I’ve gotten a lot of very kind comments lately from people saying that they agree with some of my views or that something I have said has been helpful. This, of course, is an easy way to make my day (if you mean it).
I have to take this opportunity to point something out, however.
The way that I do things is merely my interpretation of what I have learned from people like Chris Brogan, Jay Baer, Ann Handley, Beth Harte and many more people that I am fortunate to have connected with on Twitter and elsewhere in the Social Media world.
Sometimes, people get frustrated that they don’t get responses from people who have pull in Social Media. Sometimes it seems easy to get attention by writing a blog post saying that that the views of the “influencers,” “thought leaders,” “cool kids,” whatever term you want to use, are wrong, uneducated, whatever.
If you like the way that I am using Social Media, I would ask you to take a moment to realize that these people, under the radar often times, are doing everything I am doing except that they offer at least a decade of experience behind everything they do, with 10-20-100 times more followers, and with expanded ways to reach out to you, like webinars, presentations, and more.
The parts of what I do that have gotten the best responses are all the result of me doing the best I can to learn from these thought leaders. My Social Media world, and what I do, is the size of a crumb compared to the full multi-level cake of people that these industry leaders are assisting every day.
Before you get frustrated, before you decide to try to pick a fight to get some attention, remember that the “cool” kids are people like you and me. They are perpetually doing something they don’t have to do, which is to help us get better at what we do. I am trying to pay back all of that time and free information by living it out and passing it along. Will you join me and do the same?
Image by Chris Greene. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/christgr