Soft Management

When you tell someone your goal, you can experience what's called a "social reality." The mind is tricked into thinking that you've already accomplished the goal and therefore after you've felt the satisfaction from saying it aloud, you are less motivated to do the hard work to really reach the goal.

But wait? I thought you were supposed to tell your friends your goals? Sorry, stop doing it. Scientific study trumps conventional wisdom on this one. Look at this TED talk by Derek Sivers and learn more.

Resist the temptation to announce your goals. Delay the gratification. I know it feels good to say what you're going to do, but imagine how you'd feel if you waited until you'd actually reached it? Make no mistake, the mind can mistake talking for doing.

When I took my first stats class I absolutely hated it because nothing made sense. It was like learning a new language: confidence levels, mean, correlation, standard deviation, poison, probability, z-score, binomial distribution, regression etc.

While I was preparing to fail the class something literally clicked in my brain and I managed to pull off an A that semester.

But beyond digesting statistical methods and tools...I learned something far more important. It can be summed up in this quote:

Or just throw out some made up numbers:

I've realized that there are three types of lies:

I've also realized that sometimes people want you to lie to them, right? 

My job is a tenure track position, so I have 5 years to prove I'm awesome before I can be promoted. This will be no problem because I am awesome...but I was recently told by a superior that I should include statistics in my promotion and tenure documentation and to "create charts and graphs that show the numbers going up." Well, if I'm going to be judged by the statistics I choose to provide then this is going to be fun!

My tenure committee may end up seeing a graph like this:

And maybe a few like this too:

Today I had the great pleasure of speaking at the Diversified Agriculture Conference in Layton, Utah.

I met so many nice farmers and ranchers, it was my pleasure to discuss one of my favorite subjects: Social Media!

Below is my Prezi and I made a SWEET handout which is downloadable in PDF format. I've also included my talking points:

Everybody Eats
• This is what we all have in common: Farmers, Hippies, City Slickers, Urban Cowboys
• However, views are distorted because Ag is so removed from consumers

Is There a Disconnect Between Consumers & Farmers?
• Farmers are now <2% of the population
• Does the average consumer know where their food comes from?
• Who’s got some funny stories?
• Homer Simpson Video on: bacon, pork chops & ham
• See how far Ag has come over the years with Monsanto Video

WTF?
• Without The Farmer…There Is No Food!
• If you’re not in it for the money, why do it?
• Farmers work because of: Tradition, Passion, Fun & Price in feeding the world

What’s the Issue?
• There is currently a BATTLE for INFLUENCE on the Internet
• Most of Ag does not even know it’s going on because they’re so busy PRODUCING everyone’s food
• Right now Ag is the Silent Minority

Anti-Ag Groups
• These groups have an AGENDA: Peta, Humane Society, Greenpeace, Farm Sanctuary, Sierra Club
• They have great POWER & INFLUENCE online throughout social media forums. 
• But do they see the big picture? Think about horse harvesting laws?
• They are controlling the image of Ag & making it harder for Ag to feed the world

Is Social Media a Fad?
• So what if Anti-Ag groups are big in Social Media?
• Does this really matter?
• Is it a bubble? Will it go away?

Social Media Stats
• FYI: It’s here to stay
• BTW: the world is going MOBILE
• If you disagree, throw your cell phone in the trash on your way out because Facebook reached 50M users 3x faster than cell phones did

Mass Influence
• Social Media is now the “Great Equalizer”
• This is how Obama won the Whitehouse in 2008 & how his campaign raised over $750M to defeat Clinton and McCain
• This is how Obama will raise $1B in 2012
• Liken Social Media adoption unto adoption of Telegraph: LINCOLN vs. LEE

1. Lincoln used the telegraph, Lee did not
   
2. Lincoln controlled all battles through quick communication with his generals, Lee wrote letters 
   
3. Lincoln nationalized railroads and mobilized troops faster, Lee struggled to keep up and went on the defense
   
4. The North beat the South
   

Old Media
• TV & Newspapers are losing their footing, struggling to adapt, fighting change
• Declining in trust and credibility because they’re really slow compared to news from blogs and social media networks
• Learn about the “New Media” – watc the  AgChat Video

What is #AgChat?
• This is the most important takeaway: Join the Conversation
• From 6-8pm MTN time in Utah
• Tip-toe in first, listen + learn…then share
• Twubs.com/agchat click on the links, read, learn the issues
• Get comfortable and eventually participate!

