At some point in our life, we become too “mature” and grown to ask seemly silly questions. We become to embarrassed to raise our hands and ask, why does the same appliance cost $20 more at Crate & Barrel or is it Sprint‘s policy to treat all customers poorly…or just me?

Whether its a fear of conflict or the pure embarrassment of not knowing, we more times than not, decide to not ask. We decide to stay silent and move on. We comply to the status quo.

As consumers, its important to ask questions. Its important to know what and why things are a certain way. Its important to address concerns. As a merchandiser of goods (whether physical or service related), its also important to ask questions? Does the consumer like my product? Could I do anything to improve? Is my product revolutionary or is it just another widget that someone else could provide better and cheaper? What makes me different? Why would anyone want to pledge loyalty to my brand? Am I making a difference?

Seth Godin said, “A great question is one you can ask yourself, one that disturbs your status quo and scares you a little bit.“

Go ahead…disturb your status quo. Shake things up a bit. Whether you fail or succeed, whatever you do, don’t get stuck in the middle.

Taking great ideas and finding a way to solve the problems and the answer the concerns of your customer, follower or fan is the key to being seen as an Influencer. It will be the reason they come to you on a regular basis. Unleash your brand, to not only provide what everyone else provides, but to awaken new ideas that will give your customer the edge. They will be forever indebted to you and your brand…as long as you continue to provide new ideas that work.

Here’s a cool documentary which will hopefully get your creative juices flowing:

http://vimeo.com/16430345

Recommended Reading: Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers

“Part of the rationale to sell this major transformation to industrialists was that educated kids would actually become more compliant and productive workers. Our current system of teaching kids to sit in straight rows and obey instructions isn’t a coincidence–it was an investment in our economic future. The plan: trade short-term child labor wages for longer-term productivity by giving kids a head start in doing what they’re told.” – Seth Godin

What does this have to do with Branding?

In any industry, workers have learned to accept status quo and comply with what society deems relevant. One of the first questions I ask my clients is, “what makes you different…what sets you apart?” It may seem like a silly question, but in a world obsessed with task driven status quo…consumers secretly long to break rules and try something new and innovative. Is your brand similar to our public education system…set up to create machinists and followers, or is your brand offering consumers the opportunity to reach beyond the walls of conformity and self-martyrdom.

Of course being different just for the sake of being different would help no one. Innovation is only successful when it propels one into a better life.  Differentiating you from all those folks out there who try to do what you are doing and pinpointing exactly why you do it better is key. What makes you different? Why is your brand unique? This is your brand’s essence; the inner workings of your brand’s character.

For the record…my wife & I are heavily involved in our daughter’s school and are working hard to make sure that her and her friends have ample opportunity and support to change the world.

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• Back to (the wrong) school (sethgodin.typepad.com)

1. Setup a strong profile. Your entire Google Plus experience starts with the profile. Just like on Facebook, your profile is key, so spend some time building it correctly. Start with a good headshot. And, if you think the advice is commonplace, just look at some of the pictures on Google Plus now. When you show up in people’s steams, all they will see is a thumbnail. So, choose something where you really stand out. Craft your introduction well. Make it so that people would want to add you to their circles. And, Google Plus allows for live links in the introduction itself, so make the most of it. Add links to your website, blog, LinkedIn profile, etc.

2. Add relevant and remarkable images. The speculation is that Google will index the pictures you share (unless you’ve kept them private). So, use images you want found in the search engines. If you are a speaker, add pictures of you speaking. An author? Add pictures of you at your book signing. The idea is to convey the right brand image.

3. Make sure your profile is OPEN to search. This is key, since Google reigns supreme in the search world, the chances are that your profiles will be indexed VERY quickly. When you hit edit profile, the very last item on your profile is “Search Visibility.” Make sure you have checked the box that says “Help others find my profile in Search Results.”

