Joseph Jaffe over at his blog Jaffe Juice recently asked the community to answer one question; Why are You Afraid to Join the Conversation?. I spent part of the weekend answering this question and thinking about what stops people from joining in. I thought I would post my answer and find out why you are afraid to join the conversation. I think the number one answer will always be fear, but I wanted to dig deeper then that and get at the, almost, subconscious reasons why we don’t always join in.

You might want to read the other responses, but here is my answer, without further ado:

Kevin Behringer, John Wall and Roman Mandrick have all touched on a topic, which is an enemy of both business and creativity… fear. People are afraid of messing up and having it become public knowledge. Fear is what stops people from following their heart and passion. Fear is what kills off a good idea because it’s different. Fear is the one thing we shouldn’t be using as to why we don’t join the conversation. However, there are four other reasons why people don’t join the conversation:

1. People are Lazy
2. Respect of Your Peers
3. Standing Out from the Crowd
4. No One is Out There and Listening

People Are Lazy
My generation is lazy; yeah there I said it. Sure we do MySpace, and Facebook but they don’t require real work or brains to have a conversation. They allow the lazy young person to say two or three words and call it something great, which it is not. You know how many blogs young people, who don’t want to work at maintaining them, dump or how many have big dreams and don’t want to work hard to get them… to many. Society is lazy as a whole and this needs to change.

Respect of Your Peers
We don’t feel like we are respected at times. I know I’ve felt this way recently from people older then me. Say what you will about my generation but respect and speaking to me as a person and not a kid, goes a long way. I think the ad agency CP + B said it best for their truth campaign ”Teenagers can’t stand being manipulated; they do not like being “played”.”

We all want to be respected and treated as an equal, but when the blogosphere has A-List and Z-List bloggers and people take that seriously. All we are doing is setting up a high school type hierarchic and no one wins in the end. We all want to be loved, we all want to be respected and we all know that some of the best ideas come out of left field. So if people don’t feel you respect them, they are not going to join in on the conversation.

Standing Out from the Crowd
No one wants to be different,.. so says the majority of people in the world. Having a viewpoint that is different from the vast majority of people is a freighting thought, but it’s a thought that needs to be embraced. When I look online and see that I’m the only one who thinks or feels a certain way, it’s hard to hit publish and let my thoughts out in the open because more times then not I will get flamed for speaking out. The online world has made being different wrong and this needs to stop.

Weather its Google buying a start-up or Edelman having a fake blog, people seem to start just saying what the majority has already said even if they don’t feel that way. We need to embrace radical ideas and opinions because that’s how the Internet has gotten to where it is and that’s only going to push it forward. Lets stand out from the crowd and not settle for mediocre and embrace those who do.

No One is Out There and Listening
When I don’t feel like I’m being listened too, it gets under my skin. Even if you open the channels of communication and don’t walk the talk, your community is going to know and be insulted. Before the Internet came along, people use to say writing a letter to a company is pointless as no one is going to care or read what I’ve to say. Now that we’ve the Internet, that has changed because I can gather with the collective and voice our concerns as one. It’s one thing to be out there and it’s another to actually listen. Listen to what we’ve to say and we’ll guide you to the promise land.

Conclusion
There was a reason I wrote this from the perspective of the consumer(s). Regardless of if you are a communication expert by day, we are all consumers by night and we need to keep that in mind. They can smell lies from a mile away and if you don’t write with passion, honesty and integrity, we will know. Never underestimate the intelligence of the consumer, it’s insulting. Some would say my thoughts are nothing new, but it’s a reality for more then some people. Remembering why you don’t join in on the conversations will help you create a better environment for an on-going two-way conversation with you consumers.

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