Now, Tell Your FARM STORY
• This is how we can influence the conversation
• Consumers deserve to have farmers answer their questions about food...right?
• How else can you contribute?
• Farmers know what BS smells like…so DISPEL MYTHS
• Start with ONE Social Media tool and get to work

Thank You

I've found Twitter most useful for professional networking with fellow Cooperative Extension/4-H professionals across the nation. I think I have three friends that are actually on Twitter, so I don't use it to post about my personal life. 

Here's a Prezi I used to teach about networking through Twitter at a recent conference.

Also, I made my handout downloadable below.

Start tweeting, it's really fun! Never in history could a young geek like me converse with nationally recognized CEOs, large corporations, celebrities and really anyone with similar interests from around the world. 

Drop me a line and let me know if you have any questions.

WeFollow is a cool site for anyone who's into Twitter. It's a social directory, so if you're in an industry and want to look for other people who have the same interests as you, search by key words and find those most followed folks. 

I searched for a term that didn't exist and this was what came up:

Now I'm blogging about this not only because I'm a huge fan of Back to the Future, but because I believe that everything a company does needs to go back to marketing. Instead of returning a lame response like "Sorry, the page you are looking for does not exist," I got this hilarious response and here I am sharing it with you. 

Some of the best advice I ever read about public speaking is PEP and EPE, but treats are another concept I've found to be helpful too. 

Last month I spoke about "Image Matters" (get the pun?) in front of my bosses and 30+ new colleagues who'd been doing their jobs longer than I've been alive. 

I wanted my ideas to stick so I told stories and made cinnamon roasted almonds to share with them. It's a good idea to tie the treat into what you are teaching and to make the packaging cute - women appreciate thoughtful stuff like that. 

It was my first impression to people I plan on working with for many years and the feedback I received at the lunch following seemed positive. Even if no one agreed with that I was presenting, at least they laughed at a few jokes and enjoyed the treat. 

I just found out today that Utah State University published my first factsheet. Not a huge deal, but cool nonetheless. I plan to publish many more techy articles in peer reviewed journals in 2012, I love the fact that writing is now a component of my job! My next one will be about utilizing online surveys for data collection in programming. 

Right now I'm writing one about the advantages and disadvantages of connecting with clients via social media outlets and allowing them into your personal life, it's a fun one.  It can take as long as a year for an article to get published so let's hope it's not too outdated by the time it hits the press, if it ever does.

For my first factsheet, I thought it would be cool to write about my favorite web application, so I chose to introduce Dropbox! While many folks are like, "Duh! Everyone uses Dropbox!" You'd actually be surprised at how many people do not. 

Here's a fun game: 

1. Ask someone if they've heard of Dropbox. 
2. If they say Yes, reply "Cool, right on." If they say no, invite them through your Dropbox account (you'll get 250MB) and show them how it works.
3. They will thank you from the bottom of their heart and think you are so very smart.

Follow this link to set-up your Dropbox account, the first 2GB are free: 

http://db.tt/ZLoaJyr 

I have shared in Gary Vaynerchuk's conviction for a very long time. He breaks it down:

• The battle of marketing is now going to be individual. We are in the dawn of one-on-one marketing.
  
• How ironic: the internet has brought things back to "small town roots" - most people have forgotten about this and what the world was like before the Internet was in our pockets.
• Businesses are not running the marathon, they're running the sprint. So they fail because they are not worried about the lifetime value of the customer and customer retention.
• Businesses are treating social media like a one night stand, trying to close on the first transaction.

If you haven't already noticed, in today's economy you actually have to do the right thing and care about people...I like how Gary said "It's like the force."