How Batman will help you beat social media narcissism

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Mitch Joel and Mashable both are raising red flags about social media being focal points for insane quantities of narcissistic behavior. Mitch asks:

So, the question is this: how do people build and develop their personal brands, if all we really want is content that is valuable to us and not self-promotional in any way, shape or form?

This is the essence of empowering a personal brand. It’s not about you, but what you do.

Batman, from flickr “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I *do* that defines me.” – Batman (2005)

Want to take your products, services, brands, and company to the next level? Forget about reinforcing brand and focus on what you’re doing to make things better for your customers. Want to see a great example at a small business level? Look at how Matthew Ebel is working his subscription service. Ask his VIPs if he’s all about himself or all about them, and you’ll find nearly universal agreement that he’s making the music FOR the customers, not just trying to sell them whatever he can for a buck.

Look at some of the powerhouses in new media, like Beth Kanter and Beth Dunn, movements like Twestival and Free Iran – all of these folks are less about them and more about their work, about promoting their efforts to help others. Look at Facebook’s applications – one of the most powerful and popular applications? Causes.

It’s not who you are, it’s what you do that will turn your brand up to 11.

Photo credit: Chan Chan

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Comments

16 responses to “How Batman will help you beat social media narcissism”

August 28, 2009

Joe

We'll see if Bruce was right, now that Dick Grayson is Batman…

Reply
August 28, 2009

BethDunn

…and by doing, we become more and more defined by those actions.

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

Thank you for the mention, and the compliment. 🙂

Reply
August 28, 2009

Joe

We’ll see if Bruce was right, now that Dick Grayson is Batman…

Reply
August 28, 2009

Mark Dykeman

This does seem like the most effective solution. However, as I noted in a comment on Mitch’s post, you really can’t just deliver value, you also have to be known as the person who delivers the value. Otherwise, it’s just anonymous charity, which is a great thing, but might not have the intended results.

Reply
August 28, 2009

AmberNaslund

This evokes a thought I've harbored for years, but always gets me shot at when I articulated it.

If the work behind the brands is amazing, the brands develop themselves. A little nurturing and guidance maybe, but enduring brands transcend themselves by being something amazing. Doing something valuable nearly always speaks for itself. The credit happens naturally. And oddly, the people driving some of these amazing efforts online are quick to shine the spotlight on others. Which, in turn, causes us to remember *them* all the more vividly. Funny, that…

Reply
August 28, 2009

TimWalker

I like this a lot, Christopher. It reminds me of what Kathy Sierra is always saying — it's not about how *you* kick ass, but about how you help your *users* kick ass.

Reply
August 28, 2009

BethDunn

…and by doing, we become more and more defined by those actions.

“We are what we repeatedly do.”

Thank you for the mention, and the compliment. 🙂

Reply
August 29, 2009

AmberNaslund

This evokes a thought I've harbored for years, but always gets me shot at when I articulated it.

If the work behind the brands is amazing, the brands develop themselves. A little nurturing and guidance maybe, but enduring brands transcend themselves by being something amazing. Doing something valuable nearly always speaks for itself. The credit happens naturally. And oddly, the people driving some of these amazing efforts online are quick to shine the spotlight on others. Which, in turn, causes us to remember *them* all the more vividly. Funny, that…

Reply
August 29, 2009

Marc Meyer

You're right. We work for others. More work comes when we do great work for others, not when we do great for ourselves. If you're all about your personal brand, good luck with that.

Reply
August 29, 2009

AmodMunga

Awesome post. Totally on point about how social media *should* be approached.
If only more people got the “social” bit in social media.
(BONUS POINTS for the Batman reference!!)

Reply
August 29, 2009

Marc Meyer

You're right. We work for others. More work comes when we do great work for others, not when we do great for ourselves. If you're all about your personal brand, good luck with that.

Reply
August 29, 2009

Amod Munga

Awesome post. Totally on point about how social media *should* be approached.
If only more people got the “social” bit in social media.
(BONUS POINTS for the Batman reference!!)

Reply
September 10, 2009

Josh Peters

@Joe in a recent issue Dick relaized just that. That Batman wasn't Bruce Wayne, but that Batman was a symbol for the city. I think he'll be on the right track now 😉

As for the narcissism I think it's just a natural thing that is sometimes hard to deal with and easy to do without thining. We always talk about what we know best, and we know ourselves better than any other subject. So maybe the narcissim stems from spending too much time on the networks without a goal in mind.

I just read today that Facebook now accounts for 4.1 minutes of every 100 minutes spent online (& 1/3 of all social network traffic). Which when considering how big a place the internet is that is a TON of traffic. Maybe people are spending more and more time on it and other networks, running out of things to do / say but don't want to get offline so they turn to themselves and begin indulging in the one subject where everyone is an expert. Ourselves.

Just a thought.
Thanks for the great post,
Josh

Reply
September 11, 2009

Josh Peters

@Joe in a recent issue Dick relaized just that. That Batman wasn’t Bruce Wayne, but that Batman was a symbol for the city. I think he’ll be on the right track now 😉

As for the narcissism I think it’s just a natural thing that is sometimes hard to deal with and easy to do without thining. We always talk about what we know best, and we know ourselves better than any other subject. So maybe the narcissim stems from spending too much time on the networks without a goal in mind.

I just read today that Facebook now accounts for 4.1 minutes of every 100 minutes spent online (& 1/3 of all social network traffic). Which when considering how big a place the internet is that is a TON of traffic. Maybe people are spending more and more time on it and other networks, running out of things to do / say but don’t want to get offline so they turn to themselves and begin indulging in the one subject where everyone is an expert. Ourselves.

Just a thought.
Thanks for the great post,
Josh

Reply
September 11, 2009

Josh Peters

@Joe in a recent issue Dick relaized just that. That Batman wasn’t Bruce Wayne, but that Batman was a symbol for the city. I think he’ll be on the right track now 😉

As for the narcissism I think it’s just a natural thing that is sometimes hard to deal with and easy to do without thining. We always talk about what we know best, and we know ourselves better than any other subject. So maybe the narcissim stems from spending too much time on the networks without a goal in mind.

I just read today that Facebook now accounts for 4.1 minutes of every 100 minutes spent online (& 1/3 of all social network traffic). Which when considering how big a place the internet is that is a TON of traffic. Maybe people are spending more and more time on it and other networks, running out of things to do / say but don’t want to get offline so they turn to themselves and begin indulging in the one subject where everyone is an expert. Ourselves.

Just a thought.
Thanks for the great post,
Josh

Reply
September 11, 2009

Josh Peters

@Joe in a recent issue Dick relaized just that. That Batman wasn't Bruce Wayne, but that Batman was a symbol for the city. I think he'll be on the right track now 😉

As for the narcissism I think it's just a natural thing that is sometimes hard to deal with and easy to do without thining. We always talk about what we know best, and we know ourselves better than any other subject. So maybe the narcissim stems from spending too much time on the networks without a goal in mind.

I just read today that Facebook now accounts for 4.1 minutes of every 100 minutes spent online (& 1/3 of all social network traffic). Which when considering how big a place the internet is that is a TON of traffic. Maybe people are spending more and more time on it and other networks, running out of things to do / say but don't want to get offline so they turn to themselves and begin indulging in the one subject where everyone is an expert. Ourselves.

Just a thought.
Thanks for the great post,
Josh

Reply