Chapter 12 – Are there classes for all of this?

There are classes for everything. Marketers will show you how to best craft Twitter updates, advertisers can teach how to write and target Facebook ads for maximum impact and even the best kind of keyboard shortcuts to use on Google+. While the names of the networks will change, the basic idea remains the same: all tools take time.

But how much time? I’ve seen that most Gen Xers and Baby Boomers—mostly the latter—have a set idea of how long something should take to learn. Here in the future, these times are much more fluid. We do like introductory classes to teach people the basics, but urge everyone to experiment and fail on their own rather than spend a ton of effort learning how someone else uses whatever tool we’re trying to master.

Relying on others to teach us about how the ever-evolving world works is a only means that you will a) continually play catch up and b) will likely never become fully comfortable with the tool, as a lot of our communication and usage is extremely personalized.

For example, Guy Kawaski uses a team of ghost Tweeters to curate and push content from a variety of networks. He uses a separate account to reply to people—sparingly—and chooses to focus on being a content provider, rather than a conversationalist. Some people call his style wrong and an inappropriate use of the conversational medium, but I say to each their own.

Others use Twitter as a chat room, and send more replies than broadcast tweets. Again, this is okay, but it’s unlikely anyone would ever teach this technique. I could quote studies and show numbers that prove a better mix of push and pull messaging would work, but when’s the last time you took a class on how to best talk to your friends? Ever asked someone to teach you how to talk on the phone?

Get out there. Play with the tools. Ask questions of the people you’re already talking to. These tools are for discovery and connection or whatever you deem best. While it certainly feels safer to be taught a specific method of engagement, we don’t need a ton of drones all doing the same thing. Make your own mark and forget about more than intro classes.

Make your own mark and the attention will follow. I promise.