4. Optimize the links to the right of the profile using keywords. Again, a great SEO feature. What are the chances that Google will value these links highly? Pretty good, I’d say. If only to encourage people to use Google plus. On the right hand side of your profile, you can add links and the text that goes with it. Make sure you use the RIGHT keywords to connect to your website.

5. Use “Circles” to communicate with clients, prospects, media, etc. This is perhaps the greatest Google+ selling point. Most people’s lives have layers – professional, personal, acquaintances, etc. Google Circles allow you to make the most of the layers. For example, you can create a circle for prospective clients. And, then cater specifically to them with industry news, a solid case study, etc. (Tip: While Google will inform a person that you have added them to a circle, it won’t tell them which circle.)

6. Use +, Comments, and Share to boost relationships. At the heart of all good social media marketing and networking lies the power of relationships. As you interact with others, show support for their ideas. The +1 on Google is akin to “Like” on Facebook. You can also +1 and comment when you see fit, and you can also SHARE within your own stream. Add the +1 to your blog / website as well.

7. Hangout with your team. Google Plus is a hot bed for market research right now. People are a LOT more engaged there right now because it is a new playground. It reminds me of Twitter in the early days. Google hangouts incorporates video chat with circles. Want to invite your team for a quick Monday morning meeting from your cabana at the beach?

8. Get a custom URL to share your Google Plus profile. Just like the early days of all social networks, there will be a huge rise initially as people try to fill up their circles. And, as time goes on, this will slow. Make it easy for people to follow you, get a custom URL. You can do so at http://www.gplus.to.

9. Google Plus goes mobile. Whether you are an Android junkie or one of the Apple-head iPhone fiends, Google Plus has an app for you. For Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Nokia/Symbian users you can utilize the Google Plus Mobile.

BTW: Find me on Google Plus at http://www.gplus.to/Swodeck and connect.

NOTE: Right now Google+ is in BETA and you can only get in if you have a public google profiles account or gmail. 

Diving into the “realm of possibilites” without allowing excuses or difficulties to control your session is an amazing discipline.

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
(Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 5)

Turning the creative madness into effective ideas that will change the world is the next step. Take your new creative ideas (as strange as some of them may be) and set milestones and a definitive goal.

Do this everyday. Choose which ideas are worth working on in the now…and which ones should be tabled.

As far as “on demand” goes…well, sometimes I feel life is like trying to focus intently on a thin line in the middle of a busy freeway of ideas. Like a kid with A.D.D….doing my best to focus. When provoked for an idea…it seems it may be as simple as looking around you…eyes open and grabbing all you can, like a an old lady in a game show money machine.

A new book by Todd Henry named, “The Accidental Creative” was referred by Michael Buckingham of HolyCowCreative on a post. It’s a book that supports you in establishing effective practices that unleash your creative potential…every day. Sounds like a great book…I’ll put it next to my signed copy of Linchpin…you know, so they can play.

Profanity is a divisive subject. Some think obscenities have no place in any polite conversation, ever; some feel, judiciously applied, profanity is the best flavor in their communication spice rack; others lob expletives like they’re trying to unlock a coveted F**k-Yeah Four-Letter Wordsbadge. It’s a touchy subject, and one at the focus of some enjoyable debate in the past week. So let’s talk about it, shall we?

Note: This post is centered around a bunch of developers arguing about cursing in presentations, but the discussion is applicable beyond those bounds, so if you aren’t a developer, don’t let that turn you off. Also, since this post is about profanity, you’re likely to find some ahead. If you’re prone to the vapors at the sight or discussion of profanity, you may want to bring along your smelling salts. Image remixed from Zach Holman.

The Starting Point

GitHub developer Zach Holman presented a talk that quickly spread among the tech and startup crowd, in large part due to his fun and attractive slide deck. (His slides were so nice that he wrote up a post on slide design for non-designers, which we posted about two weeks ago.) His talk, and his slides, made use of profanity—even the dreaded f-bomb. And that’s where the conversation started.

