Oh, how we love our buzzwords, eh?

My head is spinning lately, and unfortunately it’s not with great stuff. It’s with frustration, distrust, and apathy. Those are heavy words, I know – but I’m feeling them.

How I do love these social media. I really do. Connections I’ve made on Twitter, Facebook, through my blog and by attending valuable events like Podcamps and PAB have literally changed my life. I’m a better writer now. I’m a public speaker. I’m teaching others how to work and play and grow their businesses with digital communications. 3 years ago I’d have thought none of it was possible.

And that’s why I’m so upset by what I’m seeing these days. The proliferation of snake oil salesmen, bad advice, and buzzwords that mean nothing is making me crazy. People are being swindled into paying thousands of dollars to attend conferences so they can be sold more fluffy eBooks and hardcovers. They are being forced to listen to the same presenters drone on about the same old stuff, as if it’s the wisdom of the ages. And people are getting suckered into it left, right and centre.

Be Authentic! Engage with your Customers! Increase your Influence!

Wait…wait. Think about those three words for a minute.

Authenticity. Well, I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, my parents told me over and over again, “Just be yourself, and people will love you!”. If I lied to my parents and they found out – ZAP! No TV for a week. I was encouraged to be authentic, honest and truthful in my interactions. If I wasn’t, there were consequences. Therefore, I grew up being…well….Authentic.

Engagement. Being a military family, we moved around a lot when I was a kid. We were always posted in the summer, so the first step upon moving into a new neighbourhood was that my brother and I would have to go out and meet the other kids. Mom would stealthily identify in advance which houses on our street had kids my age, then she’d give me a gentle shove out the door. “Go to number 45, I think I saw a girl your age over there.”

“But Mom, I don’t want t…”

“Just go knock on the door, dear. They won’t bite!”

I’d suck up my courage and walk down the street and knock ever so quietly on the door. A parent would answer.

“Is your daughter home?”

“She’s in the back yard. Why don’t you go around?”.

I’d wander cautiously into the back yard, walk up to the little girl, and say “Hi, my name is Susan. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I like your Barbies.”, just like my Mom taught me. Say your name, be polite, compliment the other person. Engage with them on their level. Hey – that sounds familiar.

Yep – apparently I learned Engagement when I was 6 years old, too.

Influence. On the playground, we always had to figure out what game we were going to play next. Hide and Seek? Tag? Red Rover? The bigger the group, the harder it was to decide. But, there were always those in the group that seemed to be able to sway our opinions. They’d give compelling reasons like, “Well, there’s 15 of us today, so Red Rover would be the most fun”. Sometimes we’d listen to them because they’d provide a more risky option – one that, if our parents found out, we’d probably get in trouble.

These select few had influence over the group. Why? Well, sometimes they tended to be the older kids, so in our eyes they knew more. But age didn’t always define it. Sometimes the influential ones were just the ones that said stuff that made sense. If we did it their way, we’d for sure have more fun. We’d take a bigger risk. We’d try (and maybe even learn) something new.

Soon, I learned how to come up with creative ideas that would influence the group. I’d voice my opinion, and sometimes, other kids would listen to me too. I may have not been the most popular kid back then, but I discovered I could influence when I wanted to.

So I guess I learned Influence on the playground.

So, if the concepts of Engagement, Authenticity and Influence were learned when we were kids, why are we hanging on the every word of the people who know little, and do nothing but tow the line? Someone telling me that in order to be successful in social media, I need to Engage, be Authentic, and increase my Influence is like someone treating me like I’m 6 years old. And that’s kind of insulting, don’t you think? Can you see why I’m frustrated?

To be human, you need to understand these three concepts. It should go without saying that all of your interactions, online, offline, in person, in social media, writing a letter, going to the post office, visiting your Grandma, should be Authentic, Engaging and Influential. That’s humanity, not social media.

Well, maybe this doesn’t make any sense, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. But before you do that, please watch this 4 minute video from my friend Andrea Ross. Because she is the embodiment of the things we SHOULD be paying attention to when it comes to being successful in this space. Thank you, Andrea, for your thoughts, your wisdom and your inspiration. You’re the real deal.

