I read this research on the Internet, so it has to be true.  Learning hurts your brain. I first began to suspect this was true in 4th Grade Spanish class with Mrs. Gonzalez, where I was called “Ricardo” for reasons that remained a mystery to me all year long.  (Hey — I’m just visiting your country for an hour a day.  I’m not planning on renouncing my citizenship and living here as an ex-pat like Hemingway, lady.) But I digress.

The researchers exposed J20 and wildtype mice to new cages to increase neuron activity. Surprisingly, after 2 hours in the novel environments, the number of gH2A.X -positive neurons spiked in the brains of both healthy and diseased animals, primarily in areas critical for memory formation and learning—suggesting that the brain activity itself was triggering DNA damage.

Interestingly, the damage was resolved in wildtype mice within 24 hours back in their home cages, but the damage persisted in J20 mice. Furthermore, the damage was higher in J20 mice, which had up to three times as many gH2A.X-positive neurons—and the differences could be detected as early as 1 month, before the J20 mice began exhibiting cognitive symptoms. The results suggest that perhaps the high levels of amyloid in the brains of these mice was preventing DNA repair. SOURCE

So — Should You Be Worried?

A slightly “less scientific” version of the findings published on Ars Technica suggests, reassuringly, that this “shouldn’t keep you up at night.”  And that it may even provide some useful insights into the cure of Alzheimer’s. But if you’ve already substantially damaged your neurons by moving to a new cage, you may not even be aware of what you’ve lost.  Check around your desk for degrees that you may have earned, patents in your name, and photos of you with famous people.  You should also ask close family members if you’re a big deal in any way at least once per day.

As educators, I think most of us are already aware of this situation.  I can say that any time I’ve tried to instill learning in any meaningful amount, it makes my brain hurt in a direct relationship to how hard I’m teaching.  That’s why, as I get older, I teach less and less and listen more and more.

(First published on www.aeseducation.com)

Related posts:

1. How Can I Force Students To Spend More Time Learning?
2. “Instruction Does Not Cause Learning…”
3. Serving Up Some Sacred Cows Of Learning

A client recently relayed a comment to me from a classroom teacher.  The teacher was disappointed in our e-learning unit because some students would just quickly “click through” the content, rather than spending several minutes on each screen.  The instructor wanted to know if we could modify the product to force the students to spend a couple of minutes looking at each screen, before they were allowed to click “next” and proceed.  My client asked how I would respond to the question.

Here’s what I said — I’m curious, how would YOU respond?

Would Forcing Longer Time On A Screen Help?

I usually start this answer (if I think the teacher can take a little gentle ribbing) by asking if, before they hand out the textbooks, they glue down the corners of all the pages.  When they say “no” I let this lead into having the group list the uses of a textbook – not just a front-to-back read, but for reference, to use for review before testing, to quote in projects, to refresh memory during open-book tests, and so forth.

From there, I start talking about how e-learning content can be used in many different ways by a learner.  Some learners will start at the beginning, and go from front to back.  Some will dip their toes in at different places.  Some will scan for subjects of interest.  Some will use the “search” function to find a specific subject.  (I stop to point out that, as educators, we don’t get a vote in this.  It’s how learners build knowledge in the world today.)  So we need to understand that, and build it into our understanding of how we help them facilitate their learning.

What Has Changed In Learning, Anyway?

Back when I was in the 3^rd grade, Mrs. Solem had a huge amount of control over what I learned and exactly how that happened.  Today, learners expect to be able to make a lot of decisions about what and how they’re going to learn.  (They make GOOD and BAD decisions, of course.  That’s to be expected.)  Our job as teachers and facilitators is to help guide them as they do this, to show them how to make good choices, and (ultimately) measure the outcome of their choices and achievement.  The learners own their success or failure.

Technically, it’s easy to set a minimum screen time.  Practically, we’ve found that learners just go browse the web or read email or paint their nails or do something else.  I’ve seen no solid research that there’s a corresponding increase in learning.  Much like gluing the pages down in a textbook to force students to spend more time on each one, you’re just going to frustrate the participant.

