Try making yourself more interesting

Brian Oberkirch moderated a panel on “Try making yourself more interesting,” by panelists (this is a paraphrased live blog post):

DL Byron – Bike Hugger
Amit Gupta – Photojojo
David Rees – mnftiu.cc
Kristina Halvorson – Brain Traffic

There are no cheat codes for community. No Charles Atlas shortcuts to make your pet project the one to rule them all. Want people to think you’re awesome? Be awesome. This panel promises a bullshit-free look at how you might tune out the jibber jabber, tune in to those who matter, put your head down and make your online service a little bit more epic each day. We’ll dissect Bike Hugger, Photojojo, Metafilter, and other examples of Web charm for what *you* can do. Today, and tomorrow. And the day after. Which is how you will become what you want to be.

According to Oberkirch:

Marketers get into this mindframe, this thing, of looking for the latest “tactic”. As we know, this doesn’t work. Instead, “Do Epic Shit”. One of the companies that “Does Epic Shit” really well is Threadless.

Here are some tips on how to be more awesome:

Apprentice yourself to great work. Draw inspiration and learn from what others are doing.
Give side projects some front & center time. This will become your future, after all.
Focus on delicious details. Growth is about doing small things right. There are huge payoffs from tweaking small things.
Go long. We have no attention spans. But things take time. This is one to one … get into a long time horizon.
Share. Generate more value than you capture.
Ironically, it takes courage to do the things you love.

In short, don’t treat people like you’re just interested in selling something to them. Talk to them like they’re human beings. Marketers are using to talking AT people; now, learn to engage them in a conversation.

Finally, model the behavior in your organization. Show people what works. Show them new things.