[photo credit: albyper on Flickr]

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I had a little talk with Scarborough Dude last night.

It’s sort of a biannual thing, my little talks with the Dude. It usually revolves around a Podcamp, some coffee or a beer. It always makes me want to write. He’s a wise man.

Last night’s talk took place in a loud, boisterous room filled with laughter and music. It was the Saturday night Podcamp Toronto social bash, an event that infuses the “social” in social media, brings online friends together in an offline way and adds a new dimension to already strong bonds.

The Dude and I surveyed the scene before us, taking in the moment. The Dude leaned over to me and said, “Can you feel it? Can you feel the vibe of this place? That’s what this is all about. People being free.”

I thought about that for a minute, the same way I think about most things the Dude says. And then I realized some things.

It starts with the environment. It has just dawned on me, after attending a total of 8 un-conferences (does that make me a veteran?) why the format of these events is so genius. It’s free. Not  just free, in the monetary sense. The entire concept is one of freedom. It doesn’t matter who I am, where I come from, how old I am, what I know or don’t know, how I dress, how much money I have, or what colour my hair is. I can decide I want to share something, and in one click I can become part of the event. I am free to tell my story and start a conversation around it. Others are free to join that conversation. The fundamental point of an un-conference is freedom of expression. And when there is total freedom of expression in an environment, amazing things start to happen.

Anyone can be a rock star. It’s common knowledge that at unconference events, everyone gets a chance. The playing field is completely leveled. Noobs hang out with A-listers. PR pros party with podcasters. Students mingle with CEOs. It happens because everyone that walks in the door is automatically given rock star status. The rule is that judgement and egos are to be left at the door, and all people are given equal freedom to express and connect. When this starts to happen, when it’s really working, it becomes what the Dude calls “The Vibe”.

Authenticity is an amazing thing. It’s a common misconception that New Media Un-conferences are about technology…that in order to get anything out of it you’ve got to be a tech geek of some sort. That could not be further from the truth. In fact, these are not technology events at all. They are human events. And because they are human events, they require one thing that enables freedom. They require the humans to be 100% real. Fortunately for this community, that realness comes quite naturally. And I think I’ve finally figured out why.

The medium IS the message. There are Bloggers, podcasters, Tweeters, Facebook status updaters, and media-makers of all kinds. We all tell different stories, stories that are unique to who we are. That’s a beautiful thing. But what is most fascinating isthat new media gives everyone the power to freely express themselves in their chosen format. Because of this inherent fact, we have inadvertently created a culture of freedom. When new media-makers converge in a single space, such as an un-conference, we  are already free, because we’ve been so good at expressing ourselves till now. When we get together in person, that sense of freedom proliferates at a rapid rate through the room. Our culture of freedom means we come into the space already accepting each other and respecting each person’s individuality and authenticity. And when a room full of people are completely free, accepting and authentic, an amazing thing happens. The energy changes. Everyone feels that Vibe of which the Dude so eloquently speaks. And for that time, we really are, completely free.

There are so many lessons we can learn from this. Freedom does not begin and end behind the walls of a conference. It’s something that we, as media-makers, inherently have. It’s something we have to offer others…from the people who consume our content, to our clients, to the people we love. Freedom begins with being true to yourself. It thrives when everyone follows suit. The Dude lives this. I am learning it. And the really cool part?  We can and will continue to create, share, and connect in the way that we choose.

Isn’t that the ultimate freedom?

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I’m watching with interest today a post written my my friend Danny Brown yesterday about a fake Twitter site. You can go read the post, and the comments if you like (WARNING: some of the comments contain some off-colour language).

This isn’t a post about the fake Twitter site, and it’s not a post about the silly comments it generated from the fake-Twitter site creators and their friends. This is a post about you.

In his post, Danny asks a very pertinent question – what if suddenly, someone took over your personal or professional brand (or your client’s) and started posing on social networks, saying all the wrong things, treating people badly or spreading untruths about you and your brand?

