New York Times

As most of you know that follow my blog, I am fairly active on Amplify.com. Periodically throughout my day I use Amplify to clip interesting news and articles that I come across, the tools are so effective I can maintain a presence and keep conversations going without investing a lot of time doing it. Yesterday I happened across a post entitled:

The headline pulled me in. The quote was attributed to Dr. Ivan Misner the Founder and Chairman of Business Networking International (BNI) and New York Times best-selling author.

In the “clip” of the businessweek article it included this:

Karen E. Klein: Most entrepreneurs know they should be using social media, but beyond establishing a Facebook page and a Twitter account, they’re kind of lost. What are they doing wrong?

Ivan Misner: There are three problems. They’re spending too much time on it, they don’t understand how to leverage their time, and they anticipate immediate results, which they’re not going to get.

I am familiar with BNI but not intimately so. I came to the conclusion between the article title (which was intended to pull me in, of course) and Dr. Misner’s position at the head of BNI that his stance was related to the threat that Social Media represents to this type of organization:

Joe Hackman I see his point but I don’t think it’s good advice for the long haul. The truth is BNI will have to reconcile their approach with those who are agile “virtually” networking online via Social Media, etc. I think he probably sees Social Media as the biggest threat to the growth/future of their organization.

During my Blogtalk Program last night I noticed a message notice in my Outlook popup that Ivan Misner had posted a comment on the post at Amplify.com. I was pleased to see that he had found his way to the site and looked forward to reading his response. After my program had concluded I went to see what Dr. Misner had said:

Ivan Misner Re: http://amplify.com/u/6t4l @ALTALOMAN Interesting Comments.

Joe, I do not see social media as a threat. I highly recommend social media. This article was about things to keep in mind to make the most of your social media efforts. To me, social media vs. face-to-face networking is not an “either/or” situation, it is a “both/and” scenario. Both types of activities can help businesses. The face to face networking organization I founded, BNI, has grown from 500 groups to over 5,700 groups since the inception of social media. It has not taken away from our efforts. <truncated>

I was pleased to see this posting for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost because I knew that Dr. Misner was truly monitoring his brand in Social Media. A lesson that anyone can learn from. There were also some side thoughts and benefits. I was glad that the conversation had brought him to Amplify.com a site that I consider to be extremely under-hyped. I was also reminded of the importance of article titles to draw people into a conversation. These are fundamentals in the world of Social Media and Blogging. So I responded back to Dr. Misner:

Joe Hackman Ivan – I agree with your position of both/and completely. You also obviously monitor your brand very carefully which you should be commended for. I feel a blog post coming on this one. Thanks for joining the conversation and providing clarification.

I wanted to blog about this example because there are several great take aways from this experience. I have a story to share when I talk to any members of BNI and I know a bunch of them. These are also some great real world examples of both brand monitoring and using effective article titles.

Dr. Misner – I know there is a good chance you are reading this because of your incredible brand awareness, thanks for the interesting experience. I think BNI provides a valuable resource to many small businesses and entrepreneurs. I would suggest that you have if not the most recession proof businesses it is among the top five. Has your organization grown faster the last few years than it has in the past?

I wrote a really long response to a post on Amplify.com today and thought it would be appropriate to add it to my personal blog. The post was entitled “Our New Slave Era” by one of my sources A.A. Lee. It referenced a New York Times book review of “Texas Tough – The Rise of America’s Prison Empire”. Here is the response in it’s entirety:

A.A. I am glad you brought attention to this important issue. I do feel strongly that people tend to paint criminals as victims in this debate. I am personally one of those people who would not compromise one iota to keep offenders with a history of violence behind bars for their entire life without concern over what it costs. The idea to me that we have to accept these people returning to commit their crimes over and over again is in no way acceptable. Since our criminal justice system does not rehabilitate, there are certain categories of offenders that should not be allowed to return to society.

I am concerned for any aspect of society that falls behind, what do we do about it though? Who is to blame? I was watching a show yesterday about gangs in Memphis, TN and they talked about how the criminal enterprises were born out of FDR’s new deal “temporary” public housing. What occurred was permanent housing and people who were more isolated from society. Sometimes with the best intentions we create bigger problems. We also tend to want to place blame narrowly instead of spreading it around like it deserves to be. It’s ok to place some blame on the people who end up in this situation, as unpopular as that might be. There is plenty of blame to go around. My feeling is we need to expect more from people who need our help, that way we encourage them to break the cycle of poverty and start to turn the tide in the right direction. When I read articles like this one I feel like we portray people purely as victims and we are supposed to feel guilty and to blame for the situation. That’s not beneficial to anyone. I have met some incredible people working to make a difference in people’s lives, the thing I universally notice is that they expect the people they are working with to make commitments and if they fail to meet them make the opportunity available to someone else. This seems harsh but I would argue that you can improve the quality of more lives by focusing on empowering people to help themselves than by letting them play the role of a victim.

I am glad I am not the one personally making these decisions, and I keep my mind open to change. My feelings on this issue are fairly strong, I want everyone to succeed but I also realize that not everyone will. I don’t want to enable the (likely) large volume of people who fall in-between failure and success to fail by placing too great a burden on society for their mistakes. Personal responsibility is not an option, it’s a skill we need to teach everyone. The lesson will be easier for some than others.

Since I posted such a long response to this I decided to add this to my blog with an appropriate link back to your original post. Off to do that right now. Thanks for the great conversation starter.

Book Review | Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire – By Robert Perkinson (nytimes.com)

A nation’s journey from slavery to prisons (boston.com)

Youth justice system is more concerned with protecting thugs than public, report finds (telegraph.co.uk)

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