What we learned at SXSW: “5 digital habits to rock your brand”

Last week we talked about “How to be flaw-some as a digital leader” from speaker Eric Qualman. We talked about what being flaw-some means by highlighting his most interesting points in his SXSW presentation.

Qualman also spoke about five digital habits to rock your brand, which are the keys to being a leader in a digital world. These habits are as follows.

1. Simplification

We are not realistically capable of what we like to call multi-tasking with our brains. We are in fact just switching from one task to another, not multi-tasking. The moment when we are doing what we think is multi-tasking – our IQ actually drops 15 points!
Become more productive by focusing on ONLY one thing at a time. Simplify your life as much as possible.

2. True

You must stay true to your brand, goals, and purpose as a digital leader.

What you want your digital stamp to be? Write down in 140 characters or less what you want your digital stamp to be when someone looks up your name or branding.
Stay true to your digital stamp and ideals.

 3. Act

We spend most of our time daily focusing on things like email, texting, and tweeting as digital leaders. We should be focusing on output rather than these things called throughput.

Throughput is ultimately meaningless.

            “Fail fast, fail forward, and fail better.” – Erik Qualman

This is why most of us don’t output because we don’t want to fail.
In the morning you should write down two things you want to get accomplished that day no matter what. Preferably before you even touch your mobile devices. As a digital leader you should have something to show for your work that day and “throughput” is not it.

4. Map

The way to get started and start achieving your goals is to quit talking and start doing.

Sometimes you have a strategic plan and map for what your goals are, but if you need to change course as a digital leader – this is okay.
Think about digital leaders like Steve Jobs. Jobs is a great example of this because he knew he wanted Apple to be this amazing digital brand and the best in the industry, but his plan didn’t work out exactly as he imagined. Jobs ended up running other companies and later coming back to Apple to finally achieve those goals he had for Apple. Sometimes your map may change but it is okay to take a detour if it gets you to the end goal.

5. People

Great digital leaders surround themselves with good people. When online and out in the real world.

Post it forward. Don’t replace the face to face, but when you don’t have time is when you post it forward. Once you give, you will get.

Look at linkedIn updates and congratulate people on their accomplishments, new positions, etc. According to neuroscience, it will actually make YOU happy by doing this and it will make the other person happy as well to feel acknowledged and appreciated.

Constantly network. You don’t want to wait until you need someone’s help to reach out to them.