The larger question that needs to be asked here is why does the learner skip through the content, not learn, and end up with “some quiz and test scores so low”?

Given Good Content And Teaching, Why Don’t They Learn?

If we assume the content is good quality, and the teaching is good quality – why do students skip through it and fail the tests?  There are enough answers there to fill a thesis dissertation, but I’ll focus here on just one.  Motivation.

If we’re trying to teach a student how to write an MLA footnote, and the student sees no reason that they need to learn to do so – I could make them stay on that page for an hour and they probably won’t learn the content.  (Unless I tell them there’s a test they have to pass to graduate.) Google the difference between “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation for extra credit.

But if I tell the student the next screen will show them how to double their score at “Angry Birds” they will stay on that screen until they’ve squeezed every drop of knowledge out of it.  Because they want that information for themselves and see the value.

So as a teacher, one of the most useful things you could possibly do is to show your students that what you’re teaching is connected to their real lives, and actually means something to them.  And that’s a huge, huge job.

So — what do you think?  Do you glue your virtual pages down?

Related posts:

1. Yes, It’s True! Learning Makes Your Brain Hurt
2. “Instruction Does Not Cause Learning…”
3. Serving Up Some Sacred Cows Of Learning

On New Year’s Eve 2011, I suffered what my Cardiologist gently refers to as a “near heart attack” many miles from any kind of decent emergency medical support.  That’s now about three weeks in my rear view mirror.  For those of you who just like the bullet points:

• I’m home, resting comfortably after double bypass heart surgery
  

  Day 1 Post Surgery

• I didn’t suffer any lasting heart damage
• Yes, it hurt like fucking hell at many points along the journey
• I’m a very, very lucky little guy

The rest of this lengthy post is for those of you who like details. I’m still working on building my endurance up from “kitten level”, and wanted somewhere to point all the well wishers (and those who are disappointed) who’d like to know what happened.

One of my favorite old songs is Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”, and the line in it “Every Now And Then I Fall Apart.” (Those of you under 28 go watch the video and laugh at what grandpa’s rock and rollers used to look like.  Your kids will be doing this, only too soon.)

I’d been having a little pain in my right arm now and then, but since we’d recently moved I’d just put it down to a lot of lifting of boxes and furniture.  I’d even promised my wife to call the doctor after the holidays.  But no typical heart problem indications.

Not a clue.  I’ve had regular stress tests, and in fact a complete physical in October with EKG.  Since Diane had a heart bypass 15 years ago we’re pretty aware of issues like this.  (Now, I AM a big tub of goo – I don’t exercise, I carry a lot of extra weight, etc.)  But there were no indicators at all.

Just before New Years, we were camping in NE South Carolina on the Georgia border in our new (used) motor home.  We’d been out a few days, and it was 10AM New Year’s eve morning.  We hiked down a steep hill to the beach with the puggies, and my arm really started to hurt.  Soon, it was up around my neck and down the left arm.  I felt nausea and chest pain.  I had a pretty good guess what it was.

We were 15 miles from any city, so we decided to climb back up and drive ourselves in.  Diane tore down the rig – hoses, cords, etc – and I drove it out the narrow parts to the street.  (She’d never piloted it before.) Just getting from driver to seat to the passenger seat had me cursing a blue streak.

She drove to the tiny local hospital, they did an EKG (normal) chest x-ray (normal) and gave me nitro for the pain, which helped.  That exhausted their cardiac treatment options.

My Cardiologist, Dr. Richard Umbach

Luckily, my Cardiologist was doing New Year’s Eve rounds back in Columbia, they sent him the EKG and info.  He said he didn’t like it at all, and ordered me in an ambulance for an 80 mile ride.  Wouldn’t let me go in a private car.  (Love that guy.)

Later that evening, he said I’d had a “near heart attack” but there was no damage, yet.  But he was so worried he wouldn’t let me leave the hospital.  I sat there for three days in no pain at all, waiting for the cath lab to open (closed for the holiday).  When they did the angiogram on January3^rd, they found I had 4 blockages.  (For those of you playing at home, this is NOT a good thing.) The next day they did surgery.  Fixed all four with two bypasses, and I’m good to go.

