{"id":3329,"date":"2014-11-20T02:01:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T02:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=3329"},"modified":"2014-11-20T02:03:25","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T02:03:25","slug":"what-makes-you-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/what-makes-you-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes You Beautiful?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving! I\u2019ll be celebrating with a team in Ecuador, but counting my many blessings. I continue to thank God for each of you and the wisdom and encouragement you bring to my life! And so, as this is our final blog for the semester, I thought I would have a little fun!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"LP1710-ONE-DIRECTION-on-stage\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Get ready. Are you ready? Do you know what Monday was? Monday was the day that One Direction dropped their fourth album! Count it. Four albums in four years. (Who is One Direction, those over 40 might ask? Only the biggest British boy band sensation since the Beatles!)<\/p>\n

Four albums debuting in the USA at number one on the Billboard charts. In just four short years, the five-member British-Irish boy band, after coming in third on the X-Factor, is the number one band in the world. Their first tour filled clubs. Their second tour filled arenas. Their most recent tour sold out in hours around the world, filling stadiums with 40,000 to 100,000 screaming fans at each show. It\u2019s absolute pandemonium. Yes, they\u2019re cute. Yes, they have catchy music. But a large part of their success is due to the excitement and the following they have created on social media. Over 37 million likes on Facebook. A combined 114.2 million Twitter followers. A combined 32.4 million Instagram followers. (And yes, I actually went to each of their individual sites, plus the band sites, to do the math!)<\/p>\n

Naturally, One Direction was the first thing that popped into my mind when reading Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead <\/em>by Charlene Li. This important book explains how Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yammer, Jive and other popular social media sites can improve efficiency, communication, and decision-making for leaders and their organizations. Li summarizes her thesis as this: \u201cBy embracing social media, leaders can transform their organizations to become more effective, decisive, and ultimately more profitable in this new era of openness in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, of course, I do not consider One Direction leaders, or even personal role models; however, these boys know the power of social technology. They seem to have mastered how to be \u201copen\u201d on social media while maintaining control of their product. As Li wrote, \u201cThe key challenge to making centralized decision making more open is not to involve more people in the actual decision, but to open up information sharing in both directions, so that those in power have the right information on which to base their decisions.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

One Direction has seemed to master the use of the \u201copen mic\u201d concept. Most recently, that have taken to Twitter to encourage participation in deciding their next single, \u201cWhat song do you want to hear next? Why?\u201d They built anticipation for their next video by releasing on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook a fifteen second snippet for five consecutive days to whet the appetite of their followers. This worked, as their fans broke the record of viewings in one 24-hour period.<\/p>\n