In the first week of a new year there is a growing trend for many high profile bloggers - including several that I follow regularly - to come out and state three words designed to guide and inspire them throughout the year ahead.
Here are some examples:
It's a good exercise. Last year I selected just the one word after a new year Twitter conversation with Katrina Higham and others - that word was 'potential'.
But I like the three word concept, it gives you a bit more scope and allows for a bit more lateral thinking.
Yes I know I'm late to the party - let's just say I have taken a considered view :) ... bottom line is, I found it difficult to land on my chosen three words at will; this is an exercise you need to think about carefully if you are to extract any value from it across the next 12 (ahem, 11) months.
Okay, enough of the intro and the excuses ... without further ado here are my three words (and my reasons for picking them):
Interesting
This is a major theme that continues to seep into my writing and my presentations; the gist of it is that today so many companies, organisations and individuals are becoming their own media channels by creating and distributing content, not to mention participating on social networking sites.
Fact of the matter is, we need less content that's boring and 'by the numbers'; what we need is for companies to be interesting, to do interesting things that they can then package as content and hold conversation around, and that we in turn - the punters out in the marketplace - can latch on to and share and talk about with our own personal networks of friends, peers and acquaintances. Oh, you also need to be interested in others too!
Hopefully you will find what I do/produce during the year to me moderately interesting; I will also continue to share examples and case studies of companies and individuals that are doing interesting things from a PR, social and content perspective.
Relentless
I absolutely LOVE this word - it is so visceral and evocative, it leaves you under no misunderstanding what's required when applied in certain ways.
By way of background, in my new book microDOMINATION I explain how author and new media expert Brian Solis describes the practice of solving people’s problems by constantly creating and distributing free content as relentless giving. This notion of producing high-quality content relevant to your area of expertise, and sharing it with your tribe or community on a regular basis, is not easy, but it is what sorts the wheat from the chaff.
For me, I want to up the stakes in terms of my relentless giving, but also not just make it about creating content but continuing to be as helpful as I possibly can across many aspects of my life.
Momentum
And finally, we come to 'momentum', another word I use often in my teachings.
We all need to attain some degree of momentum in our life to ensure we're moving in a forward direction, but in terms of what I write, speak (and consult) about, I look at achieving momentum through taking multiple micro actions on a daily basis.
Let me explain:
To achieve success today in terms of developing your platform and building your brand (whether your personal brand or that of your business or organisation), you need to leverage the power of social media and content marketing strategies.
Yes, you need to be interesting - yes, you need to be relentless ... these aspects plus the habit of taking a series of micro actions daily (coupled with the occasional 'big bursts' of high-impact activity) will give your brand-building effort the momentum it needs in order to start cutting through the noise and resonate with the people who matter the most to the success of your business, cause or issue.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? It's not too late to pick three words for 2013!
