No, not another five brand lessons you learn from Springsteen post
This is a big week for me. In the next week or so I'm going to see Bruce Springsteen live. Twice.
In the past I might have fallen victim to the same "crutch" that other blogger sometimes depend on. I'll admit to it, I've also done it in the past. That's taking something you are doing or are passionate about and stretching that into a blog post about three or five or seven lessons you can learn from that person or thing.
At first it was cute, then it grew a little tiresome and then it became the thing that everyone did.
I'm stopping now. In this social world I'm finding it harder and harder to separate the personal from the professional. More times than not lately I've been chided by some who have grown tired about my Facebook posting or tweeting about Springsteen, or Rutgers, or the Mets, or my other passions. By not connecting my passions directly to a blog post I hope I'm giving them one less thing to chide me about.
If I sound a little bitter, well maybe I am. If social sharing is not created to share things that you are truly passionate about then what is it there for? Please tell me it's not just about sharing your latest views about marketing, PR or advertising because if it is the world would then be a truly boring place.
Maybe I/we are somewhat to blame for that. Maybe we get so caught up on the use of social media, we forget what it is there for, for people to just share.
If you don't like what I'm sharing then feel free to unfollow, unfan, unlink, unpin and unconnect with me. I'm not forcing you to do any of that, it is your choice. As Springsteen says in "The Ties That Bind,"
It's a long dark highway and a thin white line Connecting baby, your heart to mine.
Maybe we should look at social media as that highway and its thin white line. You can ride it with me, or get off at the next exit. You can choose and should choose the Ties That Bind.
Shit, there I go using Springsteen to teach a lesson in a blog post. Damn.
Jon Newman
In 2002 Jon cofounded The Hodges Partnership and has helped to grow it into one of the country’s largest public relations firms (based on O’Dwyer’s annual rankings). Jon has taught communications as an adjunct professor at VCU, speaks regularly at conferences and meetings and blogs and tweets about public relations and marketing issues.
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