Think about it. You’ve worked for months, maybe a year or more, on creating a “social media” marketing strategy for your client. (Forget that you shoudn’t be creating marketing strategies focused on only social media, but that’s another post.) Then one day, a few Google searches reveal that someone is trying to damage you or your client through a fake ID, or a fake site. As Danny points out in his post, it would be pretty easy to do with the kind of thing the fake Twitter site was doing (it’s since been shut down, but that’s another story too).

The smart marketers are building contingency and damage control plans into their media strategies to counteract these kinds of threats. I’m not too worried about them. But the whole idea’s got me thinking on an even larger scale.

Forget impostors. What if suddenly, Twitter was gone? Or Facebook? Ning? WordPress? Sure, it’s unlikely these tools will just disappear. But what if?

Companies, agencies and individuals are putting thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours, and a ton of blood, sweat and tears into building their marketing strategies around a bunch of free tools, created by a bunch of people they don’t know. What strikes me is that people put all their faith into the tools without a second thought, but when it comes to each other, it’s about building trust and relationships over the long term. Shouldn’t we be subjecting the social media tools we’re using to the same kind of scrutiny to which we subject each other?

Why do we have so much faith that these tools are even going to be around next week, let alone next year? Who is to say that they don’t crumple under their own weight, get eaten up by some giant corporation, or simply, that something better comes along? All of these things are happening now – yet people still continue to focus all their efforts around the tools.

So what’s the solution? How do we stop relying so much on these tools and get on to the real work? Well, the good news is you don’t have to hire some fancy consultant to figure it out, because I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

Social media is not about the tools.

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I read two really great blog posts this morning. One was from a person I’ve followed for some time, Kat French. The other was from someone I just met today, Wayne Kelly. The posts at first seem quite different. Kat is talking about 5 social media topics she could do without. Wayne is talking about how working hard and following your dreams is the secret to a happy life. I encourage you to go read them both.

What I found interesting is that even though both posts are about different topics, they are two sides of the same coin.

Kat points out an issue that she has (and many of us have) with what I like to call the social media bubble – a bunch of yim yams sitting around talking about the social media mumbo jumbo, posing at conferences, and complaining incessantly about inane topics like missing tweets or Facebook interface changes.

Wayne on the other hand, writes an insightful and autobiographical post about how he went from being on a career path that wasn’t right for him to being successful and happy after discovering his passion and seizing it.

Let’s explore what these posts have in common.

Every day, I find myself becoming more and more frustrated with this whole social media thing – to the point where I’m ruthlessly unfollowing and unsubscribing to people who don’t provide me value anymore. Spend all your time on Twitter talking about Twitter? Unfollow. Waste a blog post talking about all the social media “faux-lebrities” you got to drink beer with at SXSW? Unsubscribe. I’m not buying it, people. We’ve all had plenty of time to sit around with our eyeballs on our bellybuttons. Mark my words, if you are still doing it, you’re going to get left in the dust. Things are moving far too fast for you to still be circling your wagons around the possibility that someone’s going to find a viable business model in social media.

So what’s the solution? Well, for starters, how about trying to do some real work? Let’s explore what that means for a minute.

How To Know When Real Work is Getting Done

1. People who go to conferences just to hang out with rock stars are not doing real work. People who go to conferences because they are speaking at them, representing a client, or ACTUALLY trying to drum up new business contacts are doing real work.
2. People who talk about Twitter on Twitter all day long are not doing real work. People who use Twitter to connect, communicate, collaborate, and even socialize are doing real work.
3. People who sit around and talk all day about how busy they are are not doing real work. They are being busy. The people who are actually making things happen are doing real work.
4. The size of your bank account does not determine how hard you work. There are lots of lazy rich people. However, the amount of passion and drive and conviction you have can SIGNIFICANTLY affect the size of your bank account. And that, takes, you guessed it – real work.

Now, let’s take a look at Wayne’s post. Point number one that he makes is the title itself. “Stop Moaning and Make it Happen”. In other words, stop sitting around all day complaining about crap and actually go out and start doing some real work.