The “Swearing Is Bad” Crowd

Microsoft employee Scott Hanselman pitched the tent poles of the anti-swearing camp in his post, Profanity doesn’t work, and his take is pretty simple:

I believe that having S*** and F*** in your conference slides or titles doesn’t make you cool or professional, or a better coder. It makes you look crass. When is it appropriate and why is it appropriate when other things aren’t?

Hanselman feels that “words that are evocative of sex and feces are in fact not appropriate”, and the long and short of Hanselman’s argument is that since swearing has the potential to alienate your audience, it should be avoided.

There’s certainly truth to the first part. Profanity does alienate some people. If you’ve ever spent a few entertaining hours looking at user reviews of movies on IMDb, you can find absurdly detailed analyses of how many swear words a film contains, regardless of the film’s much more substantial content.

Following Hanselman’s post, developer Rob Conery offered his take on the problem of swearing in presentations, titled Fucking Your Way Out:

The slide [at right] is taken from a talk by Zach Holman. It’s a gorgeous slide deck and Zach shows a deft hand at communicating ideas in a very concise way. I want to make this clear again: I’m not offended at the presence of the F-bomb, I’m offended that someone with his talent takes the easy way out.

Making your point with profanity is what the general population uses as punctuation to emphasize a point. It’s conversational punctual shorthand.

Conery’s main point appears to be “Educated folk should not use words common among the uneducated masses” (my words, not his). Eep. He even goes so far as to call them “Walmart words” (his words), which, frankly, is more offensive than any profanity I’d heard in Holman’s talk.

Between these two common anti-profanity arguments, both clearly hold some truth. So how about the flip side?

In Defense of Profanity

Holman posted a response, called simply Swearing, and breaks down his defense of swearing in presentations to three main points:

1. Swear words are succinctly emotional and evocative
2. Swearing is a crafted part of his persona—one that’s served him well
3. He’d rather lose audience numbers to his profanity than audience connection (which he feels is stronger because of his voice)

Regarding his last point:

I’m less concerned about my overall reach than I am with connecting with my audience. Put another way: I’m content with losing a handful of people if that means I connect much stronger with everyone else.

Your reputation is your brand. Just like a company, your brand can be deeply impacted by a small group of passionate followers. I’ve been seeing this for years- the same avatars retweet me, the same names show up in discussions about me, the same sites help promote my projects. I’m fortunate and humbled to have these people at my back.

I wouldn’t have nearly as many of them if I played it safe. I enjoy keeping an edge, and they respect that. Someone else could construct a beige persona and cultivate a following, but that would be less effective for me because I’m not nearly as good at fitting that personality.

Holman isn’t the only speaker whose persona has a little profanity in its grout. David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the popular open-source web framework Ruby on Rails and co-founder of web company 37Signals, is a popular speaker who’s big on profanity. Best-selling author, passionate speaker, and social media dude Gary Vaynerchuk is perhaps the poster boy of profanity in communication.

Apart from an individual’s personal proclivity, it’s also worth noting that profanity is persuasive. One 2006 study found that swearing at the start or end of a persuasive speech can influence the audience:

To see whether swearing can help change attitudes, Scherer and Sagarin (2006) divided 88 participants into three groups to watch one of three slightly different speeches. The only difference between the speeches was that one contained a mild swear word at the start:

“…lowering of tuition is not only a great idea, but damn it, also the most reasonable one for all parties involved.”

The second speech contained the ‘damn it’ at the end and the third had neither.

When participants’ attitudes were measured, they were most influenced by the speeches with the mild obscenity included, either at the beginning or the end.

For some, there are miles of distinction between “damn” and “fuck”. For others, not so much.

