Long vs. Short Social Roads

Using all things social is a road which many are traveling. However most aren’t following a map to get anywhere.

Following traffic without an  intent to go somewhere will only get you stuck in traffic. Getting stuck in traffic is not a productive experience especially if you have no idea where you are going.

Traffic gets a lot of attention on the web. Traffic indicates some degree of popularity. Popularity doesn’t always reflect productivity. Productivity is gained from the  measure of the efficiency of a process  in converting inputs into useful outputs.   Some things and people that get our attention are actually robbing our individual and collective productivity. Being stuck in irrelevant social traffic is non-productive.

Accidentally Being Non-Productive

Zig Ziglar tells a story of how for 40 years of his life he chose to be fat. That’s right. You see, according to Ziglar, he never accidentally ate anything.

When it comes to all things social most people are choosing to be fat. We consume more “social” calories than we need and most of it isn’t even the good stuff. Worse yet, like junk food, all this social stuff — the tools that are enabling our  high-tech lifestyle — is distracting us from learning to apply things that can enable us to gain productivity.  Sometimes less equals more. Most of us need to  stop following the popular in order to gain productivity.

Intentional Productivity

Since all things social are still new to the majority of the marketplace there is no predefined road map to follow.  So following the tactics of others  isn’t likely to enable you to create a road map of your own.

If you want to create a road map that others will follow you have to define the journey, not the destination.  Results come from a journey and they are not a destination.  Tactics are what you do during the journey. Strategy is what you develop as a road map for the journey. Results happen along the road and the experience is the vehicle which brings you through the journey.

A journey with no aim isn’t productive because any tactical move is short lived. Short lived tactics only fuel more tactics. Tactics without a strategy is a continuous repeat of short journeys. Short roads usual take longer to get somewhere. Long roads are more productive and take less time. Short roads are slow, long roads are faster.

To find the most productive long road in a territory without maps requires research, planning, testing and listening to what others have discovered along their journey. Productivity isn’t accidental rather it is a choice. Any short road to productivity takes longer. The long road takes less time and time is productivity. Which road are you on?

Sometimes the right road is the one less traveled.

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