Apparently this is genetic, not a result of too many Doritos.  But he says being a big tub of goo isn’t helping, any.

And, yes, his instincts were right.  Had I gone home it’s entirely possible one of those four blockages could have come loose and caused a stroke, or a big heart attack before I could have gotten back to the hospital.

I smile a lot when he comes in the room.

My Heart Surgeon, Dr. Robert Zurcher

The other guy that makes me smile is my surgeon — he snuck me in to a very full schedule.  (Somehow, even though the surgery and catheterization labs close for four days over a holiday, people still seem to have heart problems. Crazy.)  But he thought it was important enough to get me in at 7AM the day after they found the problem — I think that’s kind of like “…if we want to be able to bill this one we’d better get him on the table pronto.”

(Trivia:  He got out of medical school two years before Bonnie Tyler won her Grammy for “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”.  I’m not sure if he’s a fan or not.)

He did such a good job that I was up and running around (well, ok, pushing a walker very slowly) two days after surgery.  And out of the hospital in four days.  Which is very, very good results.  Fantastic results.  I’m thinking about entering some marathons if they have a category for “people driving motorhomes”.

My wife?  She drove the 31′ motorhome all the way back to our house (80+ miles)  on two-lane country roads and pronounced it “easy”.  She’s a plucky farm girl who grew up driving tractors and draft horses.  This thing is nothing. She’s getting a little tired of waiting on me hand and foot, so I don’t think I can stretch that out much longer.  I’m pretty sure the surgeon is going to let me start driving again next week, and picking up things that weigh more than 15 pounds.  (All three pugs, unfortunately, fall into that category.)

What did I learn from this experience?

• If you’re going to have a heart attack, you should do it near Providence Hospital in Columbia, SC.  These people are the best of the best.
• You can’t be shy about showing off your junk to cute nurses if you’re having heart surgery, and they don’t care about looking at it, anyway
• There’s not enough morphine in the WORLD for when they take out the chest tubes

No related posts.

I spend lots of time developing learning that lives online.  e-learning, web content, videos, podcasts, support information, application forms for tractor assembly jobs — so I fancy myself as a bit of an expert in how this type of content is consumed.

(Many other people in my discipline would use less flattering terms to describe me — including references to rodents, orifices and familial relationships.  But even if true — I design a bunch of online learning.)

As part of that, I joust regularly with people who teach and train in something called “The Real World”.  I have a hazy memory of this place — it involves chalk boards, rows of desks, and children in freshly-pressed jumpers smiling up at me as I whack their knuckles with a wooden ruler.  I rarely teach there anymore — nobody wants to pay my embarrassingly high prices, and I keep trying to click on individual students and block them.

As they move into the world of online teaching, most “real world” practitioners attempt to bring all their baggage with them.  And as the airlines have found, the more baggage you allow the more difficult it is to get the damn thing off the ground.  So I’m here today to show you a few of the cherished icons of classroom instruction you’re going to have to leave at the gate if you want to succeed in the online world.

Everyone Does Not Stay Together
In your classroom, you can exert a good deal of control that all students advance at a controlled pace — by assigning readings, presentations, and in-class activities.  You’ll find that online students will lag behind and race ahead.  Some will have questions about section 14 on the third day of class.  Oopsie.

So you’d best be prepared on Day 1 to teach the whole thing, or you’ll take the wind out of the sails of the students who are really engaged.  And you’ll have to be willing to support someone who’s going back to the beginning for a refresher during the last week.

Everyone Expects Personalized Support
Blame it on Tony Hsieh of Zappos — a large number of your students will now expect to interact with you via email, chat, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Snoozle, Schmaltz, Fizzle, Abdalo, Whackadoodle — ok, I was just making up those last few.  But you get the picture.  If you’re not careful about designing how you set up your assignments, your workload will go up exponentially.

