Unplugging is the New Black.

Posted on January 9th, 2012 by Robbin and currently 4 commenting.

Photo via Libby Williams. Grab a cup of coffee this is a long one.

A friend passed this article on to me.

The Joy of Quiet.

Oh. My. Goodness. Take a few quiet minutes sometime today and read it to the end.

I have. Twice.

I have always loved this quote from Thoreau (keep in mind he was born in the early 1800s):

We have more and more ways to communicate and less and less to say.

About a week ago, the very same friend who sent me this article casually announced over dinner,

“I deleted my Facebook account today”.

“Really?”, I said in disbelief.

“Yup.”

Seems the new Facebook timeline made him painfully aware that he’s been saying the same thing over and over for the last three to four years. And it made him feel foolish.

“It’s just a time sucker and I don’t have time to waste.”, he said.

I saw a stat recently that said the average Facebook user spends over five hours a month on the site. Wow. That’s a lot of time, in my humble opinion. And that’s just the average.

Here’s another thing. I have often said that Facebook and social media make me lonely. Because the truth of the matter is most people jump on Facebook (or any social online tool) when they are alone (physically or emotionally).

I feel that in my heart.

Yeah, yeah. There are those of you so happy you have to share. I get it. And I do it too. Happy is good and worth spreading.

But I love this line and think it is worth repeating from the Joy of Quiet.

Joy is the kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.

Some things are meant to be shared and personally I do think of my Facebook account as an online scrapbook. It makes me happy to glance at photos of my friends and my kids from time to time. BUT it can’t replace the real thing.

It can’t replace real connections.

As the article said, the information revolution came without an instruction manual. As people and especially as marketers a manual might have been nice in hindsight. I have always believed marketers got a little too overzealous about social media and the significance it held for their brands and organizations.

Yeah, Yeah. I know those of us at Brains on Fire sound like a broken record about this notion.

But what is exciting me lately about this latest discussion, is I do believe the world of marketing will see all this “unplugging” as a wake up call. And perhaps marketers will finally realize that social media tools have a wonderful place in connecting employees and customers, but they alone are not the total solution. And surely we are coming to realize these “essential” truths:

It’s quality of relationships over quantity.

The real beauty of creating online relationships with your customers is the ability it gives you to connect offline.
And even though offline takes work, it’s SO worth it.

One of my favorite lines from our book is from an interview with the VP of Brand Marketing of Fiskars talking about the value of the Fiskateers:

“For me, it’s not about the numbers. It’s about growing even deeper relationships. Today we are constantly engaging the actual people that use our products. They are absolutely fueling better products.”

And trust me. Fiskars gets the value of offline engagement. It’s part of their brilliant and courageous success.

Nowadays we really DO have more and more ways to connect and that’s a good thing.

But as Thoreau suggested many years ago, let’s live our REAL lives in a way that creates meaningful stories and relationships. Let’s create content and experiences and share knowledge as brands that is truly relevant to our customer’s lives. Let’s add value that is beyond simple distraction. Let’s connect and surprise and delight and inspire.

Then we will have something meaningful and truly worth talking about.

And we will ignite that wonderful, magical, powerful marketing tool called Word of Mouth.

Okay, your turn. Let me know what you think about The Joy of Quiet and how the new trend in unplugging is relevant to marketing?