Good people doing good things

The nice thing about having a blog, when you first start, is that you have an uninterrupted stage for babbling about whatever you want. If you are lucky enough to gain a readership who finds your babbles to be like a bubbling brook, this self-indulgent aspect of blogging takes a back seat to something much more fun – babbling about other great people.

That is what I intend to do right here.

#30Gratitude

For some reason, my calendar and Mother Nature are telling me it’s November. I am pretty sure it’s actually July, but that’s beside the point. If it really is November, then that means that here in the US, we’re getting close to Thanksgiving, and people around the world are getting ready for the joy of the holidays (whatever those holidays might be for you). Now, I have warned you before that I become a rather mushy pile of mush around this time of year, so when I saw a post from David McGraw that was all about expressing thanks every day of November, you had better believe it spoke directly to me.

Factually, David is trying to draw attention to quite a few important things. First, a lot of us have a lot to be thankful for. Second, a lot of us probably don’t verbalize that thankfulness very often. Third, if we do, it tends to be when our mouths are being stuffed with holiday nuggets of goodness.

David is driving a movement called 30 days of Gratitude, and the idea is pretty darned simple. Every day in November, via Twitter or your Blog or Facebook or smoke signals or whatever your preferred communication method, say thank you for someone or something. Just 1 thing. If you do decide to do this on Twitter, tag it #30Gratitude. Just thinking about thinking about what you’re grateful for is an enlightening experience. You come to realize that picking just 1 thing every day is a challenge. There’s that person and that amazing thing and…well, you get the idea. Also, make sure you say hi to David. He’s @DavidMcGraw on Twitter.

#UsGuys

The last few days of last week, I was out of town for a business meeting. I tried to keep up with Twitter the best that I could, but if you’ve ever tried to do so using a Blackberry, you know that it can be a bit challenging. At one point, while I was managing to Twitter on my centimeter x centimeter key pad, I saw a few mentions of my name and then a tag: #usguys. I recognized the guys that were in #usguys, but I wasn’t really sure what the deal was. I was also kind of worried that somehow I had misled them about my gender along the way.

In fact, some fabulous friends of mine have put together a 24/7 chat that epitomizes what you can experience when you use Social Media to socialize, network, and connect. Although I’ve lost track of everyone who’s in the group, some of the original members were Chase Adams (@realchaseadams), Tom Moradpour (@tommoradpour), Cristian Gonzales (@galactic), and Patrick Prothe (@pprothe).

You can find the story about this hash tag over at Chase Adams’ blog, where he details how #usguys started. Chase has now started a Facebook page, and people are gravitating towards it (yes, it’s open to both genders, as I confirmed). Why are people gravitating towards this group of guys and dolls? Because the kindness of the people is tangible. The intelligence of the people is palpable. The talk is not just about a single topic, but rather it’s about perpetual sharing, learning, teaching, and then a few jokes here and there.

I’m very proud that I was invited in to join this group, and I welcome you, my dear reader, to join the fun on Twitter, on Facebook, or in both places. You can’t have too much of #usguys.

These are just a few of the great people I am currently proud to call friends in the world of Social Media. Who is doing fabulous things in your neck of the woods? Do they know that you think they are fabulous? Only one way to be sure 🙂

Image by sanja gjenero. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/lusi