This is single handedly the best peice of work I have seen describing Social Media by @padday:

• How it is different from your real life.
• How you need to manage it as a result
• What Social Networks need to change to help you

It identifies the fundamental problem with our misunderstanding of who we are.  We believe we have one identity and many friends. e.g. The ‘Stay true to yourself’ street corner philosophy is predicated on the idea that you have one self.  You are many different people, depending on the circumstance.

This is an essential read if you are in social media marketing, looking to understand ROI & how social media is used for influence.

The Real Life Social Network v2

“What are you going to do after you graduate?”

The anxiety caused by those 9 words can be terrifying.  If you’re one of  The Lost Generation especially, there is no easy way out, there is no shortcut home.  You have to stand out to be noticed.

But how do you get that confidence? We leave university not knowing who we are, never mind what we are going to do with our lives.  The best way to find out if you enjoy something is to do.  Try.  Have a go.

Unfortunately we don’t often get the opportunity to try before we buy with a job, career or calling.  It’s very all or nothing, it’s a big commitment.  So how can you commit if you’re not even sure you want to do that job?

Competition Magic

My friend Lisa from Swamp mentioned the Sh Awards and immediately it made sense.  I like that they are engaging with The Lost Generation, stirring up competition & creating opportunity.   The message is simple: Why not enter a few competitions to see if creativity might be where you belong?

Pitch your work to influential creative directors, meet with top agencies, show off your work in an exhibition and, as if that’s not enough, win a 6-month paid placement.

There’s no brief, no fee and no catch,
simply enter your best creative work.

Your entry will be judged by award-winning creatives and professionals from the UK design industry.

Check out our judges page to find out who’s on this year’s panel.

This is a perfect example of business reaching out to you.  It’s a chance to have a go, and get feedback on how good your work is, where it fits & what you should do next.

How do you get noticed?

All you have to do is register at www.sh-awards.com & enter your best work. The prize is a 6 Month Paid placement & perhaps more importantly, valuable feedback & direct access to Senior industry figures who are looking for the next break out talent.

Do you know of any other similar events in Leeds? I’d be interested to hear about them.  What do you think of this way of getting experience?

Where do you fit in the world of work? How you can be useful? Will you ever find a career you enjoy?… Since The Lost Generation post, some tremendous work has been going on behind the scenes.  Read on.

We have a small team of very talented people pulling together research and ideas for content that could be the humble beginnings of a new kind of community blog. We’re focussing on telling your story and engaging people in the journey. We learn from each other’s experience, because nobody teaches this stuff in school.

We’re looking for people who need help.  So, do you need a hand?

Developing your career by thinking strategically

Turning up and getting paid is pretty demoralising unless it has meaning or purpose.  You want to go somewhere with your career. You can do this in a number of ways and there are a couple of demonstrations of how to do this below.  It’s important to understand that not every manager will appreciate someone going beyond their day-job.  As a rule however, it usually leads to success, and feeling better.  If you’re going to stand out in this economy, you’re going to have to do something different.

Adam is doing more than the day-job

Adam is converting his contract role into a permanent career opportunity.  After university he got a contract role as a Business Systems analyst.  A solid option in an uncertain market, with a good income.

“The problem with contracting is, it’s tough to really develop your career.  The problem with the role was all you do is firefight.  There is little scope to make a change, to make a difference.”

Adam became trusted by going that little bit further, and being helpful.  Being an Issues Analyst is a fairly isolated role, all you do is identify the problem.  Adam was able to find the wider business process problem and pitch his solution to Senior Management.  He now has an interview for a full time role.

Diego is transforming his career

Diego won an award in University for developing sustainable Architecture.  As such, he brought this passion to his day job, and looked forward to being able to contribute.  After 4 years in the industry his second company was handing him very basic CAD work, which he found boring demoralising and frustrating.

Diego felt constantly tired and ignored.  He like Adam, thought about the company’s bigger picture and presented solutions to Senior Management.  These were well received on their own merit, but ultimately fell on deaf ears “Nice idea, but we can’t do any of this”.

