Barack and Beck … and You

What do President Obama and the Barack-bashing politicians at the recent CPAC conference have in common?

They gain power by marketing anticipation.

Americans’ love of being titillated is historic. Famous around the world for our “optimism,” we’re actually born hopers: anticipating that the Next Big Thing will live up to its promise, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

Hearing Obama’s promise of real change energized his huge campaign rallies and election. Mere months later, the same promises draw crowds to “tea parties.” Crowds of folks hopin’ that some new group of professional hopers will do more than just sell us more hope.

Anticipation drives our daily decisions and feeds our consumer habits. We buy new services or products in anticipation of becoming more rich, serene, popular. Whatever.

Instant gratification is rarely what drives us. It’s the expectation of instant gratification. Curiosity has become a modern leader’s main commodity, because it sparks potential followers’ anticipation.

Anticipation isn’t only big in America. Dutch researchers recently talked to 974 people who had gone on a trip. Those who’d spent the most time planning it enjoyed it the most, and remembered the lead-up to their trip as the best part. The journey itself was almost secondary.

Social or new media and the internet make us more intensely expectant and fickle than ever. We can now live in a non-stop frenzy of discovery and expectation. To an extreme anticipator, achievement is something dreary that sometimes happens at work.

Presidents Bush and Obama and the Tea Party movement represent our consumer passion for anticipation. It drives up ratings for entertainment channels like Fox News, MSNBC, even C-Span. Simple news or information is never enough.

You’re in marketing. Does your marketing and sales material burst with anticipation, or at least make us all very curious?

The Internet as “Experiential Marketplace”

Image via Wikipedia

(Dedicated to my friends at Jobs Ministry Southwest)
It makes the news when an 89-year-old man straps himself onto the top of a plane for his 20th wing-walking jaunt over the English Channel (http://bit.ly/7IQpwR). He’s one example of the growing experiential marketplace.

It’s not as newsworthy when a laid-off executive sees his or her job status as “just another stage of exploration” and actively begins “tossing aside presumed limitations” by creating or enriching opportunities on the internet. But these men and women achieve much more in the long run than aging thrill seekers.

Their families, industry and community all benefit every day from their vision and bravery.

It takes guts to put aside years of identifying yourself with a title or job description, and adopt entirely new modes of communication. It’s scary to join in the hunt for online success alongside much younger people. First you have to unlearn many outmoded “secrets of success” that you learned over your long, often illustrious career.

You have to see yourself as a leader rather than one more cog in some corporate machine.

You do whatever it takes to stand out, because you’re determined not to fade out.

God bless all those old-timers who challenge their physical limitations to try something completely different. But let’s also honor those who reinvent themselves and transform society into a new and better experiential marketplace.  These pros are charting a more elusive and uncertain territory, and helping improve the life experiences of millions of us uppity “younger folks.”

From HR Professional to Social Media Leader

Image by felipe_gabaldon via Flickr

1. An original discussion topic posted to Linked:HR (#1 Human Resources Group) on LinkedIn:

In the social media age, the new priority for individual employees outside the workplace is “authentic engagement.”

How are HR professionals dealing with dynamic changes in employee expectations and perception, as technical or operational expertise becomes a “given,” and the focus increasingly shifts to an applicant’s intangible qualities such as attitude, approach and intent?

2. Comment from Patrick Mulroy, HR Leader and Life Coach:

I believe successful HR Leaders are approachable, have a “can do positive attitude” and flexibility regarding intent as HR transcends all industries. Our authenticity comes with “DNA‘ deeply integrated in our responsibility and accountability. We have to hold ourselves to high standards of integrity and confidentiality and trustworthiness or we will not be successful in building relationships with credibility. We must walk our talk and deliver on our word. We are not perfect, but we strive for excellence otherwise we do a disservice to our profession. I believe we must put the “human’ in human resources and balance the role of business partner, employee advocate, and defender of the company’s assets by doing the right things as well as doing things right.

3. My public response to his comment:

Great comment, Patrick! It proves that social media thought leaders are merely “reinventing” what the best HR professionals do in every interview.

HR Leaders are in a unique position to help the world hold social media to the high standards you’ve mentioned. Using social media tools, you can easily move your acquired wisdom out of the HR office and into mass circulation.

Digital communication techniques and “apps” can only stay pertinent to their users if they help convey your vision accurately to huge numbers of people–who will never see each other in person!–so it can be put to good use.

Then every online conversation or forum comment will gain new relevance, proof and value. That’s the day social media will finally grow up.