Geno and were having an in person chat the other day. (The one day he was in town last week, geez that guy is raking in some Frequent Flier miles).

Anyway we were talking about integrity.

We talk a lot about authenticity at Brains on Fire. Being who you are. Knowing what you stand for. Supporting your customer’s genuine passion conversations, not product conversations. But lately Geno and I have been rolling this notion of integrity around.

I like Mack Collier, even thought I have never shaken his hand. He’s a smart guy. And he’s also the founder – don’t you love that – of #blogchat. I read his blog daily. He adds a lot of value. And yesterday I read this post. Spot on, Mack.

I followed the link to IBM’s social media policy. And it dawned on me that most of those principles/policies are the principles of integrity.

Be who you are.
Be thoughtful about how you present yourself.
Respect your audience and your coworkers.
Add value.
Use your best judgement.
And my favotire…Don’t pick fights.

Those are just a few I connected with…

Mack makes this point: “Companies (especially larger ones) should invest the time to educate their employees on social media tools, what they can and cannot do, and how their customers are using these tools to communicate with each other, and to create content about their company.”

Hmmmm.

You aren’t born with integetriy. You learn integrity.

You learn through mistakes. And missteps. Role models and teachers.

So Mack’s remark that we need to train people how to behave in social situations on line, is cool. Yes. As leaders we need to set expectations for how we want to uphold our company’s integrity.

Yes. Indeed.

Our expectations are right here. I carry this little book with me where ever I go. Okay, not to the bathroom and I don’t sleep with it. But I refer to it often. We talk about this in our meetings a lot. Guess you could call it training…

Do you know a company that teaches their employees integrity and it’s working? Come on. Share your stories.

“Cross Section of the Mainstream” via Lynn Greer

Sometime last year a group of people came together with the single-minded purpose of bringing a little piece of TED magic to Greenville.

Been under a rock? Haven’t heard of TED? You’re gonna thank me.

The TEDx Greenville team is an eclectic and interesting group. And like a lot of volunteer groups it was made up of really busy people. There were some hiccups and starts and stops early on, but I am so impressed with what this small team has put together in such a short period of time. Many, many people played a part in pulling this off including a great list of sponsors, but I have to give a lot to credit to these super bright and shiny folks, who took an idea and super sized it:

Marc Bolick, Brenda Laakso, Susan Sebotnick, Aaron Von Frank, Peter Waldschmidt, and Philip Whitley.

You, know…it’s easy to get discouraged when working with a large committee and these folks never did.

Check out all the details here. From what I hear, there are only about 45 seats or so left. So if you are in the neighborhood, come on. We’ll have some fun. Believe it!

BTW, here are a few of the TEDx Greenville Team’s favorite TED videos:

It is our humanity and all the potential within it that makes us beautiful.

Instead of trying to exterminate a problem, why not use the momentum of that problem to your advantage?

Often times we make decisions, assumptions, and even statements that we want to believe are based in a “hard fact” or a tangible reality when in fact we are being influenced in ways that we are completely unaware.

Now take a minute and share your favorite TED video with me and why. Come on. Spread some remarkable ideas on this Monday morning.

I’ve got friends in all the right places,
I know what they want and I know they don’t want me to stay.
– from Manchester Orchestra

I’ve been sitting back digesting the latest Edleman Trust Barometer. The study instantly created a lot of buzz about America’s Trust Deficit in social media. America’s trust has been eroding with companies, it’s advertising, and now it appears “friends” are the next level of America’s trust deficit.

But let’s back up… have I lost trust in my social media friends; in virtual landscapes like Facebook and Twitter? Or more importantly have I lost trust in my “friends” you know, those folks you’ve got real connections with… face-to-face or by sharing conversations in an online community I care about?

My take… do I trust my friends 20% less than I did a year ago? NO!

In the mad rush for numbers (friends, and sadly fans) brands, celebrities, and us ‘regular folk’ have made it all about the follow… what happened to the journey.?

In doing this we’ve made opting-in to communities, fan pages, personal pages easy, and meaningless.

I’ll close with another line from the song I’ve got friends in all the right places. “I know what I need… I need it quickly!” Boy isn’t that the truth.

We get lucky with interns. This semester’s intern is a super, shiny bright kind of smart. We like her. A lot.

Meet Sam.

Sam sent an email out and reminded us all about this. The free hugs Movement.

Okay. I know you are most likely one of 55 million plus people who’ve seen this. But I think it bears repeating and is so very relevant to the work we are doing in the world. We can connect all we want to online. We can join, blog, tweet, or twitter. But can we really do without that face to face, human to human embrace?

No. Never. It is what truly matters most.

That is why we believe with all our hearts that one of the keys to igniting a movement is to build in many opportunities to connect offline. It makes it real. It makes it meaningful.

It helps you remember your password.

So get up right now. From whatever you are doing and go give a free hug to someone who needs it. Sometimes I can’t help but feel that all this online connection is making us hunger for what is real. Maybe it is what so many people are missing. Just my humble observations. Then tell me about it.

The first seven people (seven is my lucky number) to share their story with me will get a FREE Brains on Fire tee shirt.

Sam and I will send it to you. With love.

OXOXOX,
Robbin

This blog post was inspired by a with Kira Wampler, Word of Mouth/Social Marketing Leader at Intuit Inc.

What do I care? Why should I care? What do your customers care about?

For the company that doesn’t, “care” is a four-letter word. For the company that does, “care” is a big word. Huge even. Because when you care, emotion enters into the equation. For some companies, emotion is a scary thing. Because emotion doesn’t show up as a line-item on a P&L report. Emotion can make things very sticky. And emotion is unpredictable.

But caring can be your greatest asset. Because when you allow your employees to care about their jobs, care about what happens to their fellow employees and care about their customers, there’s a shift in culture. I guarantee that when you walk in the doors of a company or have your first interaction with them online, you can tell the difference between a company that cares and a company that doesn’t care.

Yes, we all care about the bottom line. Because, like the Tequila Shots book says, we can’t make a difference if we cease to exist. But that’s a different kind of caring. I’m talking about the caring that comes when the times get tough. The kind of caring that comes with making sure you’re doing everything within your power to solve a person’s problem - even if they are a chronic complainer. And the caring that comes from believing that your customer’s success is your success.

So if you don’t care, then it’s going to be obvious to your employees and customers. And since love (or the lack of it) is a circular transaction, guess what? I guarantee that they aren’t going to care about you either. And good luck with that.