The hype, rave, excitement and novelty around social media sites and all they can do has worn thin. The Novelty has given way to Normal.

Are they less capable of doing what it once did (technically)? No. But without the attached hype, excitement and novelty I think social sites / services like Facebook and Twitter have moved into the realm of Normal.

I remember one of my first Nokia mobile phones in the 1990′s. Big, yellow, 5110. This baby even had a snake game on it. It held like 100 phone numbers. I hung that sucker off my belt loud and proud.  Then they become normal. Smart phones emerged about a decade later – ‘Ahh, 3G, colour and touchscreen!” Now, as wonderful as smartphones like the iPhone are, they are pretty ubiquitous too.

I’m wondering what’s next?  What will ride off the back of Normal to be the next Novelty?

This may seem counterproductive to say on a blog but I’m going to say it anyway.  “It’s not all digital”

I have worked in the web design and online business consulting arena for many years. In fact I was talking to my wife a few days ago and we discovered that I had began to build websites in 1997. Honestly, in digital years, that makes me a veteran. There must be some kind of pension for a people like me, even though I’m in my early 30s.

One great advantage of promoting your business, products, service or whatever online is that you will be able to measure so many aspects of engagement with your website. For example, by using Google Analytics you can measure who visited your website, what browser they use, what country they live in, what time they came, what pages they visited on, you can even install software on your website now that tracks mouse movements. There is so much that you can measure digitally.

Also coming from a strong business background, I realise that key performance indicators, statistics, numbers and similar data are all so important because they enable you to make decisions based on fact.

HOWEVER this digital measurement is only part of the mix. It is so easy to get caught up in this data and forget that there is a human being on the other side of those clicks and that traffic who is interacting emotionally with your site or social media effort. It is hard to beat, and this is really my point, a face-to-face, person-to-person meeting to assess feedback and measure the success of your product or service. You may have lots of traffic on your website and or YouTube video e.g.  Rebecca Black’s Friday. But that interaction may be negative and it may be harmful and you have no idea of knowing. You could be doing a lot better if you only picked up the phone, went to that networking meeting or visited that person and received real human feedback.

You see this all the time when it comes to chatting with somebody via SMS or instant messaging and you have totally misunderstood that person’s intention because you didn’t see the smile or the nuance or the smirk or winsome look on their face.

Do yourself a favor, get offline from time to time because digital measurements and stats only tell part of the story.

If you think about it, Facebook and probably many other social media platforms were birthed out of a desire to be included and not miss out on what was going on in the lives of others around you. I am going to be stereo typical here, but let’s be honest, geeks and nerds at school don’t generally have fantastic social skills or are invited to all the cool parties (I can’t speak from experience). And where were most of these social media developed? College?  By teens and those in their early twenties?

The fear of missing out. Social Exclusion Anxiety.  I think many of us can truly relate to this feeling and fear from time to time to varying degrees. And for some people, the thought of missing out on some news regarding your social circle is very hard to bear. You genuinely have a fear of being excluded from an online comments-fest on Facebook or the re-tweet of your favorite tweet peeps words of wisdom.

I think we need to remember, that what we see on social media networks in writing is, in some aspects, what happens quite often away from the computer in social circles and human experience. We miss out. We don’t get the latest gossip. We aren’t included in the conversation. We aren’t included in the lunch invitation. We are not invited to the party. And what happens? We begin to question ourselves. We begin to question our likability. Our intrinsic worth.

What I believe is incredibly dangerous and destructive is a thought pattern that says, in a round-about fashion,  ”If you don’t Like this (Facebook post), you don’t Like me.”  ”Is anyone reading and caring what I write? Do they care about me?”  If that is the way you think, or approach social media, you need to step back and assess how things are and get a grip on your worth because YOU are incredibly valuable. You are loved and have the capacity to love and embrace. You are somebody’s son or somebody’s daughter, you have been fearfully and wonderfully created by God.

I think Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and all the other online social media arenas all have their place, have become a part of our lives and have enriched them also. But seriously, if you are checking social media feeds all the time, in fear that you will miss out on being included, I suggest you take a break. Disconnect. Fast. Whatever it takes to know that you don’t have to draw your worth from this well of social experience.

Go hug someone. Call someone. See someone. Touch someone. Love someone. Find security in a loving God who takes you as you are and loves you forever in all your brokenness and insecurity.

My goal was to have a meal or coffee with a new person every week for 52 weeks. By far the best business and career development decision I ever made.

To challenge myself I put a few names on the list of people who I knew I would have to work hard to get an audience with. These were people, who at the time, were out of my proverbial reach. But, I even got them!  In fact several of them ended up chasing me.

The quickest way to come across 52 candidates are:

• Join several networking groups.  Eg  BNI.
• Don’t limit yourself to a particular industry or person type.
• Be bold and ask ask ask.
• Pay for the meal or coffee. (Word gets around if you are stingy)

Have a favorite place to meet and get to know the wait staff well. This just looks impressive. I had an account at a local diner which saved valuable time during the meetings also.