For Diego this was the final straw.  He’s now considering his options, and where these skills could be better used.  A very scary, and exciting time in our career.

What will you do?

It’s important to remember you won’t get all the answers from one blog post, but you can make a start.   Comment below and ask questions.  You’re not alone

From an excellent discussion on Scott Gould’s blog, @juliewalraven raised that one of the biggest barriers most of us have for engaging, is the ability to ask probing, useful questions.  Which got me thinking…

Why is it useful to get good at asking questions?

For me it has been the key to breaking out of the 9 to 5 lifestyle and if your goal is generating discussion, then knowing how to ask the right questions to engage people becomes essential.  We have a tendency to stumble around looking for an answer to our problems before we know what the question is.  The net result is a lot of frustration and wasted effort.

Asking the right question at the right time has the added benefit of catching the ear of some very bright, and engaged individuals.  By building connections and sharing your question with a group, the result is a far better answer than stumbling towards a solution alone.

A solution is never complete.  There is always a hole, always an improvement.  If you’re one of those that can always spot a better way, ask the question and make the challenge because you could really help someone develop their idea.

Contribute, good things happen as a result.  What good things? Well My Storyis one where I challenged Senior Management to consider working with the new reality of Social Media Platforms.  They listened, and it significantly benefited my career.

How did I learn to Ask Engaging Questions?

Then a wonderful thing happened.  I noticed that experience in business knows how to ask questions.  My own personal mentor John, has a knack of asking a juicy question to get the brain whirring.  ’How does this benefit our customer? How do we monetise it? Is it right for us? What do we have to do to turn it into a product?’

Apply those questions to your Product or Blog, or try applying it to someone else’s and see if you can contribute and engage with them.  People notice when you add value to their passion.  Chris Brogan is the master of asking engaging questions that FORCE you to react.  Observe

How can you Ask Engaging Questions

Be critical, be cynical, be everything in-between, but when you’re done… be constructive with it.  We react to everything around us on some level, but do you challenge the world around you?  I always loved the EA Games slogan “Challenge Everything”.  Challenge everything, and be willing to be wrong.

Now take your top 5 mentors (whether they are aware they have that position or not), and see how they use questions to make people think.  Most of all try, do, ask.

How it will benefit you

My own story is fairly intertwined with having to learn the ability to ask challenging questions.  Perhaps yours is be too?  Can you look at the big picture, challenge the “way things have always been done” and bring a diverse option to the table?  If done in a constructive way, this is a very useful skill.

Have a go at challenging the world around you, and let me know how you get on.

Email me sy@sytaylor.net contact me on twitter@sytaylor or via facebook

I was reading Scott Gould’s blog post My vote for sale: Price: Engagement. And it got me thinking.  What would you do if you were a politician?

Politicians are utterly petrified of a combative media, and saying the wrong thing, but what can they do to engage?

10 Things Politicians could do:

• Admit fault – When was the last time you heard a politician do this well? Humility is powerful.
• Be Human – Cameron engaged people with a family tragedy, but it was accidental. It showed that we want human politicians not robots.
• Empathise – “I understand” is about the most powerful thing you can say to someone who is feeling let down by you.
• Ask Questions – Wouldn’t you like it if a politician asked you what to do?
• Avoid attacks – I’m not saying don’t disagree but, we need to restore that grown up respect that came from being Right Honourable. I want to respect my MP, give me a reason to
• Explain – Policy is difficult, and complex. The public struggle to grasp that, yet there are great ways to explain complex problems. It’s called leadership. It’s there, it’s just terrified of being eaten alive by our media.
• Kill the Press Office – Alistair Campbell made British politics less human. We need to reverse that trend.
• Embrace simplicity – Again, taking lessons from copyblogger and social media – We want simplicity, preferably in 140 characters.
• Support Local Heroes – “Social Enterprise” still feels too much like an election ploy from the conservatives, but local is back. Who’s doing great things in your constituency? Champion them, give them a platform.
• Be THE voice for your constituents – We have become a presidential style nation, which is very London centric. People feel disengaged because they don’t know who their MP is, or how those local issues are being solved.

