I’ve been writing a lot about the cognitive research around sharing, content shock and emotions. You’re ready for that to be done. You want the “5 Things You Can Do Today to Rock Facebook!” post.

Every day I have a enormous number of sites I visit to glean articles that will be valuable for you and me (entrepreneurs, small business owners, professionals, social media consultants, digital storytellers…you know who you are…). The bulk of them fall into the category of “listicles” – lists masquerading as articles, or vice versa. I scan a number of them because I believe that there is always something to learn. If I can get one good nugget from an 400-word listicle, I’m OK with it. However, I get the impression that these posts are written with the frantic business owner/marketer as the target. With little depth, the writer presents a ‘quick hit’, small number of seemingly easy items you can do that will totally jack your Facebook/Twitter/Google+/Pinterest/Instagram/LinkedIn/YouTube account. Anything goes: When is the right time to post? How long should the post be? What is the Perfect Content Mix? How to make it ‘go viral’? And so on, ad infinitum….

It’s all about the minutiae, the checklist, and not about the person. It’s about the list of things you can hand to your office manager to do in a half hour, and not about any kind of analysis, strategy, your customers, or how to measure your success…..and what, exactly, IS success for your business here?

My writing pulls the view back from these things and refocuses on people. It’s the essence and foundation of “Youtility” and #H2H marketing. The foundational tenet of my business is communication with people AS people, not as archetypes or personae. I’m not pushing the idea that you need to be a behavioral psychologist or market researcher to be able to create a valuable Facebook post that your audience finds irresistible. I realize that a personal, one-to-one conversation with each of your customers doesn’t scale. However, I absolutely believe few of us work hard enough to understand the basics, the what, how and why, of our interactions and motivations, especially how these basics show up online. Really.

Once we spend some time diving into these areas together, and then looking at all the possibilities and effective resource allocation (read “how much time and effort will this take to do well?”), what you must do becomes more clear and is much more likely to succeed. You’re working with two of the most variable things that exist: human beings and the Internet! Within that context, though, you can better figure out how things work, and how to adjust when they need adjusting.

• Mark W. Schaefer – His {grow} blog is a regular read of mine, and his most current book, The Content Code, warrants several passes through, if only to be sure to absorb all of the guidance and ideas. You can follow him on Twitter @markwschaefer.
• Bryan Kramer – Foremost proponent of #H2H (Human-to-Human) marketing, Bryan’s blog is a rich source of commentary, videos and podcasts for the digital marketer who’s willing to deepen your understanding and gain tactical tips on the challenges and opportunities around enriching your customers’ relationships with your brand and being authentic about it. His book, There is No B2B or B2C: It’s Human to Human : #H2H, is foundational. Follow him on Twitter @bryankramer.
• Jay Baer – Jay’s book, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help not Hype, changed my views on the power of marketing to do good, add value AND make a business more valuable to its customers and audience. His blog is very highly regarded by content marketing professionals and full of goodies. Follow him on Twitter @jaybaer.
• Jason Falls – Jason is a No-Nonsense guy. As a result, anything he writes or says concerning the areas of digital marketing in any form carries the weight of experience and a large number of scars, working past the misconceptions, fake “gurus”, and through the solid logic of the value of social for a business.  He has his own business blog as well as a long-standing relationship with a blog he started years ago, Social Media Explorer. The most recent book of his that I’ve read is No Bullshit Social Media and it is exactly as advertised. I highly recommend it. You may also follow him on Twitter @JasonFalls (https://twitter.com/jasonfalls).