether or not the outcome is successful.

Sound like a lot? It certainly can be. No one I know has the time, nor aptitude to be proficient in every topic and/or skill, let alone acquire deep expertise. Fortunately, the rules of the game have evolved and changed to point there where they favor YOU.

For example, until recently, if you were a web developer and needed to build a new application on a emerging platform (let’s say RoR – Ruby on Rails), what options would you have to solve the problem?

You could:

• Learn how to write RoR code yourself
• Hope someone within your network already possesses the skill/knowledge
• Pass on an opportunity because you didn’t have the answers, right partner, etc..

That’s hard if you aren’t a technologist who can quickly adapt to a new technology platform (I know some rock-star developers out there, like David Hinson, can do this without skipping a beat).

But I’m not a techie you say. This doesn’t apply to me. Ok, what if you’re the brand manager in the marketing dept. for a successful consumer products company. You’ve been asked to develop the social media component of an integrated go-to-market plan for your brand. Social Media? Doesn’t that mean Myspace or Facebook? You don’t have experience with social media and aren’t sure where to start, so what options would you have to solve the problem?

You could:

• Learn as much as you can in a short time and write the strategy yourself, hoping for the best (not advisable!)
• Hope you can find an expert in your network who has the knowledge/expertise in Social Media
• Recommend a plan that has no social media component, and miss a golden opportunity to engage with your customers

Do any of these sound good to you? Hardly. There is a better way forward, and it’s available to you because the world has changed and unleashed a new power for individuals. The network allows you to crowd source a problem. The network allows you to community source a problem. The network exponentially increases your capabilities, through the reach of others.

In the networked DIY age, the problems above get solved quickly because you have the necessary relationships and resources available to you. Don’t believe me? Try this example here, here or here. Answers come in minutes. The network allows you to move fast enough to meet business challenges thrown at you every day. However, it’s not something you get without first putting in the work yourself. How? By becoming active in the network. Establishing relationships, initiating dialogue w/others, helping others grow, so you can be in a position to benefit when you really need it.

This is available to anyone willing to take advantage of it. How? I suppose I could elaborate in extensive detail, but many others, far more knowledgable than I, have already provided the roadmap. You should read these blog posts on how to get started:

• Jason Falls – How to be the social media champion in your office
• Marshall Kirkpatrick – Social Media Starter Kit
• Chris Brogan – Social Media Starter Pack
• Rohit Bhargava – How I use Social Media

And then reach out to them.

The most important takeaway in all of this is: PARTICIPATION. Remember, it’s the age of DIY, and success can’t happen unless YOU are the one doing. The revolutionary difference about this is that you’re now able to contact these subject matter experts, build relationships with them. In some cases form partnerships with them. Ultimately, you’ll be in a better position because of it, and make better decisions about you business. Help yourself by helping others grow. The more you give, the more you get.

Let’s reexamine the hypothetical problems I described earlier, but in the DIY age. New options are available through crowd sourcing, or directly engaging subject matter experts who are part of the community. You’re able to go directly to the source for expertise. Establish a dialgoue, here (RoR Expert) and here (Social Media Expert), and work together to solve the problem. Experts can be instantly referred to you by colleagues in the network, or by contacts they have. The irony is, despite what the DYI term implies, you’re anything but alone in the DIY age.

Individuals over the world are adapting to the network so they can solve business problems, build new (and otherwise out of reach) relationships, build new businesses, even change countries.

How are you adapting to the DIY age? Do you believe in its ability to transform the way you work? The way you live? You should. It’s changing your world whether you like it or not. As Charles Darwin famously said:

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

* Big thanks to my good friends Blagica Bottigliero & Alan Wolk for helping shape some of these thoughts

Help write a new book about Twitter

Lately, more and more people I know on Twitter are discussing the idea that it seems to have crossed, or is approaching, a threshold and has gone mainstream. What signs point to that? Celebrities, politicians and other well known non-marketing/PR types are joining in greater numbers.

For starters, a Twitter user doesn’t get any bigger than the President. President elect Obama joined the microblogging service back in March 2007, and rose up the charts to become the most followed user on Twitter with well over 100k followers. He used Twitter regularly during the campaign to communicate the campaign message of Hope and Change.

Other well known celebrities are diving into the microblogging pool.  Britney Spears joined Twitter. And then Gary Vaynerchuk criticized her for using it as another broadcast channel, not a platform to engage fans. NBA stars Deron Williams and Shaquille O’neal both joined Twitter.

In addition to people from all walks of life and business giving Twitter a try, there were 2 important book announcements this week. Twitter power users, Laura Fitton and Shel Israel announced recent deals to write Twitter books, details here and here.

The significance of these annoucements isn’t the topic, although it is an interesting one, but rather the way in which the content, stories and topics covered will be written and selected. The authors are community sourcing the writing. This gives everyone on Twitter the opportunity to submit ideas, content, tips, tools, etc… for the book.

Laura has taken it a step further, launching a Twitter for Dummies community to make this process even easier. The site allows members to:

• submit ideas
• vote on ideas
• set up your profile
• search ideas
• read tips by category
• invite friends

This is another great example of community sourcing at its finest, and one I believe we will more and more of in the future. If you’re on Twitter and have something to share, what are you waiting for? Click on over to the community and start contributing!

Twitter guide for businesses

I just came across this great presentation by Chris Wilson, Designer/Marketing Strategist at Hester Designs. In it, he succinctly describes the critical steps businesses should take if they are considering establishing a Twitter presence and engaging with the community.