Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Two great thinkers said two very profound things, that together sum up the need of the hour.

'Stay hungry, stay foolish', made famous by Steve Jobs, prescribed attitudinal shifts to remain successful. George Bernard Shaw said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, while the unreasonable man insists on adapting the world to himself, therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man". Wise words from two men living in different times but highlighting the same issue – the risks posed by our inherent need to ‘conform’.

Workplaces today are dominated by professionals that would rather ‘conform’ than ‘transform’; in turn putting at risk the very notion of what these places were meant to be  - a highly charged environment of talented individuals focused on improvisation, improvement and innovation. A conformist attitude brings with it huge risks, and for a creative services industry like Public Relations, those risks can be dire. 

Over the last 15 years, PR in India has evolved in many ways. From offering geography based media engagement services at a time when information and access was at a premium; to offering multi-stakeholder engagement services today when both are a given; and ‘authenticity’ and ‘advocacy’ are the Holy Grail. The wave of technological innovations that are changing the way we connect and engage with people, make this an exciting time for PR professionals – challenging and often confusing, but with great potential.

The industry at large is responding quite well – with new service lines, standards and processes being developed to manage this opportunity. At the same time, we also need to be careful to ensure that these don’t stifle ‘creativity’ and ‘imagination’ and encourage ‘conformism,’ which is rampant. Here are some basic questions we need to ask ourselves to check if we’re headed towards conformism:

• Are we clear about the differentiated value of PR in the evolving communications landscape? Many of us struggle to understand and articulate this, which eventually bears on our ability to ideate.

• Are we rewarding process and compliance, and stifling curiosity, creativity? I often find that missing deadlines becomes a bigger issue than coming up with mediocre ideas. 

• Are we too scared to fail? PR agencies have always had it tough, and the external change is making it tougher. Conforming to expectations, is digging ourselves deeper into a hole at a time when authenticity is the true differentiator.

• Are we limited by our experience or the lack of it? The environment we operate in continues to evolve and as such none of us have all the answers. Do we accept that and seek to learn and grow, or stay comfortable within the scope of what we know?

If we’ve answered yes to the last three questions, we need to be extra careful and course correct. We need to reward creative risk taking as much as the ability to manage. We need to encourage an entrepreneurial mindset as much as a ‘get the job done’ mindset. What’s also missing today is passion, and there’s nothing like invoking the entrepreneur within people, to stoke passion which is what differentiates between good, and great and is crucial for a creative services sector like ours in particular. 

We need to stay hungry - look beyond short term results and be focused on driving disruptive change for our clients and big opportunities for ourselves. We all need to stay foolish - in the way we look at campaigns to challenge convention and drive real advocacy even if it comes at a risk.

These are imperative to drive the next level of growth for our industry. We have a big opportunity staring at us. We can augment our foundation and build on it, or hand it on a platter to others.

- Karan Punia 

SIX MANTRAS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS TO KICK-START THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA LIFE (if you haven’t, yet)

I am often asked by people, most of them fairly senior level executives, on how they could (and whether they actually should) begin using social media to engage with a wider audience. While they were quite at ease addressing difficult press conferences and demanding clients, they hadn't got round to taming social media platforms like Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.

If you feel you’re one of them, I wouldn’t blame you. While you were busy fighting boardroom battles, the world was evolving in ways relatively unknown to you. And before you could grasp the nature of the change, it became too important for your businesses or job to ignore. I won’t be exaggerating if I said – today, you are known by the social IDs you keep. Without wanting to sound like a self-proclaimed social media guru, I could list six key lessons that I’m confident could come handy as you decide to launch your social media IDs and board the bus you fear you might have missed.

1.       Be yourself: The biggest mistake you could make on the social media is to portray yourself as being completely different from the way you really are. It isn’t sustainable, quite simply because it’s not who you are! It’s difficult to keep up an act all the time, even if you’re an amazing actor. Post what you feel, observe, believe in, know, or want to say. Be honest. Don’t worry that your posts aren’t half as smart as those of your colleague, who has hundreds of followers and whom you secretly envy. In time, you will realize that there’s an audience out there who likes you just as you are. You are unique, and so should be your social media content. The first few posts are always the most difficult. But once you get into the groove, it becomes as easy as thinking.