Be sure that you set your assignments up so that students interact with each other, rather than always depending on you.  Be sure that you become an Online Facilitator, and let go of the idea that all learning comes from you.  Be sure that you spend some time learning new skills for this new role that you’ve taken on.

Everyone Will Not View Every Screen
Do you have a DVR?  If so, I bet you don’t watch commercials.  Or the boring parts.  And your e-learning students are going to do that, as well.  In your classroom, they sat their in their seats and pretended to listen during the boring parts.  Online, they’re just going to skip past the things they don’t want to pay attention to.  (I always find it amusing when teachers complain about learners ignoring boring online content.  I ask them what they, personally, do during the sermon in church.)

So you’d better make sure the e-learning you’re using is interesting, engaging, and makes your learners want to pay attention.  Or find a way to introduce it so they will.

Quit Measuring Stuff You Don’t Track
There’s no reason to add in all those little “Check Your Understanding” and “Quick Quiz” screens throughout the e-learning, unless you’re going to collect the data and use if for something.  Only three possible outcomes:

1. Student actually knows the answer. Wow.
2. Student doesn’t know the answer.  Unless you force them back through the content, you just make them feel dumb.  Wow.
3. Student skips past the test — which the majority will do.  Wow.

If you feel you must do this, just have a question and the correct answer on the next screen, like a flashcard.  That way you’re reinforcing a positive.  There’s good data to support that.  And you can re-use that content for test prep at the end of the course.

Let The Inmates Build The Prison
As I’ve mentioned above, you need to start thinking more like a “facilitator” than a “teacher”.  You’re guiding this group of learners through the curriculum, and no longer the main source of knowledge.  Let them learn from each other, from resources you provide (and that they find and vet through you), bring in live humans via Skype or Webcasts, have them do original research and share — be creative in how each new class discovers information.

Each course will look different, and that’s ok.  Each group of learners will approach the problems in a different manner, and the shared knowledge that they create will be unique.  That’s one of the amazing parts of online learning — those “Poindexters” that sit in the front row will fade into the background, and you’ll meet a whole new group of people you never heard from before.

Related posts:

1. How Can I Force Students To Spend More Time Learning?

(Addendum added Nov 6, 2011)

I keep getting myself in trouble. Let me be the first to admit it. And this time, it’s because I’m proud of the work I did, and I hate to see other people cheapen the meaning of it. In this case, we’re talking about the word “Certified”.

When you drive your car into a garage, you see signs for an ASE Mechanic.  If you want to climb into the cockpit of a jet airplane, you’ve got to talk to a guy (or gal) who’s holding a CFI Rating. And, if you want to get into the server room at work, you’re gonna need a little something called an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) Certificate.  (Full disclosure, I spent a good part of my career writing big complicated courses to teach people to get that last one — which hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people — now hold around the world.)

My point is, when you bill someone as being “Certified” in something, you’re saying to the public at large that you’re in some way reassuring them that this person can actually perform the tasks expected of them in a competent manner.

The ASE Mechanic can diagnose the problem with your car, order the parts, install them and then test your car and return it to you without giving you a dangerous vehicle.

The CFI Flight Instructor can teach your pilot how to fly an airplane in such a manner that you will be safe riding with them, and that if a problem arises they will professionally and quickly resolve it and land the airplane without you ending up a small grease spot on the pavement.

The Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer will be able to install, configure and diagnose your computer servers and systems so that your data is safe, your users are happy, and that that guy from Nigeria doesn’t get into your bank account.

Now, of course, there ARE organizations that provide “certification” of crystal ball gazers, balloon animal makers, and those who make sculptures out of dryer lint.  Anyone can “certify” someone in a skill — coaching, finger-snapping, apple carving — and that’s their right.  While I think it’s amusing, I don’t really have a big problem with them.

But a year or two ago, a Large Learning Organization (Let’s call it the “Amazing Society for Trivial Development” decided that the world needed them to “provide a way for workplace learning and performance professionals to prove their value to employers and to be confident about their knowledge of the field.”