Wayne goes on to describe the long journey he had to take to wind up where he is now – as a video producer/editor/sound guy. He had to do crappy jobs, flunk out of school, and “in the meantime” jobs. All the while, though, he was doing one thing. Real work. Yup – even though he hated it at times. He still did real work. And while he did that real work, he thought about what he really wanted to do. While he still had that paycheck coming in, he learned to edit, and produce. Fate interjected and allowed him an opportunity to learn from a pro. Note how he seized that opportunity. He now was doing even MORE real work.

Wayne says something in his piece that is so true and is the entire point of this post.

“Work hard – but on the right things.”

That’s real work, people. Does it relate to passion? Of course. Does it mean sometimes it’s a means to an end? Absolutely – but that’s an important part of the process.

The real secret to success is not to walk around acting like you are a success. You WILL be found out eventually. The secret is to shut up. Sit down. And figure out what real, actual work you need to do to make stuff happen in your life. If your job is boring (or your don’t have one), then sitting around on Twitter all day is not going to help you. Sure, it might give you some connections. But it’s not going to change your situation for you.

You are the only one who can do that. Kat points it out. Wayne proves it.

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This morning I’ll be heading to Toronto for a weekend of connecting, sharing, learning and of course, fun at Podcamp. It’s been a long time since I’ve been really excited about attending an event. Perhaps it’s because I don’t get to go to many events. Perhaps it’s because I’m getting the chance to meet up with some people I haven’t seen in a while, and actually meet some people I’ve only known online until now.

The whole thing has me thinking about this online social community that I’m privileged to be part of.

I’ve been fortunate throughout my life to live in many different cities, be exposed to many different cultures, and work in many different industries. As a result, I have friends from just about every walk of life you can imagine. It’s terrific. Some I am very close with. With others I’m more of a good acquaintance. Each of them are special to me in their own way.

But there’s something about this relatively new group of friends I’ve discovered in the past couple of years. For some reason, even though I haven’t known these people for that long, and even though I don’t see them every day, or have even met some of them face to face, I feel very close to them. And today, it occurred to me why the Web allows for these close relationships to happen, in spite of the lack of geographical or physical connection.

You see, when you meet someone the traditional way – at work, through a mutual friend, or even by chance – the connection is very one on one. The relationship is built through a series of individual conversations. Often you only get a certain perspective on a person at first. You get to know them only in the context of your own interaction with them. But in the world of social media, we’re many. Talking to many.

So, not only are you getting the one on one stuff, and connecting on that level – you are also seeing many other dimensions of the person at the same time. You see their creative expression on their blog. You see their business side through their business-type profiles (think LinkedIn). And perhaps, most importantly, you are privvy to their conversations with others. You see how they interact, many different facets of their personality appear at once, depending upon who they are talking to.

The result? You get to know the person a lot better, a lot faster than you normally would.

And this, I think, is the primary reason why my online friends mean so much to me. Because I see all of them. And they see all of me. And that, is why I love this place, and why I love these friends.

Looking forward to seeing you again, meeting you finally, and getting to know you if you’re new.

Love,
Suze.

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As some of you may know, this semester I’m teaching a course at Algonquin College on Web Media. We’re talking about and doing everything from blogging to podcasting to social networking and anything else that falls under the Web 2.0 umbrella.

What I love about this course is that though I was given a basic outline by the college, I’ve pretty much been given free reign to design the course the way I want. This means, not only do I get to come up with all the fun activities we get to do, but I get to hand pick who I’m going to bring in to help me teach the stuff.

Today we were fortunate to welcome my friend, Information Architect extraordinaire Jeff Parks to the class. I knew the students were in for a treat, as Jeff is one of the most passionate speakers I know. Perhaps it’s because if his info architect nature, but the guy can analogize like nobody’s business. And, he’s funny as heck, too.

Needless to say, the class was enthralled for the whole hour he was with us, as he discussed how people disseminate data into real value and how understanding the way people communicate is absolutely vital to succeeding in the online world. Many thanks to Jeff for his invaluable contribution to today’s class.