2.       Know your weight and use it judiciously: While social media offers you the freedom to speak your heart and mind, remember you have a responsibility towards your followers and readers. You never know when a message posted in a hurry or with an opinion based on half-baked information may return to haunt you. Before you hit ‘enter’ pause to consider the possible reaction of at least three of your connections (including your current or potential future employer, and your mother-in-law). The more prominent you are in the offline space, the greater your burden of responsibility towards your audience. Think of your social ID as a loudspeaker that can be heard miles away, and add to it a record-and-play device that even more people will listen to in future. Now, pass each of your thoughts through this filter before you posting it online: do you really want to share it? While you can always delete or recall your posts, you never know when you might leave a trace with a watchdog out there.

3.       Add (some) value (to someone, at least): Not everyone connected to you wants to know how acute your toothache is. Telling people what you’re doing at any given moment may amuse only a select set of people. And if that’s all you’d like to do, you’re better off in a close-group environment rather than a public forum. Unless you derive some perverse pleasure from trying to arouse others’ envy at your (fake) lifestyle by ‘checking in’ at a five star hotel (even if you merely drove past it) every now and then, or posting photos of you posing with hot celebs (thanks to Photoshop), you’d probably have a more ‘effective’ and meaningful follower base if you post stuff that others find useful. There must be something you’re good at, or you’re passionate about – make that the focal subject of your social media content and you’ll attract an audience that shares your interest. Of course, you needn’t stick to a single topic all the time – both you and your audience need a few breathers (‘entertaining’ is useful too!).

4.       Learn from others but don’t try to copy them: There’s a lot you could learn from ‘social media celebrities’ – their writing style, the frequency of their posts, the ideas behind the content, etc. It’s perfectly all right to borrow content (retweet, quote, or share). It will only win you more friends and some might even return the favor once in a while. But do be honest and give credit where due. Never claim someone else’s idea as your own. Not only is it unethical, the Internet – however vast you might think it is – is also a very small place, thanks to extremely well-networked platform and search capabilities. You’ll lose face and credibility with those around you if caught. I know of some people who meticulously search the Net (some have even subscribed to daily feeds to save time) for smart one-liners and quotes, and try to pass them off as their own! Smart, eh? I can bet you’d take less than a minute to see through them once you’d interacted with them in real life or simply googled their posts.

5.        Brace the democratic nature of social media: Now this is a bit contrary to point 2 above. While you may be used to a patient, receptive audience listening to you sincerely in the offline space given your position, the social media gives everyone out there the power to voice their opinion, positions notwithstanding. It’s a level playing field!  Add to it the option for the audience to remain anonymous. People with or without any credibility or even name may challenge your solid, well-researched posts with logic-defying arguments. Unfortunately, there are few laws or referees that work in the online environment, at least not yet. You may feel it’s not fair but that’s the beauty of this medium.  Prepare yourself to brace the power of this extremely democratic network, and shed some of yours with humility. And if you are doing or saying the right thing, hang on there for a bit, for you can expect surprise supporters to come to your rescue.

6.      Finally – no you don’t ‘have to’ be on social media, but it helps: If you are still uncertain whether you should ‘take the plunge’ – trust me it’s far easier, safer and more economical than getting married. Not kidding! Let’s accept it – the social media have become too strong to ignore, and are here to stay and evolve. The good news is you can ‘start slow’ by simply ‘listening’. As in the real world, when you join a new group, you tend to begin by ‘sniffing’ the context and other members (well, not literally) before actively participating. You could do the same on social media too. Since there generally are no rules (some unwritten guidelines are followed, though) on the frequency of your posts and absolutely no charge for membership for any kind, you can be as slow or quick as you want to be. You can sit by a poolside and watch others swim, but you’ll only learn to swim yourself once you jump into the water. So go ahead, and enjoy the splash!

- Amit Gundh