An interesting analogy to my professional life these days came to mind this weekend while helping my 95-year-old father build his compost pile. Composting is what I do for a living. Fertlizer is that with which I compete.

See, fertilizer is convenient. Everybody uses it. It's readily available, it comes in tidy bags, and makes things grow… for awhile. But after many applications, you have to add more and more for the same result. After that, there's little, if any, organic matter in the soil. And, the run off has polluted the rivers, lakes, and streams. Fertilizer, like traditional advertising and establishment PR, is a one-way street. It doesn't give back to the soil. There's no organic dialogue.

Compost is like social media. It's time-consuming. Messy. It works to an unpredictable timetable. It is a whole lot more interested in a small amount of the very best result than in a ton of stuff that achieves nothing, or worse! To compost is to accept the natural order of things. You can't force it or shout it to life. It has to want to participate and it has to be nourished.

But the end result is something real and rich and lasting. It's authentic. And it is transparent in the sense that there isn't anything in there you don't know about and can't see for yourself or that won't hold up to analysis.

Are we in the age of fertilizer? Are dead monologues inevitable? Maybe. But I see it trending the other way.

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