Atomic Balls: Yoga and Social Media
From a brilliant post by Gwen Bell comparing yoga to social media:
“Just like you don’t get fit drinking diet cola, eating energy bars and snacking on “low-fat” cookies, you don’t get social media results doing as little as possible and hoping for a big payout at the end of the week.”
Gwen compares the kind of effort and mindset you need to be successful in both yoga and social media; and the quote above is my favorite from this delicious post.
I have a little bitty issue with this paragraph (emphasis is hers) but love the warning about “social media experts” crawling out of the woodwork:
“What you can do with social media is going to come from your gut, not from someone claiming to be a social media expert. Mind you, it doesn’t bother me that some do claim expertise. In the yoga world, the equivalent would be Bikram Choudhury who famously said, “I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me.” Then he proceeded to sue yoga studios that he felt infringed on his special brand of yoga. It takes all types.”
I appreciate that we all need to find our own way in our social media practices, but just as in yoga, one needs to learn the basics in order to practice safely and effectively. That’s where training and understanding the rules of the road comes in, and maybe some atomic balls.
Like standing on your head, it takes a fundamental understanding of what can go wrong to give you the confidence to attempt the pose. I think Gwen might agree with me there…
Hmm, maybe every strategy should include a “what could go wrong” analysis…
I think that’s a good idea. Unfortunately, the most oft thing to go wrong is a big fat lack of results!
So make that the #1 possibility and you’re covering 80% of what could go wrong.
The other 20% of possibilities are:
- that things could take off because they’re controversial (most likely)
- or that they’re incredibly clever (what everyone hopes, but few can deliver, once too many hands get involved)…
let’s take the yoga/social media metaphor one step further (too far?) in addressing your beef:
in yoga, it’s a good idea to have someone guide you through the basics (and then maybe even the advanced basics) before you set off to develop a home practice. otherwise you have no foundation from which to build a more personalized program and could end up hurting yourself.
the same could be said for companies that have no one inside with social media experience. they need a guru to start them on their path, and guide them through the basics until they get the gist. otherwise they’ll just be flailing around on twitter asking, “is this thing on?”
agreed. completely. well said! i can hear the tapping… ‘is this thing on?’
I agree with Bikram. I am going to sue my customers who don’t engage with my social media program on my terms. Oh, too late, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has beat me to that idea. Oh well, back to boring social media strategies.
Thanks for this thoughtful post, Janet. I’m re-reading it now and agree with you completely. It is helpful to have someone guide you through the beginning steps. Of anything. You wrote this post in May (and I wrote mine in April) and since then I wonder how many posts, new books and websites started that have claimed to “teach you all you’ll EVER need to know to MAKE MILLIONS off social media.”
It takes confidence and a light touch. Just as it does in yoga - standing on your head can’t be brute forced. Nor can building a presence on the web (or off it for that matter).
Since April I have had innumerable conversations with strangers, clients, friends - “how can I get started with social media?” it starts. And I give an overview of where we’re at _today_ with the social web. And the conversation often winds down with, “so how much do I actually have to do? I mean, how many tweets are required? Do I HAVE to blog once a week?”
Light touch, commitment to practice, showing up to the “mat.” That’s the “secret” formula to “all this social media stuff.”
Hi Gwen… I love your secret formula.
May I add:
- resting when you’ve overextended
I’d like to think that sometimes, time away can help rebuild commitment to practice.
While you may miss opportunities to be relevant, perhaps the confidence to let things go along without you is another secret to social media.
What do you think?