Jul 1, 2008 | blog
Do you ever get tired of the phrase "social media"?
I don’t get tired of the concepts, methodology, and excitement that encompasses what so many of us are doing or trying to do. However, I do get tired of hearing "social media" about everything. It’s like labeling everything "green" or "eco-friendly". I’m not against those concepts either, but I sure am tired of hearing the phrases.
How do we engage people and business without repeating the hype? What good are buzzwords anyway, other than to evangelize something? Where is the substance for business to bite into, for them to more easily recognize the opportunities within the hot new trends of social media?
There are several people who manage to convey the concepts and ideas of social media without needing to promote the hype. Their deeds in writing and working on the topic is an inspiration to follow. Similar to all the people who quietly recycle, cut back fuel consumption, or practice renewable techniques in more and more areas. They too don’t feel the need to worship at the alter of "green", yet their actions make the bulk of the difference.
I guess what I’m working towards is the real, usable, tools and techniques that make up "social media". I’m looking to work with those companies that are confused, and help them figure out what their business needs. Past all the buzzwords, past the fads, past the hype and into the needs of an organization and finding the right tool for them to use for the right purpose.
My question is: What have I missed that you believe is important to that end?
Photo credit: Boskizzi
Jun 28, 2008 | blog
As it happens to me a few times a year, work & life take precedence over blogging. It’s a frustrating experience as it usually happens when I am in the middle of pulling a lot of ideas together.
At any rate, I have realized something this time around. I spend more time blogging when I don’t have much exciting things going on. Or looked at another way, I blog a lot less when I’m spending more quality time with family, friends, and making social media things happen in the real world.
Right now, I’ve been so involved with the transition from one client to another that I haven’t made a priority to talk about things here. There’s enough happening out in the real world, that I’m struggling to get back and talk about things here. To me, that’s doubly bad because I have a lot to talk about with you, and had just redesigned the blog to accommodate a lot more of these topics.
I’ve found there are a couple page to finish up here as well, to finish the refocus of things I learned at SOBCon08. Speaking of SOBCon, there were so many new learning’s for so many people coming out of that one event that it amazes me still, two months later. Start planning to attend next year folks, that’s all I can say.
Well, I’ve got a number of posts and post ideas in the works, and will be working on those and many other things. Hopefully I’ll have a few interesting pieces to share soon. Thanks your for patience – we’ll see you around the ‘net.
Photo credit: kevinzim
Jun 4, 2008 | blog
Wow, what a wild ride the last few months have been. I’ve been planning to refine the direction of my blog and revamp the appearance for some time and it’s finally completed!
Well, it’s almost completed – I’ve got a replacement for the About page almost ready to publish, and I’ve got one last page that I’ll add a little later. Seems I just can’t get it to come out quite right in the past week while working on other things – so I’ll get to that real soon.
Direction
The great part is that I’m refining my direction. Since I’ve come out of corporate, with a strong background in information technology, I’m going to focus on helping those organizations with social media. I’ve changed the description of the blog to "social web & the enterprise". I believe that to better describe the direction that I’m going.
Friends
First, I really respect a number of bloggers for their work & influence on me. So, instead of the old blogroll, or a list of links, I created a new Friends page. This page is people I have come to know, respect, learn from, work with, and I wanted to do more than just link to them. You’ll find a description of each blog and a thumbnail of their landing page.
Resume
Also page that can now be found in the top navigation area is the Resume page. I’ve had a variant of this Social Media Resume up for about 9 months, but never advertised it on the blog. I’ve revamped a number of pieces of the page as it used to be a completely custom HTML page forced into a WordPress theme template. Now it fully fits the theme, with a special resume.php template that allows different sidebars and such. Much better. I’ve pulled the video that I had on it, but will replace it with another one to fit the direction of the blog shortly.
Advertisement
You’ll also notice that all advertising save two things have been removed from the blog. While I make enough to pay for hosting, I believe that the ads detracted from what I’m here to accomplish, so they’re gone. The two items I mentioned that remain are badges for Personal Branding Magazine, and for Avatar Consultants. Their of personal interest to me, I’m involved in writing for one, and the other is my consulting firm.
