9/11 Revealed a Deep Human Bond

In the middle ages there was a custom in European villages to ring the church bells for deaths. The common reaction to hearing the melancholy chime was to question, “was it somebody I know? was it somebody I love?” In 1624 John Donne questioned this practice saying, “[N]ever send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”

This phrase wasn’t real to me until the morning of September 11, 2001. I arrived to my economics class only to see the faces of all the students glued to an image on the television of two flaming buildings.  We watched in horror as the first and then the second building crumbled like match stick houses. I didn’t know anybody in the buildings that day, at the Pentagon or on any of the three hijacked planes. But the morning was one of the most tragic days of my life.

The next hours and days I spent glued to the television. I had never watched so much tv in my life, yet I couldn’t look away. I remember attending the funeral of a great uncle when I was younger and thinking, “I should try to cry, try to be sad,” but it was hard because I didn’t really know that uncle. I didn’t have a relationship with him. I find it perplexing how much more emotional I was over the tragedies of 9/11. I was deeply effected by this tragedy to total strangers and I know that I was not alone.

It is estimated that when the second tower of the World Trade Center fell there were over 1 billions viewers watching it on live TV, worldwide. Three years before Facebook was started and five years before Twitter existed, one tragic moment connected human kind. Never before in history had so many been connected for a single moment.

As a result, patriotism was reborn in America. The American flag went from being an old fashioned decoration to being a symbol of the pride we feel for our nation. Donations flooded in, blood banks were overwhelmed by generous people wanting to help however they could and church attendance of ever denomination surged. We were changed that day.

The cynics in our society, of which we have plenty, complain that “a few weeks later everything was back to normal.” Or they point to the costly wars and lives lost since then and claim that it was all for nothing.

I plainly disagree with this skepticism. In one of the darkest hours for America in my lifetime, we pulled together. In that moment when all Americans glimpsed the fragility of life and for a second truly appreciated everything we have- we recognized in ourselves the potential to do something more, be something better.

Something stirred in us that day. A part of us that many didn’t know existed was revealed. Even if we try to ignore it, try to return to our mundane lives, years later we can never forget what we learned about ourselves in that moment of crisis and tragedy. We are profoundly connected as human beings and it has nothing to do with a high speed internet connection.

For those that haven’t read the John Donne poem mentioned above, here it is:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every
man is a piece of the continent, a part of the
main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory
were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or
of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bells
tolls; it tolls for thee.”

-John Donne, For Whom the Bell Tolls (No man is an island).

 

Social Media Success in 15 Minutes

As originally published in the National Law Journal August 29, 2011

My father once told me that to achieve anything really meaningful in life requires sacrifice. This isn’t quite the same message I’m hearing from the media. Instead, they promise us, “Get rock solid abs by just spending 15 minutes a day!” When I see such claims, an alarm goes off in my head: “Warning! Something isn’t quite right about this.”

At the same time, the reason we see so many of these messages is because, even though we doubt the dubious claims, a part of us really wants to believe they are true. Everybody is looking for their own fountain of youth or magic beans. Many expect the same from social media: some trick, some series of tweets or LinkedIn participation that will guarantee a steady flow of new clients. I have a hard reality to break to you: Real success through social media requires real work.

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Is LinkedIn turning into a skills search engine?

by Matt Hames

Quick: when you meet a potential new business partner, do you Google them when you go back to the office? Do you Google them on the phone before even going back to the office?

If you Google Matt Hames, LinkedIn is high on the list of results. Since that is true for many of the people who have a LinkedIn profile, I wonder when people will begin to skip Google and go right to the source.

Is LinkedIn turning into a people and skills search engine?

 I think the answer is yes, and proof is how many times “Matt Hames” comes up in search. From June 5^th to August 14^th, I came up in search 1,271 times. 6% of the time, it was for Matt Hames. 6% of the time it was for “Social media.”

 The other 88% of the time I came up for various keywords and skills (for example, my profile comes up for a search for “Matt Fisher” since my LinkedIn profile says I’ve done work for Fisher-Price.

Irrelevant yes, but I happen to think LinkedIn will get better as a search engine for people and skills. Already, anyone can go to LinkedIn.com/skills and fill in all their skills. As more people do this, LinkedIn will have more data on people’s skills. Soon, people will learn to search for skills to find people.

What does that mean for you? Make your LinkedIn profile keyword and accomplishment rich. If you have accomplished something, tell people about it using skills keywords.

If your company doesn’t have a comprehensive plan for optimizing LinkedIn, then it is most-likely missing this opportunity to make an excellent second impression with new business prospects. Optimization starts with the individual.

Matt Hames has over fifteen years of Marketing and PR experience working with large companies like Fisher-Price, First Niagara Bank, ClosetMaid as well as professional firms across the country. He has spent the past five years focused on social media and analytics. You can learn more about him at http://sharemarketing.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter @mhames

 

Are you beer-worthy?

(As originally published in the National Law Journal August 10, 2011)

Let’s face it, many lawyers are introverts. They feel more comfortable working at their desks than at a networking reception filled with strangers and awkward moments. Perhaps this is why introverts are drawn to the idea of social networking and business development through LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. They hope they won’t have to put themselves out there to build new relationships. Unfortunately, in my experience this is not reality.

When I traveled to Australia and New Zealand in February to speak to a variety of organizations about social media, I often started my speaking engagements with an anecdote involving a can of Coca-Cola. After sharing this story a couple of times, and not getting much of a response, I realized that perhaps Coke wasn’t the same icon in Australia that it was in the United States. So I asked a group of lawyers: What is the comparable soft drink in Australia?

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Who is Adrian Dayton aka @adriandayton?

Have you ever “Googgled” your name? My Google Analytics show me that most of the Google search engine traffic that comes into my site comes directly from people searching for my name, my name and my book or some other variation that includes my name. So to that end, here is my answer to the question, “Who is Adrian Dayton?” (hat tip to Niki Black who gave me this idea with her post, “Who is Nicole Black?” ) (Note: if you could link to my post when you write your own version I would appreciate it!)

My time is split between consulting to large and medium sized law firms, speaking to professional groups about business development through social media and writing for a few publications. I write a weekly column for the National Law Journal, a monthly column for Technolawyer and on my own blog http://adriandayton.com. I am currently finishing my second book with co-author Amy Knapp entitled Social Media for Lawyers: LinkedIn & Blog Edition, which should be released sometime in the fall of 2011.

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