The monetary return on investment was partly immediate but it’s best to go in with a long term view on return. I would have to say, within 12-24 months, it increased my market worth two-fold. No lie.

The personal return is impossible to measure because I gained some great friends in the process.

So give yourself a worthy financial year goal like I did. Your confidence in your ability and market worth will grow.  You’ll meet some great people. You’ll learn some highly valuable people skills. AND you’ll drink plenty of coffee… and that’s always a great thing!

Still, to my surprise, I met plenty of people who didn’t need internet at home. Or they couldn’t afford it. Working people. Men. Women. Married. Singles. No internet at home.

“But it’s so cheap!” I shouted after coming from 512K expensive speeds in Australia 2006.  ”Yes, but I don’t need it, I have my cell phone if I need.” was their reply.  Or “I use it at work if I need the speed and download.”

I was in IT at the time and needed the net at home for work and staying in touch with family overseas.  I needed wanted the Pay TV for the English channels.  I needed the net and liked Pay TV but the super high speed connection speed… it was just a bonus really.  Still, many seemed to be OK without it at all in the home. Saving their YEN for other things like clothing and food and using their mobile devices for net access.

I recently ditched my fixed line and ADSL at home. I bought a Samsung Galaxy tab with Telstra and use the Wifi HotSpot app to provide net usage to the home. $59 for 7GB per month and we take it everywhere. Saved ourselves over $600 per year and just cut back on a couple of browsing and downloading habits.  And now, I’m OK without the massive speed. So would about 80%-90% of the people I know…. and I’m talking 100′s.

Which leads to the question in the title. When the  Australian Government spends billions of dollars to roll out an Optic Fibre based network, will we use it or feel we need it?  I mean really NEED it?

Do I need Pay TV? Or am I happy with the large number of free to air digital channels available to me now? I mean there is satellite too right?

Do I need insane download speeds? Or can I wait a couple more minutes?

Do I need to see the doctor on webcam? Because last I looked, I could do that now if I wanted. Speeds are fast enough… and I don’t do it.

Will my children be part of a learning environment where it’s really needed? I mean what can’t they do now that’s of great value?

Do I need VOIP a phone system on a giant high speed system? Mobile phones remain our choice of voice communication in Australia and you’ll have a hard time convincing us to do otherwise. Besides, VOIP run fine through ADSL.

In my opinion

Should the network be upgraded? Yes, create a sustainable upgrade plan for the next 3 years, and revisit it after that to take into account trends and technology.

Should it be at a huge cost to the population as is currently planned? No, I think it’s overkill. While everyone is talking ‘Green’, ‘Sustainable’, ‘Simple’, ‘Cutting back’ and ‘Future proofing’, the Government is ripping up the pavement to lay a highly volatile form of cabling that may never be used by more than 20% of the population. The cost to the tax payer is incredible. For now, just lay fibre into those places that need it most; Hospitals, Business Hubs, Schools.

I’m just not convinced that across this vast land, optic fibre is the best solution. I would be spending the money on wireless technology and infrastructure. Employing the best minds in the world to develop packet streaming and compression systems that will increase speed and function to the masses and their mobile devices. Perhaps license and sell that technology off to other nations. Seriously, I mean even now, how many are reading this on a mobile device? Did you need fibre to to view it? How many of us spend hours per day on sites that are crippled by ADSL or Wireless internet speeds?

Open to comments and thoughts. BTW, if you’re over 21, still living with your parents, still  in your pajamas, you’re a massive movie thief and online gamer, you can get a life and keep your comments to yourself.

It was a practical and refreshing change from the hype that often surrounds the digital marketing and social media market space.

Some of the biggest take-aways for me were:

1.  Your business still needs to have a marketing plan. Nothing but the medium and delivery rules have changed.  Placing a couple of google ads and building a simple website is no recipe for success on it’s own.

2.  You must be prepared to test, measure and manage your digital marketing efforts and investment.

3.  SEO rules are changing constantly – find a reputable company to manage your online search engine marketing

4.  A good landing page will save you a lot of money.  Click-throughs can be bought but people still need to be convinced to part with something. Be it their email address or their money.

5.  Advertising on Facebook can cost you half of what google adwords do. Even if it’s 20% less effective, there is still a good saving their if your product and marketing is right.

6.  2/3 of the world still doesn’t have access to the net.  That’s considerable.

Here’s the link: http://www.htc.com/au/SupportDownload.aspx?p_id=312&cat=2&dl_id=1048

You’ll need to provide your serial number to download it.  Then just plug in your phone via USB and run the file.  The instructions are pretty straight forward.

Be warned that you’ll lose all your phone based data in the upgrade including any numbers you’ve saved to the phone.  (I saved mine to my google account) and you’ll lose your SMS’s etc.

The process took about 20 minutes and it went without a hitch.  If  all your photos etc are saved to the SD card, you’ll lose nothing there.

Log into your google account again through the intro screens and you’re off and running.  Go to the App Market and in the download section you’ll see all the apps you previously paid for and you’ll be able to download them again.

