I’m trying something new today by provocatively dropping a bon mot from the end of the post here at the beginning.

“wouldn’t it be interesting if future history books tell us that we ultimately discovered that “social platforms” were implemented by Al Qaeda as Weapons of Mass Destruction?”

meanwhile, the title of this blog post reads like a thesis.

it was fun to come up with. but, it’s as, intentionally, misleading as todays belief systems around the invocative buzz words laced through it.

mine is likely the voice of reason.

that belief fuels a passion that realizes itself on platforms that make this blog, ironically, in light of the message behind this post, an example.

I understand that my voice, and the vision and images it incites creates drives, are not always, often popular. but, I know they are relevant. and, so do you.

but, like half the audience that attempts to watch Phineas and Ferb (sheer genius, literally), many people might not get it; but, probably because of the self-reflective pain required in being part of unpopular change.

I am not, necessarily, talking about revolution, here. but, certainly an evolution of thought.

so… you’ll be reading and hearing my views as they emerge around all things related to social networking and marketing. for example, the way I see it, the “networking” and “marketing” elements are blending, merging, morphing, and losing their distinctiveness, and usefulness.

I’ll also assign the phrase: “easy button” to help set the stage, and signal ahead of my thinking.

setting the stage…

a wealthy investor that finds themselves sitting on a Board of a company they’ve funded, and frustrated by the activity of it’s (questionable) leadership has placed the young CEO in my hands for coaching. when I first met the fellow I asked him:

“what type of leader would you describe yourself as?”

he managed to look up from his Android device long enough to take about two breaths and reply with:

“I spend at least three hours a day on Facebook and Twitter being a thought leader. I am an expert at social media and I want to speak publicly about content.”

I kept a straight face and asked him if he understood the word “sophomoric”, and also the difference between thought leadership and “subject matter expert”. we’ll be discussing principles of “time management” and revenues, to be sure.

more on that exchange, and others like it, later. this is an opportunity to teach, after all. and, although this example sets the stage nicely, in my opinion, let’s turn the tide of discourse towards the conflicting notions around social media and networking in our collective favor.

while more and more, and more, decision-makers are coming to the belief that information is best served to them and directions to others offers via mobility platforms, they are falling prey to an age-old trap thinking that: “if it’s in writing, it must be true”, and that includes the internet in its various forms. social networking, and the media and content in-and-around it like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter are quickly becoming more part of the problem, and less so the solution.

think, “easy button”.

add, Laws of Natural Selection.

now ponder how much time you spend on those exampled services. and, what do you actually mine from them? the average Twitter follows over one hundred other Twitters. let’s be candid. we all believe followers follow just to get other people to follow them.

*dramatic point opportunity*

so, the mental picture is a bunch of rabbits hopping around trying to hump one another without reason other than to make a mess of something uncertain.

however, it’s doubtful they actually read them all, and engage the messaging or messenger. if they are, they are surrendering productivity (time management), elsewhere. hell… Al Gore does not even craft his own Tweets. what does that tell you? on Linkedin, you’ve stopped engaging the messaging on the Home page because it’s always the same people lobbing useless information at everyone else because they are bored, unemployed, or both (sometimes you get topics about bunnies). I’m possibly part of the problem in that respect because my staff has my messages linked to my blog. so, the process is automated.

so… it’s all becoming background noise at best, and likely a distraction under growing circumstance.

that means it’s becoming less of a tool, providing a “tool” is defined as:

“Anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose: 

Education is a tool for success.”

…which it is.

I had another CEO gleefully advise me he was recruiting his whole new management and sales teams using Linkedin. I asked him how that was going. he used a lot of words, but the import was that he was spending most of his day “…communicating with people in his network”, and going over resumes.

sales are off, and the company is losing money. but, he is apparently having fun on his investors dime – oh, and he is a member of Vistage.

you ignore most of the Tweets you subscribe to, disregard the messages you receive on Linkedin, even though they are form people you are connected to (although you probably don’t really know them), and your neighbors are getting divorced because the wife is “chatting” with her High School sweetheart. but, at least she is being “social”, so maybe the movement is not a total loss (at least for Mark Zuckerberg, anyway). NOTE: have you noticed that most photographs have him staring soullessly into the camera?

wouldn’t it be interesting if future history books tell us that we ultimately discovered that “social platforms” were implemented by Al Qaeda as Weapons of Mass Destruction?

by the way… I used that bon mot early as part of my Twitter feed to catch your attention, and it worked, for me.

more later.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork 

Related posts:

1. the secret to successful social networking
2. media is History
3. Networking: Rule 33
4. Social Darwinism
5. The Media Vs. The People
6. linked to the ironic unknown
7. linked to the ironic unknown
8. little things with BIG impact
9. why Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead is a text book for viral Marketing
10. pillaging ministries for Prophet

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John Corbitt was kind enough to share a link to a story about Facebook and “dumb phones”.

for it’s vital perspective relative to this post, you can read that story, here: Facebook focus on app for dumb phones is very smart.