After Jeff left, we were back to business, and today was the day the students were presenting their second assignment, about online communities. Their task was to work in pairs, and research an online community. They could pick any community they wanted, but they had to explore it thoroughly – what tools were being used, how people were being encouraged to participate, and so on.

Well, not only was I extremely impressed with the quality of the students’ presentations, but I was quite pleased to have been reminded of some interesting facts in the process.

Social media ain’t the only game in town. So here we all are, us social media types, Twittering and blogging away about Twittering and blogging. Meanwhile, out there (I mean, still in the online world – just outside of the social media bubble) there are communities upon communities chock full of wonderful people connecting in amazing ways. It’s true! Go look for yourselves!

Today I heard presentations from my class about online communities that exist around sports (Canadian sports broadcaster TSN is doing some really cool stuff), video games, 3-D animation, local independent music and even candy! Yes, entire online communities exist about CANDY. There are blogs, forums, podcasts, and videos a-plenty in these communities. And most importantly, there are lots and lots and LOTS of people hanging out in these communities. Are they all on Twitter? Well, a few are. Are they all blogging and Facebooking – yep, quite a few, and their numbers are growing. Are they participating in forums and having conversations and connecting? In droves!

Go on, go look! Here’s a task for you – take a walk outside the bubble this week. Do some searches for other stuff that interests you besides social media (or even stuff that doesn’t interest you that much). You will be amazed at what you find. The thing is, the candy lovers, gamers, sports fanatics, and musicians that are out there interacting in these communities? I bet if you asked them, a lot of them wouldn’t even know that what they are doing is social media. They are just out there. Interacting, contributing, and connecting, without even thinking twice about how to do it better or more effectively. We can learn a lot from watching what’s going on out there.

Ooh! More secret sauce. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. The answers we’re looking for, on how to build better communities and use social media more effectively? They’re already out there. In the candy community, and the sports community, and the gamer community. Go check! You’ll see what I mean.

The thinkers have their place. Now, I’m not trying to say that studying social media, analyzing it like crazy and teaching people how to use social media more effectively is not useful. It’s extremely useful, and not only would I be dead wrong, I’d be putting myself out of a job if I said otherwise.

What I AM saying is that we need to remember that the echo chamber is alive and well, and that once in a while, we need to turn our radar outwards. We need to stop talking to each other, and start talking to the communities themselves. So do you still need to be thinking about social media in these terms? If it’s part of your business, then absolutely. Just don’t forget about the Candy People in the process, or your view will be too narrow and too skewed.

Why I teach. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Teaching, although it is only a smallish part of what I do for a living, is absolutely one of the most rewarding parts of my job. Why? Because I get to talk to people about things I love to talk about, like video and blogging and writing and geeky tech stuff. But what I also love is that every time I go into that classroom, I’m learning too. Thanks to my class today, I gained a new perspective on my work in this space. And for that I’m very grateful!

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I woke up with a word in my head this morning: Influence. I find it’s always helpful to start with a definition.

Influence: the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.

Influence is a big player out here in cyberspace (yeah, I know, “cyberspace” – I’m feeling rather retro today). In some ways, it makes the social media world go round. Trends, memes, and buzz, though generated by anyone,  are typically proliferated through people who have a certain amount influence in the space. In other words, it’s one thing to have the ability to spread an idea to 100 people. It’s entirely another to have the ability to spread it to 30,000.

Too much of a good thing. Is it possible to have too much influence? Well, there is a down side to influence. If you have a community of people around you who are hanging on your every word, waiting for the next stroke of brilliance typed out in 140 characters or through your latest blog or podcast, what happens if one day you wake up and you’re not feeling so brilliant? Let’s say the ideas (or more likely, the time) dry up to the point that your usual prolificity just can’t be maintained any longer? What happens to influence then?

Smooch. I have a pet peeve to confess. If there’s one thing that really bugs me, it’s when 80% of the comments in a blog post are “Great post!” “You’re so terrific!” “I agree with everything you say, all the time!”. Why does it bug me so much? Because, while I think there is nothing wrong with commending someone on a post well written, it shouldn’t be the ONLY thing in your comment. The whole idea of commenting is to converse.

