Nov 10 2009

How Would Carnegie Use Twitter?

Published by StasAntons at 11:00 AM under How-to

In “How to Build Twitter-worth”, I wrote about the process, the details of using a specific permission-based broadcasting technology - Twitter. The questions and the comments that article provoked however, are mostly related to a larger question - what’s the underlying, technology-agnostic approach?

New Venues for Old Wisdom
Twitter and Facebook, as well as other permission-based broadcasting systems, allow us to utilize the wisdom of super-networkers and communicators more efficiently. I am talking about the likes of Dale Carnegie, and Cicero, while using the laconic approach that, luckily for us, is forced upon us. Why luckily? One - because short entries (emails, blog-posts, whatever) are more likely to be read; and two - it forces us to (at least to some degree) craft our messages before broadcasting them.

Dale Carnegie
Image Source: Wikipedia: Dale Carnegie

OK, What Does it Mean?
As Robert MacNamara told us - “You Can’t Change Human Nature“. In other words, if you learn how to work with human nature, that knowledge is timeless. Which, in turn, means that we can make our knowledge of human nature (as limited as it is) more important and having more impact if we improve the efficiency of that utilization. Translation - leverage technology to utilize timeless knowledge more efficiently.

Cicero

Image Source: Wikipedia: Cicero

Before Twitter-like systems existed and were widely adopted, we were limited in how we could engage other people and practice what past and contemporary sages have taught us. In other words, there are only so many cocktail parties and sales meetings you can go to. New broadcasting technology allows us to practice their teachings every day, in 15-minute intervals.

Finally
I think at the fundamental level Carnegie taught us to take real, sincere interest in people we are dealing with. Being sincere and truly interested will make us communicate with people in a way they want us to - with respect and appreciation. Maybe that will make us tweet less about us and what we want, and more about them, and what they are interested in.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Tags: , ,

2 Responses to “How Would Carnegie Use Twitter?”

  1. # Tweets that mention SmartSymbols ยป How Would Carnegie Use Twitter? -- Topsy.comon 10 Nov 2009 at 11:51 AM

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stas Antons and SmartSymbols, Dale Carnegie OH. Dale Carnegie OH said: RT @stasantons: How would Dale Carnegie use Twitter: http://bit.ly/3EXte8 [...]

  2. # uberVU - social commentson 11 Nov 2009 at 11:08 AM

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by stasantons: How would Dale Carnegie use Twitter: http://bit.ly/3EXte8...