Where did this problem come from?

The 3 main parties have huddled around the centre ground, to chase an apathetic public. They had a lot of success with by being stage managed with Tony Blair… New Labour was effective in being very centrist and at not making any decision that was too controversial.  The result was apathy.  We’re not engaged because politicians became very effective at saying nothing.

Politics now lacks a “big idea” to get behind on all fronts. The most engaging message getting to voters at this time is “We’re not Gordon Brown”.  The party leaderships are reactionary, fear public opinion and fear the media instead of leading it.

Where is the Leadership?

We the public, want to get behind a movement, and want to engage at a local level.  The desire has never been missing, the mechanism has.  Politicians ducking answers, fearing the public and media are creating more apathy, not solving it.

We can make the public care again, by making politics relevant, on a local scale and engaging on the human level.  What do you think will help? Do you think there is anything else politicians need to do?

Your response to The Lost Generation has been phenomenal, thanks to all of you who shared your experience and frustrations with the current jobs market.  What is absolutely clear is you’re not alone in the big hole between education and your career

Key Themes

The messages are coming from your experiences in industry and education are:

• Industry wants Graduates to have a stronger grounding in experience and relevant skills
• Students are disappointed by following conventional wisdom for starting a career
• Graduates are struggling to find paid work, that they enjoy and where they feel useful

When you consider that working class children are less likely the climb the social ladder than any other developed nation.  It makes you wonder, what can we do?

Developing your Network

Going to a careers adviser is both scary, and very official.  Who can you tell that you actually don’t have a clue what to do, or what you’re good at?

• You might tell your friends, but they’re in the same boat as you.
• You might tell your parents, but they understand how the old economy worked.
• You might tell your tutor, but how much time can they dedicate to you?

You are much more valuable than the words on a CV.  Yet how often do we share what we really care about with people we already know?

We already have a strong social network, but often don’t use it to help our career.  What if we reached out and used the Social Networking tools themselves?  This means using existing networks and finding the people who can help you develop; Helpful Networks.

Creating: Helpful Networks

You want a job you enjoy, so do your friends.  The problem is you don’t yet have to tools to find what you’re looking for.

Some of the offers of help, and suggestions from experienced experts in their field have shown that the desire exists within the business community to reach out and help you.  Would you be willing to meet attend an event, if it meant you were learning skills that could lead to your dream career?

Can you Help?

We have a communication breakdown between our Academic career and the rest of the world.  My Goal over the next few weeks is to develop a series of events, putting students, graduates and industry in the same room together.  Will you bring your network?  Please contact me if you can help.  @sytaylor via email, or via facebook.

Context is key.

The summits, protests and political dog fights have so far missed the point and been ineffective. Why? Carbon levels have gone up and we are no closer to a real solution to our fossil fuel dependency. Whilst I buy the ideal that we “should” be able to live on the energy nature has provided, we cannot do so without inflicting massive amounts of suffering on the very poor.  Our energy need vastly outweighs our renewable energy supply.

Humanity needs energy to avoid:

• Famine
• Fuel Poverty
• War
• Pollution

Climate Change itself is insignificant in comparison to the human cost of War or Famine.  To avoid most of the above we need to get serious about moving to a zero carbon economy to improve our prospects as a species

There is massive investment in home insulation, advertising and lobbying for efficiency. Yet making a carbon based economy more efficient does nothing to reduce our reliance the fuel itself.

This will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Carbon loby, who I believe have the best of intentions. Efficiency savings for a Carbon economy are a massive waste of time, money and indeed energy. In order to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 the fact is developed economies will have reduce their carbon emissions to zero. Zero!

It is not possible to do so without huge investment in energy innovation. The ‘clean’ and renewable energy sources have so far failed to yield results despite decades of development. Even the electric car will not be our saviour. It may make us feel better, but that electricity still comes from a coal, gas or nuclear power plant.

