We’re in the grip of a pandemic with twin totems: Time poverty and distraction.
It doesn’t matter how we aim for semantic search, or what the next machine-driven innovation might be. Until Singularity cruises on to our horizon, the most important responsibility we have as business makers and influencers is to be our tribes’ context concierge.
So the product and service we offer is largely irrelevant. We get that. But do we understand quite the importance of removing noise from all our interactions to be replaced with signals of value?
As the consumer revolution takes hold of all our lives, a scenario-in-the-making about which we’re given more than a dollop of guidance by the mesmerising Brian Solis in his seminal book The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution, we become ever more sensitive to the need for curating everything we do and say when it comes to creating astounding and long-lasting relationships.
What context is not
We’re not talking sanitising the truth, here; far from it. We have to be courageous in defying our instincts to create content and eject it from our creative guns. But not to contextualise would be to join the spent shells of so many businesses who yearn for reaction and recognition but hit the wrong buttons instead.
What context is
Applying context means sifting through the message to find the true meaning and pulling no punches in its delivery. The best example is the common Tweet: Most people have graduated to the ‘ooh look I can send out links in my status update’ stage – and to prove yourself the true context concierge you simply sift the content you’re sharing until you find the most appealing element, the golden egg, and tease people to click by attaching that to your link.
That’s gold star context curation. And it works in so many ways. In the appendix for Sharing Superheroes I shared links to the very best tools to enhance your efforts in social after spending years trying hundreds out. That, there, is the value. Present the signal, the relevance, the importance of everything you share.
Anything else? It’s just a signal in a sandstorm.
Make context your king and soon you’ll start ruling your own kingdom.
Interesting definition of context. I’d define it as common interests and attitudes that let two people relate even though they don’t know each other. Tweets let you slowly gain context by talking the topic of your niche but also finding commonalities outside of it. Which gives connection and authenticity(more buzzwords). Although Twitter is not as fast for gaining context as Google+ purely because of limited posts.
@AdrijusG Nice theory, Adrijus. I don’t think words really matter unto themselves but to help people express themselves. And in that sense discovering and sharing the context of ‘context’ is a pretty exciting thing, right?
You nailed it with authenticity. Context to me when it’s correctly aligned with the customer’s perspective and needs hits that fuzzy spot when both client and business owner are on the same wavelength.
You’ll be hearing a lot more from me on fuzzy. Stick around?
@DaveThackeray It’s not theory! It’s life
That’s how we get friends, enemies everywhere. Not just business. Sports team can unite and divide. I had met people on Twitter talking about New York Knicks and basketball. That led to bit more conversation and retweets and even small recommendations. Doesn’t make us friends yet, but it’s step forward and small context already for people who live on different continents. Not sure I understand ‘sharing context of context’ tho.