Look Ahead Where You Want to Go

I'm inspired by Britt Bravo's old (and new!) post, Look Ahead Where You Want to Go. She talks about how this simple advice is so easily forgotten in our daily lives:

I bought this very helpful and somewhat hilarious book by Norman Klein, Drive Without Fear. For 36 years, Mr. Klein taught mainly older women, whose husbands had died or become ill, how to drive. He devotes a whole chapter to steering. According to Norman, if you can steer, you can drive (and if you can't, forget it). He talks about students who watch the nose of the car or the emblem on their steering wheel to keep the car straight, and he tells them that the most important thing is to look straight ahead and to, "Look where you want to go."

This seems like such obvious advice, and yet many of his students look everywhere except in front of them. Some stare at stop signs as they approach and veer off towards the side of the road. One woman watches the scenery pass by her side windows. When he asked her why she does this she said, "I thought this car was automatic."

Applied to web and social media strategy: take a step back and remember the big picture. How does this post/tweet/share/whatever fit with your bigger objective? If it doesn't, it's just noise and it's dilluting your message. Choose quality over quantity.