There’s a lot of virtual back-patting going on out here (and that’s the polite term I’m using – I could call it something else that contains the word “kissing”, but I’m too nice).  There’s very little value in that. Influencers are conversation starters. They want your contribution, not your gush.

The gold is often in the comments. One of the things that Influencers are particularly good at is getting people talking in a valuable way. There are plenty of great examples out there of the comments being better than the original post. This is what I love about blogging. Even my own less influential blog has been known to have some great comment streams. It’s so fun to get others’ take on things, to see different perspectives presented so well in one place. It’s one of the reasons I read influential blogs. Influence, in this way, is very useful.

You can’t please all the people… So what happens if suddenly, Ms. Influential does or says something that is decidedly unpopular? The more influence you have, the more potential there is for having to do damage control. Or is there? The great thing about the Web is that it’s a place where we all get to express ourselves – even if our opinion isn’t the most popular all the time. However, throw influence into that mix and after a while, your audience can start to become a bit fickle. They demand that you keep giving them more of the good stuff (read: the stuff that they agree with). And if you steer off track, and start doing something else? Well, in no uncertain terms, you’ll hear about it.

So, is influence a good thing? Certainly. There are many, many people out here doing and saying some really smart, compelling, thought provoking, and industry-altering things about marketing, communications and media right now. It’s important to listen carefully to what they have to say.

BUT.

At the end of the day, what you see and read and hear out here is mostly opinion. Like this post. I’m no expert on influence. I haven’t done any studies. This blog post isn’t based on anything but my own observations of the space. The beauty of it is, if you think I’m full of crap, you can tell me. Then I can tell you back why I don’t think I’m full of crap.

Influencers are vital to the community, yes. But they are people too, and they are entitled to keep doing what they are doing without having to kowtow to the demands of those being influenced.

What’s your take on influence? On being influenced? Over to you, in the comments. (Oh, and feel free to tell me I’m full of crap).

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I love being inspired by other people’s blog posts. Speaking of inspirational, have you met Jon Swanson? I’ve been a fan of Jon’s for well over a year. His blog, Levite Chronicles, is one of the first blogs I go to every morning. Jon blogs about life, faith, family, work, new media…really, a bit of everything. What I love about Jon is how he so thoughtfully and carefully crafts each post, in a way that leaves you with a sense of clarity and plenty to ponder.

This morning, he wrote a wonderful post called “Accumulate or Collect”. It’s required reading for my post so go read it now. I’ll wait.

Great, you’re back.

Jon describes his enjoyment of coffee (we are kindred spirits that way) and the many coffee mugs he has as a result. Despite having vast quantities of mugs adorning the shelves of his office, he considers himself an “accumulator” of mugs as opposed to a “collector”. He goes on to cleverly point out that a collector “has discernment”, whereas an accumulator has none. Collectors are meticulous about what they collect, how they categorize and label things, and how they track the value of their collections.

My brother collects coins. It’s obvious that it’s a collection because it’s all perfectly labelled, organized and tracked. He knows what he has and how much it’s worth to him. In other words, he isn’t just accumulating a random pile of coins on a shelf in his office.

Accumulators, on the other hand, may like the things they have accumulated very much, but they don’t necessarily have a rhyme or reason for it. Jon accumulates coffee mugs. I accumulate fridge magnets. I don’t really care where they come from, as long as I get them while I’m visiting a place, or they are given to me by someone who has been there. They aren’t labelled, they are just stuck on my fridge, willy nilly. They are an accumulation.

Jon’s article teaches a great lesson about how we deal with the information that comes at us. We can just accumulate all this stuff in our heads, and not really put much thought into it, or, we can start to really collect that information – meaning sort it, discern it, get rid of what doesn’t work, make use of what does.

And that brings me, naturally, to social media.

Followers, followees, friends and fans. Anyone who is in to social media has some combination of all of these. It’s the foundation of this vast online community we’re in, for without that two-way connection none of this would be effective.

