mobites - ideas, inspiration, insight

It was my second job in marketing. My office was high on top of the tower of a manufacturing building on the Southside of Chicago. It had a wonderful view but no one ever wanted to come up to see us because of the truly scary elevator ride you had to take to get there.

The spine-tingling experience was brought to you by a creaky old elevator. One you’d expect to see in a vintage black and white French film. It was tiny. Two people could barely fit in it. Its padded walls were made of old brown leather which surrounded you on three sides with a cracked, pot-marked, dark and foreboding patina of gloom. Worst of all, it had one of those spindly sliding cage doors you had to push hard until it locked before the elevator would move.

Where fear will get you

But despite all the effort it took to make the trip, I’m convinced the main reason no one came to visit was a little sign in the elevator. Surrounded by scratch marks in the leather all around it, the sign read, “Fear and panic will get you nowhere.”

Good advice when it comes to dealing with the dramatic and sometimes-scary paradigm shifts that continue to take place in communications.

Lord, have mercy on the frozen man

Before plunging in with fear and panic its always a good idea to take a minute, take a deep breadth, get your bearings and then start the rollercoaster ride. This is especially true when trying to figure out what social media can do for your company.

Before you throw your marketing program into the vortex, get your feet wet first by personally experiencing what’s going on out there.

• Buy an iPhone. Download a bunch of apps. It will change your life.

• Set up a twitter account and experience the breadth of trivia and the depth of learning you can be exposed to quickly. You can follow my tweets @gordonhochhalte if you think it will help.

• Learn the rules of the community

• Get experience understanding that you cannot control the message.

• Learn first hand how to give to get.

• Experience what transparency and sincerity mean in this new space.

• See for yourself how participation and feedback lead to co-creation.

• Get help.

But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.