Humanity is not currently long on effective solutions to this problem. The innovation investment has thus far been woefully inadequate. Spending on Clean Coal, Nuclear Fission or other more radical innovation by Governments is a fraction of what it needs to be in order to see any real progress.

The problem for the politician is that opposing the Green lobby is very difficult without marginalising yourself. The opposition to the Green lobby has done itself no favours by being in denial about the need to move away from a carbon economy. Allowing mainstream thinking to be influenced by fringe solutions.

Any workable solution requires significant government investment over the long term. The Cap and Trade policies have already failed as a revenue generating exercise & frankly have only caused political squabbles. The only possible solution is for the free market to recognise the massive opportunity the zero carbon economy is for the first to achieve a workable model.

Our carbon based fuel is finite and dwindling. Unless we find a solution we will have war, poverty & ultimately the slow death of humanity. Now is the time for us to use our best weapon against the odds. Our free market system. Generation Y has no adequate representation on the political level. We gave the world Facebook and twitter, now we have to change the political lexicon to deal with reality.

Energy Innovation needs a voice that is willing to take on the “Renewable is the only solution” argument & at the same time re-articulate the need to move from Fossil Fuel in context of the REAL consequences.

Do you agree?

No matter how well crafted your image, realise that it only exists to serve those with a high school mentality. Your peers in business have moved beyond the visual system of measurement, and while able to observe a well presented image, this is not what gets you noticed. This inbalance leads to some confusion for your early 20s. “My image is made, I am cool, but why don’t I have what I want yet?”

To employers, and the gatekeepers of social mobility; the older generations… Your attraction is your potential, desire & unique talent. Now what separates you from everyone else is more important than what makes you the same as everyone else.

Your identity will become a mix of who you always were & who you want to be. How much of that you choose to display publicly will depend on your audience. You can’t please all of the people all of the time. Find your passion, become good at it & accept that not everyone will agree. On that journey you will find inspiration, happiness & fulfilment.

In the rush to implement these services and quickly get value from them the public happily ticked a checkbox saying “Allow my personal data to be used” which were part of the terms of service.  In itself a baby step from the previous way in which data had been sold as a commodity.  Yet by it has become clear the proper checks and balances may not have been in place.

The apathy to data security among the general population is currently far more dangerous than many of the services who have access to that data.  I have never been a fearful chap, nor do I intend to be.  If anything this is a dose of good old fashioned mundane reality.  Nothing is perfect & no matter how much facebook or twitter fend off privacy concerns they are not held to account in the same way the banking sector is for example.

The fact is that the pressure on these new behemoths of Social Media is tiny in comparison to the overwhelming amount of support they are getting from Venture Capital & Investors. The public too are happy in a world where these services have real value and no cost.  Perhaps then, that is why we find it so easy to look the other way.

At some point in the not too distant future, we are going to have to answer the question.  Do we value privacy; at all?  In real terms it won’t be around forever, and in general the trend has been a useful one.  Chris Brogan notes that Trust Agents thrive under public scrutiny & it can be a very profitable way to build your brand.

If we assumed (and its quite a leap) that everyone working for every Government agency and large Social Media outlet had the slightest inkling of temptation to use the masses of data they have access to.  Even then, the door is open to massive amounts of Fraud & 3rd party mis-management.  If anything companies using data poorly will likley be of more pain to the average Social Media user than abuse.

The fact remains however, the door is open for abuse.  No matter how much we trust a company, it is on our own best interest to ensure we state emphatically what the boundaries are.  Will we see Big Brother & Communism any time soon? No.  Could this be a problem for you in your daily life if left unchecked? Yes.

What action can you / should you take? We all know a spam and phising email when we see one.  It is similar learning curve with social media.  Facebook gives you a certain degree of control over what other people can see.  The key point is to stay informed.  With geo-location Services I know where you are all the time, with facebook I know what parties you will attend and who with.

So I may have finally found the missing link between social networks and my blog. It’s called Disqus and it’s an interesting middle man! One identity, everywhere, always.