Have you ever really sat down to think if your base of connections is a collection or an accumulation? If you put it in context of Jon’s definitions, then an “accumulation” of connections is just that. It’s not thought out, not categorized. It’s just a whole lot of numbers. If your goal on any of the social media tools is to just have the most friends or followers on your list, then you’re missing the point. If you are simply accumulating numbers, then you aren’t making real connections. If you are sitting around, tracking (and caring) if your numbers are growing steadily or if you are in steep decline, then you are missing the point. If you are complaining to every person that unfollows you, you are missing the point.

Collections are what it’s all about. I can pretty well categorize my social media connections. I have business connections, friendship connections, people I just joke around with, people who I am fans of, and people who I learn from. I have categories for subjects, too. There are people I talk to about music, entrepreneurship, books, tech gadgets, video, or pets. Do people fall into more than one category? To be sure! I suppose, if I wanted to get really fancy about it, I could map my connections, see how it’s all linked.

What’s important with a collection is that even though each item in the collection may have a different purpose, they must all do one thing – provide value. If I collect postage stamps, I’m not going to have a big pack of regular stamps that you put on a letter in my collection. They are noise to my collection. I am going to seek out the unique, interesting stamps though. The ones with stories. The ones with something to contribute to my collection.

My networks are the same way. If I follow or friend someone who only contributes noise to my conversations, then I don’t find value there. It’s nothing personal. I may not see the value, simply because the content of that person’s stream is not aligned with my interests. Someone else may find tremendous value in the same person.

The people I welcome into my network are the ones that are providing me with something unique, interesting, entertaining, and valuable. To me. It doesn’t mean it has to be valuable to you. It’s my collection. The beauty of collections, because they are meticulously put together the way you want them to be, is they become uniquely your own.

So, to accumulate or collect? It’s a provocative question. Look around your network. Is your collection something you’d be proud to show off? But more importantly, is your collection providing you with value?

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The other night I went to a party. There were probably about 40 people in and out of the place the whole night. Oddly, I knew only about 6 or 7 of them (unusual for this particular circle). We had lots of fun, the wine was flowing, the food was delicious, and our hostess with the mostest was gracious as always.

At one point, I stood back in the corner to observe the scene, as I often like to do at such minglings. Something very odd struck me. Not one person was reading their Blackberry. Not one person was checking their iPhone. Nobody had a Bluetooth headset sticking out of their ear. And there certainly wasn’t a MacBook to be found in the place.

Lately, I’ve been going to a lot of social gatherings with other techno-geeky types. At these types of parties, the technology flows as plentiful as the wine. People are texting, Twittering, taking digital photos and posting them to Flickr, and of course, laptops abound. It’s just part of our culture. We’d never do these things in mixed company  (well, most of us wouldn’t), but don’t consider it rude or antisocial when we’re around each other.

It’s not that the people at this party were not computer folk – quite the contrary. I met IT specialists, communications and PR people, and programmers. It’s just that they aren’t necessarily as IN to all this social media stuff as I am. As you might be.

As I struck up conversations with people and got around to the inevitable “what do you do?” part of the conversation, people were interested in what I do with Web and video. I mentioned some video podcast projects we are working on. Another friend mentioned a social media consulting gig I’m working on with her. I got a variety of reactions, from the “Hey cool, we need to talk” to the sort of blank stare, polite, “oh, that’s neat”.

It made me realize something really important, talking to all of these people. I’ve talked about the social media bubble here before. I firmly believe that we get so caught up in all this social media stuff that we forget that there is a vast portion of the population that has no idea what we are talking about. It’s not through any fault of their own – in fact, it’s probably partly OUR fault that they don’t know more about it, or care more about it.

Here’s a couple of interesting observations I made through the conversations I had that night:

Social Media Ain’t for Everyone. One group of people got to talking about Twitter that evening (at no prompting from me, I might add!). One of the members of the group said “Twitter? Yah I’ve heard of it. I have no use for something like that.” She made an interesting point. Social media isn’t for everyone. And because it isn’t for everyone, we still need multiple channels to talk to everyone. And that, my friends, is the reason why things like TV and newspaper aren’t really on death’s doorstep as much as people inside the bubble like to imagine them to be.