I had several thoughts as I worked through the piece. but, that which managed to fire my imagination was how this secular effort is corollary to religious missions.

apparently the emerging objective, in terms of the big race for our collective souls, is to get “the word”, depending upon the interpretation, into the collective hands, heads and hearts of the “unreached”. that would be defined as people in China, India, and remote regions of the planet. they number in the billions, and are evidently more open-minded. or, perhaps they are just less sophisticated, and thusly more “programmable”. from a church planting or secular business plan and a return on investment (“ROI”), going after the “unreached” makes both strategic and financial sense.

so, it’s interesting (to me, any way) that Facebook and other forms of religion have similar global strategies.

oh yes I did say that!

and, the above referenced article said:

You can expect other app makers to at least ponder the feature phone route because the numbers are huge. Facebook is thinking world domination and you need feature phones to get there. Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi has highlighted the need for non-3G devices. In fact, “white box” phone makers are gaining share in the mobile phone race as they churn out commodity phones. That’s only going to continue. Facebook gets it: The real growth may be in the dumb phones.

Tim Barker, a full-on Christian fellow that I’m coaching (and, someone I consider both smart and heroic) has a pretty solid plan to make “giving” more efficient and productive. he  says:

We prayed “God bless America” and He did. Now even in these difficult times we are still the wealthiest nation of all History. If we would now give 10% of our current giving resources to worlds poorest spiritually and physically and to these Top 10 that ministries with their current results it would fulfill the great commission! The WCT research proves that this group, the worlds poorest spiritually and physically are the most receptive to the most valuable gift we can offer in meeting both these needs, Jesus Christ.

“Ron Blue has said that 80% of the evangelical wealth in the Church today is in America and it’s enough to fulfill the great commission”.

If we achieved this, that is giving 10% of all Christian resources to the top 10 ministries by results (not size) it would complete the Great Commission. Here’s the math.

10% of $270 billion = $27 billion and this is enough to provide funding not just to one but to 3-4 of the top nine list for each of the worlds remaining lost and poorest in one year. I did the very simple math for this. $27bill / 4billion people equal $6.75 a person to work with.

For that we evangelize and disciple all 4 billion while also providing clean drinking water.

Each of these people could hear the gospel ($3 each), go through the Bible (.53 each) and be in a discipleship program (.04cents) and get clean drinking water (.20 cents) for a year. This still only equals to $3.77 a person.

The remainder of $2.98 a person will not feed them a year or the whole 10% at $6.75 a person. If we gave the worlds poorest ALL the annual Churches Giving/tithes of $270 bill a year and if you divide that by 4 billion poorest and lost people, it still only equates to $67.5 a person a year or .20 cents a day. At that we know it’s not enough to keep them alive.

okay… pulling the lines-of-thought, as defined by business/ technology/ Facebook and religion together, in an herculean effort to make my point, here, this is fine by me providing the various app developers and faiths don’t use their extremist beliefs like blunt-edged weapons as we’re witnessing in Egypt, for example. and, most of you are aware of my feelings about Facebook. if not, read the following, just so we are clear on the matter: facebook is proof we have a Problem. do it!

I’ve observed, in turn, how Middle School girls can use Facebook to torment one another. that platform also adds another barrier to more simplified communication (like talking to one another or writing things in long-hand) and creates unusual body image issues (many kids doctor their images and pretend at things that are debatable in terms of value or appropriate).

and, we see daily how the “big three” religions have historically interpreted both the face and the words of God for their own purposes.

Would you just love to have representatives from each religion debate in a global forum with God himself the moderator?

just think, with a dumb phone in their eager hands, we can now tweet the word of God to the veritable masses. or thanks to the Facebook 0.facebook.com site you have the option to “friend” them. and, if they don’t comply just turn of their service (or, have an Angel call them).

if you are an evangelical Christian this now means that remote denizen has been exposed to the word of (the Christian) God (referred to as being “witnessed”), so he or she better capitulate, or be damned (you are now defined as an “evangelized non-Christian” – which sounds dire [I hope they never RFDID Tag for that]). I’m not clear how that is different from extremist Muslims beheading women for not waring face coverings. although another extremist recruiting method is yelling really loud and brandishing scimitars. but, we’ll tackle that elsewhere.

…I’m just saying….

I am not insufferable.

I can see it. and, I care about it. all of it.

God created my heart. and, he knows it better than even myself.

My own Haley Anne is on Facebook. I despise it. I refuse to use Facebook. but, I’m on my toes and vigilant. things can change. I have to lead by example with my own open-mind. and, I’m counting on good men like Tim Barker to lead us, all of us towards investing in any organization that help our Brothers and Sisters of any faith live better and authentic lives.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

Related posts:

1. facebook is proof we have a Problem
2. androids doing it the Apple way
3. the terrorist amongst us
4. Don't necessarily go with the Flow
5. facebook challenge
6. Wireless Carrier Solution?
7. Faith + Evidence = Integrity
8. Apple and Google United
9. perhaps Jesus should be a bit more Noble
10. A WORD of love can make a WORLD of difference.

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