Great!  Sounds just like my definition above — reassuring, performance, competent…

Well, hold on there, Hoss.  The bar’s not all that high.  Here’s what you need:

1.  Three years in a “related” field.

2. “Pass” a multiple choice test (which apparently has not been validated)

3.  Submit a “sample” of your work (PPT deck?  Drawing of you in a classroom?)

Oh — one other little thing.  A check for $1,000 dollars. For a machine-scored test and to have a “blue-ribbon panel” look at your course plan?

Just for comparison, a Microsoft Certification test (for a single cert) right now costs around $200.  And having it will immediately boost your income about 25% or more in most markets.  Because the people who pass this test have to pretty much take a week of classes and then study really, really hard before they can pass.

If you got all five certs, you’d double your income.  Those tests would be about $1000 out of your pocket.  Probably a good deal.

So let’s get back to the Large Learning Organization.  Do they have any documentation that their certification maps directly to more income? Well, they do claim that the Fortune 500 “prefer their candidates” but they don’t give any hard data. If there were actual stats, I bet they’d quote them.

But come on — who in their right mind would say these people are competent at what we do? E-learning?  Instructor led?  Webcasts?  Curriculum Design?  Needs analysis?  Assessment?  Social Media?  Coaching?  Psychometrics? Data Analysis?

But (from their own data) the LLO has now administered their test to 3,605 people and charged users about $1000 each.  I’m not a math whiz, but that comes out to Three Million, Six Hundred and Five Thousand Dollars! Now they did have mimeograph costs for the multiple-choice tests, and they had to print up some nice blue ribbons for the panel, but other than that — pure profit. And people say Bernie Madoff was smart!

(Full Disclosure:  They will give you a $200 discount on the test if you join the org or are a member.  But that money just goes in another pocket, so I’m not discounting it.)

This causes an itch under my saddle because they’re supposed to be a Professional Learning Organization, and they should know better.  If it was a bunch of Balloon Animal Professionals, I’d cut them some slack and say “Well, what do they know about training and certification?”  But these people CLAIM to be the best and brightest.  In fact, I bet some of them even HAVE this certification. (Interesting side note would be to see if EVERYONE paid full price, or if the insiders got it discounted or for free.  I know what I’d be betting — how about you?)

So there you have it.  Call me cranky, call me snarky, or call me somebody that’s proud of my profession.  Proud of my skills.  Proud of the people that I work with every day who really provide Training and Development at a high level of quality.

And embarrassed to be associated with a money-machine that grinds out pretty certificates.

Addendum:  Several people have written me personally, asking why I hate people who have certifications from the Large Learning Organization, or think that those people don’t have skills in learning.  PERISH THE THOUGHT!  I’d bet that a large number of people who coughed up the $10000 fee for this overpriced and poorly-designed piece of irrelevant documentation are likely highly skilled learning professionals.  I know several of them personally, and would recommend them highly, depending on what it is you wanted them to do.

The point is that this Four Letter Acronym really has nothing to do with whether they are skilled or not — it merely proves they can write a check and answer some multiple-guess questions.  It’s not a certification for a potential client that they can actually provide the services that the client needs, or that they have the skills that map to the project at hand.

Were I at the beginning of my career, with no other evidence of my skill (like advanced degrees or client referrals) I’d probably hold my nose and write the check.  But I’d have to take a shower every time I put the acronym after my name.

No related posts.

I lost a friend yesterday.  Trey Pennington of Greenville — father, husband, grandfather, speaker, teller of stories and launcher of Social Media Clubs — could no longer fight the darkness and took his own life.  Twitter and Facebook echoed with the stunned and shocked responses from his friends, acquaintances and those who had been helped by this kind and gentle man.

Less than 24 hours later, I’m already seeing the first jabs coming online, talking about how this loss may have been caused by The Interwebs.  “Online Relationships just aren’t real.”  “We need to connect with actual people.”  “This Social Media stuff is all junk.”

What complete bunk.

If you know Trey, you know his demons were in the real world.  People who deserted him, institutions that turned their back on him after years.  I’m not giving details because he wouldn’t want me to.