One of the most notible changes I noticed immediately is the upgrade in the Gmail app. e.g.  Easier to reply to emails from the top of the email, instead of the bottom.

Also, there is an awesome new app installed called Hi-Fi Hotspot.  Once activated, it allows you to use your phone as a wireless router, providing internet access to anyone with a wifi device in the area. You can set a password on the phone app and on my laptop it just showed a wireless network called “HTC Network” – I typed in the password I designated on the phone and it’s like I’m at home on any standard Wifi.

Another app you might like is Apps2sd which allows you to store some apps to your SD card, thus freeing up space on your phone’s built in storage (NAND)

I’m just super impressed by the Desire and such a painless upgrade.  The Android system is just brilliant and I’m not surprised to read about the massive market share predictions.

I shared on a simple and effective approach to using social media to build connections and grow relationships.  I then followed up with some info on trends and technology to keep an eye on.

Below is the screen presentation I built using prezi.com.  yes, it’s impressive.

For those who attended the event, you’ll know the gist and outline of the presentation – the rest of you can guess what I said, have me speak at your corporate event or just steal the links in the presentation.

Poreto’s Principle

e.g.  In a company, 20% of the staff do 80% of the work.  In a garden 20% of pea pods hold 80% of the peas.  At a party 20% of the people will eat 80% of the cake.

When it comes to building effective websites for business and individuals, I’ve discovered the equation looks like this.  80% of the site is built in 20% of the time.  It’s the remaining 20% that takes an additional 80% of the time.  And it’s this 20% that seriously sets one website apart from another.

Now, having said that, I think there is a market for the simple sites that are built in 20% of the time. Quick, simple, no tweaks, straight off the template – what we might call a ‘business card style’ or ‘simple web presence’.  It’ s not built to win stacks of business, wow clients or engage their minds and senses.  A simple place where information can be found.  I build these sometimes because it’s all the client wants – and having said that, they tend to look pretty good and clients are most impressed getting what they do for about $1400.

Move up from that and you get something totally different. You get hours upon hours of tweaking, changing, support and testing.  You get my Brainspace – the remaining 80%.  You get the wow factor, you get the engagement, you get something that will win business and convert browsers to buyers… it goes without saying that you’re going to pay at least double for the privilege and it’s more of a journey than an event.  .e.g. stevepenny.org maroochycarsound.com.au

I’m sure you can see this at work in your business.   And there are times when all people want is the 80%.  Case-in-point are the Virgin and Jetstar models of air travel.  You want to get from A-B with no extras,  no refund and no apologies for under $100? Great!  But don’t pay peanuts and expect the moon – if you do, you might find yourself upset and starring in a TV program about whinging idiots at airports!

We need to decide who we want to cater for, what pushes our buttons and what the market is demanding – sometimes we may be able to offer both a First Class and Economy Class option.

You may be a First Class type person and pleased to deal with the high end market and you’ll work on improving your effectiveness. You may be happy to do a set task for a set amount and move onto the next one,  so you’ll sit in the Economy market and you’ll work on improving your efficiency.

So when it comes to a 80/20 business model.  Be the ’80′ or the ’20′ or offer both’.   Just don’t be the ‘/’  .  It confuses everyone!

These may not apply to you but I’d thought I’d share them anyway.

1.  It’s extremely important to discern the difference between Responsibility and Concern.

I have a weakness that is also a source of great strength and joy – I love to help people.  Whether it’s personally, financially, in business, practically, creatively, timely – I love to help people and know myself well enough to know where I can make life better and easier for others… It’s how I’m wired. It’s part of my lineage. I can’t help myself but WANT to help. And herein lies the importance of this mantra.

‘That concerns me, but it’s really not my responsibility.’

The strength in this thought is in the power it gives me to decide where I invest my life, time and resource.  It empowers me to say ‘No’ and not feel guilty.  It helps me sleep at night. It allows me to decide what is important to me and realise that there ARE others who ARE responsible and SHOULD BE held responsible.  And when I DO decide to TAKE UP responsibility by choice, I know I can also LET GO of this also. Because the world will go on without me.

2.  Don’t mistake Self-Care for Selfishness.

Again, this is something that only YOU can rightly judge for yourself. It’s a matter of motivation, convictions and priorities. But for me this involves encouraging  myself and my wife to care for ourselves and not feel guilty about it OR take it too far into the realm of selfishness.

Our family have put a priority on health and relationships, so a couple of morning’s per week my wife gets the kids awake and ready without me because I’m on my bicycle, getting fit, feeling good and enjoying time with others.  On the other hand my wife loves to go to the gym or to dinner with a friend and I’ll be doing the solo thing with the kids.

These are things we do for self-care and we’re easier to live with and deal with because of it.

Author Rick Warren said this, ‘True humility is not thinking less about yourself, but thinking about yourself less.’  I like that… a lot… but it doesn’t mean we should neglect ourselves and personal care needs out of guilt or false humility.

Stress and burnout are killers – avoid them where possible.  You need to take care of yourself, it’s your responsibility.