I am sure we can all agree that there is a new growth industry that it is almost impossible to avoid, and they are the pedlars of the social networking technologies. ‘They’ are everywhere – and they can become extremely annoying.
My last blog denigrated the Twitter phenomenon – and received unexpected praise! – so perhaps I need to say a little more; at the risk, perhaps, of my luck running out.
That social networking helps business who could deny? But the trouble is some of the pesky methodologies that arrive like SPAM in the mailbox. Everyone and his dog can tell you how you make a fortune from using these methodologies. And then, surprise-surprise, the technology morphs into a huge concert/seminar somewhere that you simply have to attend for a mere …$/£ and there the final secret will be revealed (or alternatively in the 12 box DVD set for a mere …).
Well, I have consigned most of these to the SPAM filter now, but one person I have found consistently interesting and useful is Chris Brogan. He can be found at http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ or email at blog@chrisbrogan.com. Chris like everybody else is making a living at the social networking stuff, and he makes no bones about it; but he also supplies a lot of useful free information and insights. Why then do I think he is different from the average commentator on this scene?
What I really like about Chris Brogan is underpinning nearly all the communications is first, a genuine attempt to communicate on a personal level, despite the fact that it is a mass mailing. And how does one do that? He does it by, secondly, being acutely self aware. That’s it: self awareness. As you read his material you begin to understand the assumptions underpinning what he is doing since he is laying his own motivations bare. This is incredibly engaging, honest and empowering – the latter especially because one can emulate what he is doing.
This observation should really come as no surprise since the foundation of all personal growth is self-awareness; as the Greeks said, Know Thyself. Without self-awareness we cannot grow into the people we could become, and this applies as much to being effective social networkers as anything else. It should come as no surprise but of course it does, precisely because so few people are that analytical or direct or honest or all these things!
So, three cheers for Chris Brogan and his blog – it motivates me – check him out and he may motivate you.
James Sale
The Mapping Motivation Series 