Things are different today. What was an “endorsement” years ago meant something different than it means today. Meanings change with time. Words are fluid and ebb with the flow of time. We have to adapt and change.

This makes an impact in social media with LinkedIn “endorsements.” If you’re on LinkedIn, you’ve probably seen this. You are asked to “endorse” a person for a particular skill. I’ve heard people object to this, sometimes vehemently. “I barely know Herkimer so how can I “endorse” him?” Why am I asked to “endorse” Esmeralda when I don’t have a strong relationship with her?”

Well, you have to adapt to a new meaning for “endorse.” Think about the word “like” and how that has morphed in meaning thanks to Facebook. If you “like” someone’s page, does it mean you’ve studied it, analyzed it and can say emphatically that you “endorse” it (to mix some social media platform acknowledgment gestures). Twitter has its own word called “Retweet.”

All of these convey a similar meaning. It doesn’t mean you’ve done a full-scale vetting and investigation to vouch for Herkimer or Esmeralda that they are really noble people (they might or might not be). It is merely an acknowledgement that you know them and they are reasonably good people. That’s it. Don’t worry about it.

I’ve often said in my seminars that an endorsement on LinkedIn is like waving to someone across a busy restaurant. It is not always appropriate to get up and walk all the way over to them just to say hello. A wave across a room is a nice gesture. It acknowledges the person. It can lead to a physical meeting later. You might send them a note or call them later.

Communication vs. Connection

Communication and connection are different today. Don’t think of an endorsement as it was formally stated years ago. Today’s meaning is different. I think that is where the challenge comes.

Adapt with the ebb and flow of language changes. Hey, Chaucer had different meanings to his words than what we use today. Read some of the original text from the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence and you’ll quickly see how things have changed in just our short, American history.

This is not bad or necessarily good. It just is. Learn. Adapt. Adjust. Hang onto what really lasts. Relationships are the most important.

I think Jay Baer says it well when he says, “Skip the hard sell and be more useful.” This is the essence of good connection and communication in the age of social media. I like what Chris Brogan says, “Grow bigger ears.” We have to listen more to people and hear them.

It is similar to paying attention to your daily Klout Score. Klout is not about the score. It is really about being a good social media citizen and how to work in this crazy, new world. Getting a higher Klout Score is more about being a good social media citizen than anything. Chris Brogan’s admonition to “Grow bigger ears’ is what Klout really is about. Jay Baer’s idea of being more useful is what Klout is about.

Some will say that we’re not as connected today as before. I think it all depends on how you handle it. On a normal day I’m connecting with people from many different countries, sending e-mail, video messages and exchanging messages with wonderful folks around the planet. I think we’re more connected than when we used a black rotary dial-up phone and only connected with a few.

Human connections are different today. It is not good or bad. It is just reality. We have to adapt to that reality and understand how communication and human connections work today. This has been true throughout history.

Understand reality. Adapt to it. Don’t argue with it. Too many people react instead saying that things “should” be a different way. Yes, it is good to try to make things better and work diligently towards that end. But it is insanity to live your life in hopes that some ideal might happen. Understand what is and adapt in a pragmatic way to that reality.

Don’t even worry about your Klout Score today (it will probably be different than it was yesterday or tomorrow). Focus on what matters most. In business, that means helping others and being there for them to meet their needs. In business, it also means growing your business to have the excess you need to help others.

I’ll wrap this up with three key, must-do steps for success in social media today.

• Understand the new reality and adapt to it.
• Genuinely care for others and pay attention to their needs.
• Grow bigger ears (listen carefully to their needs) and be more useful (find how you can really help others) and you’ll do much better. Thank you, Chris and Jay for sharing this!

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A Valuable Lesson For Success in Our Crazy-Busy Social-Media-Obsessed World

I got frustrated this morning. I was entitled to be frustrated. (At least in my own mind I felt that I was justified!)

If you’re a long-time reader of my blogs, listener to my podcasts, or viewer of my videos, you know that I like to get up early. Usually I’m up at 4 a.m. so that I can get more done in my schedule. I particularly like the early morning hours for quiet study time and planning of my day ahead.

Well, this morning our access to the Internet was down. Since today we rely on the Internet much like people rely on plumbing and electricity, this is serious. I called our local cable company to get assistance and was not pleased. Frankly, I have to admit that I was a little bit miffed that they were doing repairs from one in the morning until 6 a.m. How dare they do repairs when I need to work on my projects! (Can you sense the self-importance I was feeling?)

Well, I decided to be creative. I was able to read from my iPad which uses a different source to access the Net. I was able to get in some good exercise this morning that I wanted to do. I was also able to listen to some good podcasts that had previously downloaded onto my iPad. In other words, I had to adapt.

That is the key for success today.

In today’s fast-paced world your ability to adapt to new circumstances is your key to success. Those who fail are the ones who hang on to some quaint notion that life was better at some time in the past. These people tend to forget that even their desired time of the past was not perfect, and had a lot of problems as well. This is just the way the world has worked for the last few billion years!

Adapting to Change

Our old friend Charles Darwin said it well. Some think that Charles Darwin originated the phrase “Survival of the Fittest.” That distinction actually belongs to Herbert Spencer, who was a contemporary of Darwin. What Charles Darwin did say was that throughout history we find that the race does not go to the strongest or to the swiftest, but rather to those who are most able to adapt to changes.

So, it is not something that is new with our social media, Twitter, Facebook, or other shiny new objects of the moment. This is a principle that has endured for billions of years and will probably last a lot longer after we’re gone.

Some say that we should try to get by without the Internet — at least from time to time. I don’t know if I agree with that. I look at the Internet much like I view electricity, automobiles, running water, toilets that work (!) and other modern conveniences. I don’t have guilt about using technologies that make life better. Yet, in the midst of that, we all know that sometimes these technologies — every one of them — can be broken or go down from time to time.

Being flexible and adapting to the way things are serves us much better than getting angry, or worse yet, raising our voice and hurting others. This morning I was able to get in some great study, exercise, and even some quality meditation.

Think about how you can adapt when (not if) problems happen. On this planet, you’re going to have a certain amount of problems. It’s already baked into the mix.

Deal with it.
Adapt to it.
Go with the flow.

From this you will become more the person that you want to be. You’ll also be able to run your business more successfully as you approach it with a clear mind.

Oh, by the way, eventually the cable company did restore our Internet access and I’m using it even now as I write this for you. And yes, it really is good to have the Internet running at full steam now!