Nowhere But Up
So if the picture in this post didn’t give a hint, my motto as I revise my direction and enter a new phase, is that there is nowhere to go but up. Join me as we bring the benefits of the social web to organizations of all sizes. Come along and help individuals realize the power and strength of their brand. Let’s make each day the best it can be!
I want to give a special thank you to Mykl Roventine for patience, ideas, and a great design – I wouldn’t have gotten this completed without his work. Thank you.
Got feedback? I bet! Don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts in a comment below.
Photo credit: Leo Reynolds
May 30, 2008 | happiness
Finishing an eight month consulting gig, knowing that you’ve accomplished what you set out to do.
May 5, 2008 | blog
Life is the great adventure. At times it can also be a bit perplexing, like how do you know when you’ve turned a corner in your career? Especially in these interesting times when social media is attracting so much attention, but has so little meaning in the “real world”.
Exploration of blogging and connecting people is a lot of hard, but rewarding work. It can sometimes be challenging to keep up with both the real work and the need to connect with people and learn new things as a human being. Where is the reward for all this work?
That’s where I’m at right now. I’m a technology geek that’s really good at big-picture problem solving – been doing that for 20 years. However, I’ve spent the last two or three years learning that I like interacting with people and seeing them connect with peers to accomplish new things. I have no pretensions that I’m critical to any of this, only that I enjoy it.
So what’s the next step? I blogged about that awhile ago, and am becoming more convinced that, for me, a move towards blog consulting and working with corporate blogging efforts is needed. It’s one direction that I’ve been exploring and I see many possibilities of such a shift. Especially as new discussions of blogging and it’s value have again started turning up in the blogosphere and the MSM again. Of course it’s what we’ve always known about new media, it’s just people taking another look at a disrupting technology rather than dismissing it.
Most bloggers start blogging for many reasons, I happened to start because I needed an outlet. (Blogging friend Steven Hodson has a great related post titled What do I owe my readers? that I recommend reading as well.) I also started a couple other blogs because I thought (like many) that it was an easier way to make a living. I’ve since figured it out that it’s really very hard work that requires a substantial time investment. However instead of the monetary payoff I thought I’d find, it turned into something that I’m passionate about.
After a few years of blogging and trying to find my path, I realized that I’d been following it fairly well but hesitant to commit to exploring it. I’ve been holding back from what lies over the edge. It’s something I now need to explore vigorously.
The biggest thing I’ve discovered that brings me to the crossroad I mention is that I like to teach, to share. I really enjoy communicating technology and concepts to people to help solve a problem or grow their opportunities. It’s an incredible feeling to see the connection made, a concept take root and someone realizes something they didn’t the moment before.
It reminds me of a moment in art class back in 9th grade. There was another student who was having problems getting the perspective “just right” on a drawing of his family’s farmstead that he was working on. He said that it just didn’t “feel right” in his drawing and thought that the silo would look better on the other side of the drive leading up to the barn. So our art teacher looked up from the picture at him and said “so…, move it”. I saw it in my classmate’s face, he got it. He suddenly looked around the room and proclaimed (loudly I may add) “I CAN MOVE BUILDINGS!”
I’m sure you’ve seen something similar, but it’s that moment of realization that is what I want more people to experience with technology. To understand what I’ve known for years. To see the usefulness of the technology, and not for the technology itself, but because it actually solves a need or problem. That is one of the things I want to do.
The work I’ve don to date has been fulfilling and rewarding. It’s taught me many things outside the scope of technology. It’s pushed me in all the typical, usual business-oriented things that any cube-dwelling, corporate ladder climbing individual might need. It did not, however, bring the warmth and excitement to my heart of seeing just one person “get it”.
That is what I believe I need to do – help people have those moments, help them connect with peers to make that happen, and be there as a resource along the way.
Photo credit: Zeitspuren