But the online community — we loved him unconditionally.  He had hundreds of thousands of people who knew him as a kind, helpful, thoughtful soul.  He spoke around the world — most recently, here in Columbia a couple of weeks ago at my request.  He did it at no charge.  (A man who could command thousands of dollars for a single keynote appearance.)

We chatted, and put off dinner for another day because he was rushing home to work on a presentation the next day.  We knew we had time, because he was feeling great.  He’d lost weight, gotten tanned, and had all his dark demons at bay.

Then he returned to the real world. And it killed him.

I don’t doubt there are problems in the online world.  But I’m not going to let people sully the legacy of my friend with this kind of shit. He made social media a better place for so many people, and we’re all worse off now that he’s no longer with us.

I hope there’s really good wireless up there on that cloud, buddy.

No related posts.

Related posts:

1. How Can I Force Students To Spend More Time Learning?
2. Yes, It’s True! Learning Makes Your Brain Hurt
3. Serving Up Some Sacred Cows Of Learning

Yesterday I ran across an article in The Atlantic showing “The School Of The Future” that lives in a local YMCA. While they don’t seem to have a Quidditch field or a landing pad for flying cars, it sounded like a nice idea.  Working with the community, sharing the pool, innovating in education — what’s not to love?

Then I came to the author’s contention that “Eighty percent of charter schools don’t produce better results than traditional public education. And sadly, some results are much worse.” While not labeled as “op-ed”, I’m guessing Kathleen Kennedy Townsend does have a particular axe she’s trying to sharpen, here.

Since I have a nodding familiarity with education, and more exposure to self-designated experts than is healthy for most adults, I wondered where this had come from.  So I started doing some searching.  And searching.  Best I could do (‘cuz, of course, they don’t reveal SOURCES in the Atlantic) was some questionable research from a LARGE MAINSTREAM EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION that had numbers that looked a little bit like that, if you read really quickly and ignored the details.  And the source.  And didn’t ask any questions.

(I don’t have anything against experts.  Really.  Some of my friends are experts.  I’d even let my daughter marry one, if she was the last woman on earth and had a trust fund.) But in this case, I think it might be useful to stop for a moment and talk about the process of measuring results.  Something that we do a lot in my line of business.

If a client hires me to teach punch press operators to run their machines faster, one option is for me to just show them how to turn the speed dial up to “11″ and step back.  Job Done!  The machines are now running faster, I’ve accomplished the goal, and I want my check.  Ka-Ching!

(There will, of course, be a corresponding loss of fingers, an increase in damaged materials, lots of lawsuits, and explosions when the red-hot machines finally blow up — but I achieved my goal with 100% success!)

Still confused?  Let’s make it even simpler.  Let’s imagine that you’ve got a Dairy Barn. And you want “better results”.

Our goal is to get more milk from your herd.  Each morning, we’ll measure how many gallons of milk you get from group “A” and how much from group “B” and see which is “BEST”.  (Best, in this case, meaning more milk.)

At the end of the first week, Group “A” wins.  With weak, runny milk because the foreman fed them food with lots of fluid.  We couldn’t sell it because the fat content was so low, but there was more of it.

New goal — highest fat content.

At the end of week two, group “B” is the winner.  The foreman ordered in extremely expensive food, which raised the fat content for the second group nice and high.  But the cost per cow was triple what we usually pay, so we ended up selling the milk at a loss.

Week three — we aim for highest profits.  And the foreman butchers all the cows and sells them at market, showing a huge profit.  Oopsie.

So be careful when you hear people in Education talking about measuring results, or who gets “better results”.  Without asking a lot of very specific questions, and without a lot of experience at designing and delivering actual education to actual people, you may get slaughtered.

Related posts:

1. Yes, It’s True! Learning Makes Your Brain Hurt
2. How Can I Force Students To Spend More Time Learning?
3. “Instruction Does Not Cause Learning…”

On May 12th, I’m doing a wee speaking engagement in Greenville, SC — Refresh Greenville.

