My grandmother reached up and wiped a bit of lint from his shoulder.\u00a0 She adjusted the medals on his chest and ran her hand down his lapel.\u00a0 And she looked up at my dad with a smile as big as Texas.\u00a0 She was extremely proud of her son, my dad.\u00a0 The only one of 7 sons to be an officer in the military.\u00a0 She would look at him in his uniform and sing…”there’s something about a soldier that’s so fine, fine, fine.\u00a0 There’s something about his buttons how they shine, shine, shine.”<\/p>\n
But that’s not the most important part of this story.<\/p>\n
When the 2-star General came up and stood next to my Lt. Colonel dad and extended his hand to my grandmother, she looked at my dad and said “Mack, is he a real general?”<\/p>\n
Every time I think about that story it makes me chuckle, knowing my grandmother like I did, God rest her soul.\u00a0 She always had a way of putting things in perspective.\u00a0 It also makes me think, believe it or not, about the mistakes that people make when it comes to social media.<\/p>\n
I don’t know why, but too many people don’t get it that it isn’t about them… It is about the other person.\u00a0 Social media isn’t about selling stuff, or distributing messages, or friends and followers.\u00a0 Social media isn’t about the media, it’s about the social.\u00a0 And social means ‘conversation’.\u00a0 Social means people.<\/p>\n
My dad could have been a Buck Private standing there, and my grandmother couldn’t have cared less.\u00a0 Because standing next to a whole herd of generals, my dad was still the most important person in the room.<\/p>\n
I wish you could have known my grandmother.\u00a0 She knew what was important.\u00a0 And If you want to be successful with social media, then every person has to be the most important person in the room.<\/p>\n