Dale Carnegie and the Social Media.
One slide that almost made the cut for my talk on Twitter would have held nothing but this image:
After I made this comment online, someone asked me if How to Win Friends and Influence People isn’t too old-school for 21st century business.
My reply: People haven’t changed that much since HTWFAIP came out in 1936. The technology is much different, but people are much the same.
- We still like to hear the sound of our own names (and our own voices).
- We still like the other person to say they’re sorry if they’ve stepped on our toes — even accidentally.
- We still don’t like to have our motives questioned.
- Et cetera.
Some people want to say that the technology is SO different that it makes sense to distinguish between Twitter (or other social media) and real life. This is why the acronym IRL — “in real life” — is used online. But in fact Twitter is mostly just people talking to people. That makes it a part of real life.
And for real-life situations, Carnegie’s guidance remains invaluable. This is one reason why Carnegie’s company [ their site / Hoover's record ] lives on. Take, for instance, Carnegie “Six Ways to Make People Like You” from the book:
- Become genuinely interested in other people.
- Smile.
- Remember that a [person]’s Name is to [them] the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
- Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
- Talk in the terms of the other [person]’s interest.
- Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.
All 100% accurate and useful today. All 100% accurate and useful on Twitter. And all of Carnegie’s guidelines (he loves making lists of them) apply whether you’re using Twitter for your own amusement, for career-building, on your company’s behalf, or all three.
In other words, if Carnegie were still around today, he’d be quoting Shannon Paul: “Don’t be THAT guy.”
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Related posts:
- Using Twitter for Business: my presentation to HIMA.
- Social media communities: Keep bringing it back to USERS.
- Social media makes merchants of us all.
- Social media breaches barriers.
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Image source.
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I think more and more of us are on to this. Last year I’ve mentioned the same thing afew years ago, if you want to know social media either read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” or act like you’re at a cocktail party where you’re introducing yourself to a friend of a friend:
http://www.emergence-media.com/2006/08/social-media-optimization-emergence-medias-5-themes-of-smo/
Jeremiah Owyang has used the “social media is like a cocktail party” many times as well. I think there’s even a book called that now.
Thanks for pointing me to your post, Daniel – great minds think alike! I thought of the Carnegie connection when I saw my beat-up paperback copy of his book on my shelf last week, but clearly I’m not alone in seeing the application of his timeless ideas.
Some of it’s pretty simple, huh? Yet we try to make it more complicated because of its fancy high-tech wrapper.
Check out my Mashable article, “How to Win Friends and Twinfluence People” (http://bit.ly/xueq)
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This is a great read, and I too went to look at Daniels link, also informative, social networking seems like its going to be the way to go, and it is a good thing to have in business I think.