Dropping In: 3 Tips to Survive the Coming Social Media Onslaught

In the late 1980′s I got into mountain biking on Dr.’s orders in order to strengthen the muscles around my knees. This was before Seinfeld hung a Klein on his wall and everything in the 90′s became eXtreme!!! My very first trip on a mountain bike I flew over my handle bars and scraped up my face so bad they thought I might need (mild) plastic surgery (I didn’t). But ever since that first ride I was hooked.

In a previous life I became a mountain bike tour guide in Las Vegas (this is just before I bought the skateboard shop for those of you keeping score). Basically we’d drag hung over tourists out into the dessert and ride them till they puked. Good times. I’ve been a mountain biker most of my life and I’ve learned a few things that I think are applicable in social media, business and the coming year.

There’s a moment in mountain biking where you’ve struggled your way to the top of the trail and you find yourself standing at the edge of a steep, narrow, rocky single track. It’s one of the best feelings in the World.

Dropping in is one of the times I feel most alive.

Right now our industry is standing on the top of the mountain staring down a steep, rocky trail that currently has no end in sight (the end is there, it’s just not in sight). 2010 is going to be fast, rocky and the biggest rush of your professional life.

I wanted to share with you the 3 tips I shared with the tourists as I got ready to drag them through the dessert.

Don’t stare at the obstacles

There is a law in all sports but few places is it as painfully real as in mountain biking: You go where your eyes go. If you really don’t want to hit that big scary rock, and you keep staring at the big ugly rock, you’re going to hit the rock. Watch the trail not the obstacles. Keep the obstacles in your periphery until you get right up to them and then look past them down the trail where you want to go. Always be looking for the open path.

It’s really easy to look at the things that stop us from doing social media. I bristle every time I hear someone say “We can’t do social media because legal/corporate/budget/(I’m too lazy to try).”

There is always a way to do social media!!! Always! It will take some creativity and hard work but there is always a way to get around the obstacles you face each day.

The fastest route isn’t the most direct route.

In the 1990′s at some point the US toyed with the ideas of having our road cyclists do the mountain bike course. They wanted to save money and send one team not two. Lance Armstrong rode in a qualifying mountain bike race in the US to see how he’d do. Afterward he was asked what he thought, he said it was the hardest thing he’d ever done on a bike. In mountain biking it’s not about “spin” which what cyclists do to keep their momentum, it’s about your overall momentum. This often means looking for the path around some obstacles, sometimes jumping others and occasionally bashing into others when it’s the best option. You can’t cut a straight line down the path (unless you have a huge downhill bike with 8+ inches of suspension).

Social media shouldn’t be rushed. Social media will test your patients. Social media takes a lot of finesse. Often times you need to seek out allies in other groups inside and outside your company to get your efforts off the ground. When one manager tells you no, you have to switch tracks to find a new path.

Trust yourself

Trust in yourself and your capabilities is the difference between clearing those rocks and busting your helmet open. You know what to do. Fear is the worst emotion to have. Caution, respect for the path ahead, these are all good things to have but fear is not.

You won’t lose your job launching social media. Not any more. For all the horror stories we’ve seen, these are few and far between. You’re smart dammit, go be smart.

My bonus tips are drink lots of water and have fun. Get ready to drop in and feel alive.

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