Jon Hirst (@generousmind) is co-founder of Generous Mind LLC, a think tank helping thought leaders be generous with their ideas. In this guest post on Lessons from the Saddle, Jon explains that we're in
a liminal time - the doorway of a new era - governed by new rules. It's the Age of Context - an age defined by authentic communities in specific contexts that add value to each other in relationship. It is this new era that Twitter, Facebook, and other tools were created for. However, many people [including publishers] from the last era are bringing their assumptions from a past era to these communities and tools.
Many in publishing are entering into authentic conversations with generic sales pitches and slick marketing techniques. They're still living in modernity and creating/delivering products to consumers as if those rules still applied. So when they see new tools, they think they can set up a username and password or speak with the right words and get around the process of engaging in conversation and joining the community.
The challenge is that authenticity doesn’t come by association. You have to be an authentic participant in community to be accepted and given the right to share about your passions, vision, products, services, etc. And more importantly what you bring to the conversation must be a fit for that context.