Everyone's a Small Business

One of the sexy, mindblowing things about social media is that everyone's a channel. What you say / do / make / like can now be piped into the heads of millions in a real-time basis. Every human being on the planet is a few keystrokes away from becoming the next superstar.

Or so it seems.

What we forget is that, for every accidental "overnight success," there are 99 people who work their tails off for a piece of the pie. And THAT kind of success doesn't happen overnight, or by accident -- it happens because of old-fashioned values:

- Dedication
- Quality
- Communication
- Value
- Community

What it means is that, if you drop one video in the YouTube stream and it DOESN'T happen to get swept up in the tide and turn you into a household name overnight, you'll find yourself in the exact same boat as everyone else in the world who's trying to be heard / seen / loved.

And what separates them from you?

- Dedication
- Quality
- Communication
- Value
- Community

We might all be channels, but no one interacts with those channels if they don't know they exist. And even successful channels can still fall silent if they're not carefully managed.

- Time management
- Resource management
- Workflow
- Personnel
- Cash flow

Welcome to social media, where everyone's a channel AND a small business -- and you'd better be at least competent at each or else you'll never be heard.