Are the right hammers in your toolkit ?

Ella Fitzgerald was one of the all time great voices in Jazz, so when she sang, the fact that SHE was doing it in her incredible voice gave true resonance to the words  : “T’ain’t What You Do (It’s the Way That You Do It)”

Now, I’ve increasingly felt that these words have special resonance right now in the realm of Social Media and Online Marketing in general. I don’t profess to be any kind of guru in these areas. Heck, I don’t think anyone truly is, things are changing so fast. Having said that, I know “enough to be dangerous”, and what I have a good feel for is that there are a whole lot of experts out there, some expert, and some just “expert”. If there is one thing there are even more of than experts, it is “expert tools” to help you with Online Marketing and Social Media  for your business.

You know what I see much less of ? Companies with the right people within their organisation (at all levels, from strategy, to management, to implementation) in these increasingly critical areas.

One of the things I love about the profusion of expert blogs around is how they can provide guidance and even inspiration, but it is how you read them and what you do with them.. again.. “T’aint what you do…”. A great one I read recently was by Tim Peter , called “What are the best tools to improve online marketing? Here’s a hint: Who cares?“, and I’ll pull these snippets out :

...tools don’t really matter. What matters is how you apply those tools. I’m fond of saying that there aren’t any silver bullets, but regular bullets work just fine when you aim ‘em right.

…Invest twice as much in people as you do in tools and you’re likely to see a far bigger return than on any other investment you’ll make. That’s the kind of hammer we all could use in our tool kit.

Now, to add my own, I’d like to add my own insight to this, obvious as it may be. In addition to hiring the right people to use whatever tools you have, our world is changing fast, so no matter how great your people are it is vital that they are current, and that means training and dedication, the sort of dedication that finds them (if they are marketers) living and breathing marketing both online and offline pretty much 24/7, such is the incredible rate of change.

In short, good people who work hard not just because you pay them, but because it is their passion. Find them and they will fire your budgetary dollar bullets with great accuracy.. as Tim Peter says in his blog… you don’t need silver bullets if you can aim regular ones.

To close on a jazz analogy, my favourite piano player of all time kept me going as a young man going through the grind of learning to play classical piano to a reasonably advanced level. They jazz is spontaneous, but the true genius is in practiced spontaneity, and Oscar Peterson was one of the very best. Take a “mental health break” and watch this video of him at his best, and then consider that he was said to practice over eight hours a day to make sure he could be the very best at being “spontaneous”.

That video is 9″ long, but if you only have one minute, click here for what is one of my favourite ever piano solos.. and then ask yourself…have you got the right hammers in your toolkit ?