Social Media is Still a Mystery. Of the people I had conversations with about technology and communications, several of them were interested in finding out more about how all this stuff works. The truth is, a lot of people out there still only use the Web for email and to find company web sites, and MAYBE some online shopping. Heck, I talked to one person who still uses dial-up because she “wasn’t online enough to justify the cost of high speed”. Not online enough? Does that still happen? My point is, if you are IN to technology, then social networks and blogs and podcasting and Twittering and such is second nature. You can’t imagine life without it. Truth is, life DOES exist without these things. This online community stuff is still a mystery to a lot of people. Does it mean that we need to go out there and evangelize till we’re blue in the face, “converting” everyone we meet? (Grasshoppa, follow me…I will show you the ways of the Interwebz…)

Absolutely not.

What it DOES mean, is we need to have REAL conversations with people about the things that matter to them. Then, and only then, will we see if any of this social media stuff would be beneficial to helping them to meet their goals. If I go to a party and an insurance salesman comes up to me and starts to immediately sell me insurance that I don’t need, I’m not going to spend much time talking to him. Same holds true for me. If I walk up to everyone I know and start pimping social media as the must-have, be all and end all of existence, I’m not going to make a lot of friends.

Don’t ever assume that everyone is going to care about social media. Some may very well care, and if helping people with social media is part of your business, you’ll definitely want to find another time to connect with those people on that level. But the truth is, some may not really care at all. But that’s okay too. You can still be friends. Because there’s more to life than social media. And those “offline” friends you have just might help to open your eyes to some things you’ve never noticed from your cozy spot inside the bubble.

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Suppose all the information stored on computers everywhere were linked, I thought. Suppose I could program my computer to create a space in which anything could be linked to anything.” — Tim Berners-Lee, “Weaving the Web”.

It all started with a simple link.

Contrary to popular belief, Tim Berners-Lee didn’t invent the concept of “hypertext”. There were guys like Ted Nelson and Doug Englebart toying with the concept back in the 1960′s. But Berners-Lee was the guy that did something remarkable with that concept. His vision, that any piece of information could be linked to any other piece of information, gave birth to what we know today as the World Wide Web. Not since the invention of the telephone has there been such a fundamental shift in the way human beings communicate.

And it’s kind of throwing us for a loop, don’t you think?

I’m a firm believer that in order to know where we are going, we must know where we have come from. That’s why Berners-Lee’s book, “Weaving the Web”, sits beside me while I work away on my computers every day, exploring and creating and expanding my understanding of what is really going on in this new medium. I reference it often, for I find that for all the time we spend trying to figure out what all this Web 2.0 business is about, much of it has already been put forth by guys like Berners-Lee.

Though we originally took the Web to be a simply a means of presenting information, Berners-Lee actually invented the Web as a means of communication and collaboration. 12 years after its rise in popularity, we are finally figuring that part out. It’s not wrong that we didn’t get it right away. It was necessary for it to evolve to that point.

When Alexander Graham Bell first invented the telephone, he had spend a lot of time convincing the rest of the world of its usefulness. It wasn’t immediately apparent. After all, if I wanted to talk to someone far away, I could just mail them a letter, and if I wanted to talk to my neighbour down the street, I could just go over to them. Why would I ever need to call them on a telephone?

Nearly 20 years passed from the time Bell invented the telephone until it was mainstream. The Web is no different. You see, the Web, like the telephone, was not something we knew we needed. That means we need to figure out what to do with it now that we’ve got it. It’s a process.

So here we are, at the end of 2008, and we are still on the journey that started with one little hyperlink. Everyday, millions and millions of new links are being made, and they aren’t just text on a page. The links are with real people, doing real things. As a result, movements are starting. 12for12k.org is one of them. There are many others. People are realizing that social media is about much, much more than just chatting till all hours of the night with a bunch of people you’ve never met in person. It’s even about more than just promoting your business. It’s about finding ways that we can help one another to learn, to grow, to succeed, in whatever it is we set out to do.

So how are you going to make more links in 2009?

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