My Perspective

Now to come clean: In my personal life and aspects of my professional life, I swear casually and often. Profanity rarely carries the negative connotation for me that it does for some (as with all things, context is everything), and I agree with Holman when he says:

The emotions [profanities] raise can’t be reached as succinctly with other tools. They’re powerful. When chosen with deliberate consideration, they aren’t a cop-out; they’re the strongest way to connect with a particular audience.

It’s worth noting that we rarely use profanity on Lifehacker. Offending people doesn’t have much to do with that (though any time we’ve used profanity, you can believe I hear about it from disgruntled readers), but unlike, say, a deck of slides, where word economy is at a premium, we have plenty of space to make our point, and profanity doesn’t make a lot of sense for the Lifehacker brand.

In conversation with friends, coworkers—even my boss—I un-self-consciously swear all the time. It’s a very natural part of the way I communicate. Sometimes I use big words. Sometimes I use bad words. When applied to a specific audience, I’d be shocked to learn that anyone was turned off or offended by my profanity.

Whether you’re pro- or anti-swearing, obviously context is the most important thing. Unless you’re still rebelling against your parents or are choosing to swear for an actually considered reason, there’s no point in dropping profanity at the expense of your message.

How About You?

The main takeaway here, as with all things, is “it depends”. Using profanity in your communication is a choice, and since it is such a polarizing subject, it’s something you want to take a considered approach to. (Oh, and one other useful pro-swearing tidbit: Profanity relieves pain.)

So what’s your take? Do you swear with abandon? Reserve your profanity for the right audience? Keep profanity locked in a safe at all times? Share your perspective in the comments.

You can contact Adam Pash, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.

First of all, businesses (including all organizations, churches, non-profits), products or public figures are not allowed to maintain a personal profile on Facebook. What? Yes that’s right.

Secondly, while Facebook obviously is not enforcing this rule right now, they will get around to it. When they do, they will shut down those profiles and all the time and energy spent creating that community will be lost overnight. These companies may as well take the time to get it right now before their community disappears.

Third, being “friended” by a company or organization is not the norm and you are less likely to pick up followers with this approach. People have become used to Facebook Pages and interacting with organizations through them. Trust levels go down when a profile is presented to them in friend requests. Also when people search for Facebook Pages they are likely to overlook a profile that the organization has forced its name into first and last name boxes.

Fourth, another great thing about creating a Facebook Page is creating custom content tailored to your business on your page. You add videos to your Facebook Page, along with custom built content and most importantly you can add opt in boxes so you can keep in touch with your customers. The amounts of possibilities you can explore with your Facebook Page are almost endless, and you should utilize these features on a regular basis to build your business’ online presence.

Facebook allows you to have multiple Facebook Pages which can be useful if you’re a bigger company and have multiple facets in your organization that you would like to promote, or you could set up a specific page for a new product or service you are planning to launch. For the most part most companies choose to have only one fan page, because it is a lot easier to stay on top of one page rather than multiple pages. It is very important to be constantly updating your Facebook Page, and a good rule of thumb is to add new content at least every other day.

By the way, did you know your Facebook Page can be a part of your Search Engine Optimization strategy. Why is that, you ask? It’s because Facebook Pages are indexed by search engines. Profiles are not. If you’re like most business owners, you want as many people as possible to find you online. If you set up a profile in your business name, you’re not maximizing your exposure. Sure, your Facebook friends will be able to see your page, but new people won’t find you all that easily. On another note, remember Facebook Pages can have an unlimited number of fans, while Profiles can only have 5,000 friends. If you’re trying to build your business, why limit yourself?

If you know someone with a company Profile Page, please do them a favor and direct them to set up a Facebook Page. I don’t want to signal out the guilty, I just want them to be aware of the mistake and correct it before it is too late. Communities take time to build and they are nurtured on trust, getting Facebook set up correctly goes a long way to building and nurturing your community. Once they get their Facebook Page set up, invite those connected to the profile to get involved on the Facebook Page.

Create your Facebook Page NOW!

Need inspiration, here are 35 of the Best Facebook Pages