What Are You Focusing On?

In my social media class we have been reading a book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff called “Groundswell.” I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and find that it’s full of good information. Many things have changed since the book was written (2008), but the point I like best still rings true.

But first, what is the Groundswell? The basic definition we used in class is “the social trend in which people use technology to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations.” Basically this is saying that nowadays people are using technology to get goods, services and information from their peers instead of going to companies. This can be seen by blogs about whatever topic you can think of, people going to websites to review an item they want to purchase and people buying anything they want online.

What I want to talk about is a simple, yet enormously powerful, point the authors make in part one of the book. They mention that technology changes rapidly and if you get too stuck on one form of technology or another you’re going to get left in the dust. Li and Bernoff say to not concentrate on technology but rather, focus on relationships. I love this point. Everything around you is based on relationships. From your family and friends to getting a new car, you build relationships in order to move along.

I feel this is one of the most important points they make in the book. Relationships are the key to success; professionally and personally. Relationship is the key word in the definition I use when I tell people what public relations is. If you’re a PR nerd like me you know that PR is “the creating and maintaining of mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics.” So, focusing on relationships is going to be a huge part of my career. They are also going to help me in my personal life as well. But you don’t have to be in the PR field to benefit from focusing on relationships. Any career field can use this lesson to help make life easier.

So, no matter what you do for a living go out and focus relationship building. That’s going to be advice I will give for the rest of my life because I believe it is the key to being successful in this crazy world.

Hope this was a good step in our relationship,

Jake