Upgrading Your Customers

Nobody reads the directions, anymore.  A “readme.txt” file is a great place to store secrets.  And the “Help” button is something customers just ignore.  Today’s user base expects that your apps and sites will “just work” and they don’t expect to have to spend any time getting up to speed.

There are two ways to improve your apps’ customer sat numbers – rewrite the code, or teach your customers how to use them better.  Dick Carlson spent five years at Microsoft doing the latter for some of the buggiest software on the planet, and he can help you too.  You’ll leave with:

• Models of trouble-ticket systems that help you identify issues fast and plan future upgrades
• Ways to use social media tools to have your customers build the help system for you
• Actual experience identifying key support information and building the architecture to implement it in a business support model

Dick Carlson is an Instructional Designer and Content Developer who can translate “techie” to “user” – making those annoying people who give you money happy and contented, so they don’t send you long emails or post one-star reviews on the web.  You can find him at www.TechHerding.com

Bug Tracking Tools

Java Bug-Tracking Tools

MS Watson Technologies

No related posts.

One of the BizDev guys at my new shop wandered by the other day, and I asked him what he was hearing from his corporate folks that he called on about “Social Media”. He looked at me a little blankly, and responded “Not much at all.”

He said that to most of the corporate types he talked to, SM was pretty much a toy and they really didn’t understand why it would matter to their business, why they’d want to spend time on it, or why they’d want to be Tweeting or FaceBooking or whatever it is that the kids are all doing nowadays.

Truth hurts. Here I am rolling around in SM all day long, thinking that it’s the neatest thing since bread with the crust cut off, and it turns out that in South Carolina most of the guys in the nice suits think it’s something their daughters do on their little pink phones before their coming out parties.

My BizDev friend challenged me to give him a few short points that he could use with the folks he talked to, that would help them understand why Social Media was important to them.

And the hard part?  It’s gotta be written in “Business” not in “Woo-Woo Awesome”.

1.  You’re Already Using Social Media – You Just Don’t Know It

If you’ve got more than two employees (and they’re under 60), you’re already using social media.  You just don’t know it.  The average social media user is 39 years old.

Your employees are innocently posting things like:

• “I’m so proud that our tuna is now 95% Dolphin Free!”
• “I don’t think a few Toyotas exploding is such a bad thing – our dealership hasn’t had a single one explode, yet!”
• “Yeah, we had a problem with e-coli in our potato salad last week but we’ve cleaned all the dishes and the restaurant is ready to go!”

You need to have a Social Media strategy, a corporate policy, and guidance for employees.  Now.

2.  People Expect To Find You – If They Don’t, They Go Elsewhere

Your customers want you there. 93% of customers say they want businesses to be available through Social Media.

Customers look for your hours with their smartphone as they head to your store.  They compare your product guarantee as they shop in another store for a similar product.  And they look at reviews of your restaurant, hotel, or sewer service just before they call.

Your reputation is already out on the web, most likely.  Someone has posted a review, a blog, or a Twitter comment about an interaction they’ve had with your business.  If it was positive, you should be trumpeting it from the rooftops.  If it was negative, you should be on top of it immediately – solving the problem, if possible. Minimizing the damage, otherwise.

Ask Target. Or United Airlines.

3.A Social Media Presence Is Like That Fire Extinguisher On Your Wall

You’ve got a shiny fire extinguisher on your wall, and you hope to hell that you’ll never need to use it. But every year, you have it tested – and if you’re smart, you train your employees how it works.

A solid SM presence is like that for your business.  When disaster happens (your own little BP Oil Spill or Kentucky Fried Sink Bathers) you’re ready to manage communications and keep things from spiraling out of hand.

You can candidly communicate with your customers, sharing information transparently and quickly – not having let it get filtered and spun through the media.

Plus, your supporters (you’ll have supporters if you’re doing SM right – thousands of them) will come to your aid across the Internet and tell the truth about your company and who you really are.

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So, those are my top three points I’d send out to Corporate America.What would you add?  Where have I gone wrong?

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1. My Friend Wasn’t Killed By Social Media