This year has been a difficult year for knowledge workers and content marketers what with the shuttering of Google Reader and the removal of RSS feeds from Twitter and other similar moves on the part of major technology companies. Major players like Google and Twitter are engaging in shaping strategies to force us to use their products in ways they want us to, not which are best for us…
Thank goodness then for people like Amit Agarwal who generously share their brilliant thoughts with us and enable us to circumvent the powerful forces in technology who are looking to dis-empower us!
Let me back up for a moment and talk again briefly about the topic of thought leadership. To me, the Internet provides an opportunity to offer social proof of one’s expertise in any given area. In applying ‘Einstein’s Razor’ of “things must be made as simple as possible but no simpler” to the problem of social proof of thought leadership, I say that thought leadership on the Internet boils down to two basic activities; finding and sharing good information. You need to feed your expertise before you can feed your followers. RSS is a critical part of this process and Google, Twitter and others have been making it difficult to use RSS so that you have to go to their site in order to read content. First Google killed Google Reader and then they removed RSS feeds from Google Alerts.
Where does Amit fit into the picture? Watch this video in which Amit shares a way to get RSS feeds from Twitter again, ironically via Google scripting:
The great news is that I can now track Twitter topics, lists, and users via feedly, my RSS reader again! Thank you, Amit, for the valuable work you do…
Michael Moon – author of the book Firebrands – hypothesized prophetically and correctly 15 years ago when he stated that we had moved beyond the information age to the age of trusted relationships. I always found this curious because we had just entered the era of the personal internet – surely THIS was the information age! What was Moon thinking?
Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003, according to Schmidt. That’s something like five exabytes of data, he says.
Let me repeat that: we create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003.
“The real issue is user-generated content,” Schmidt said. He noted that pictures, instant messages, and tweets all add to this.
So apparently Moon really nailed it when he said that we would need to rely on trust networks in order to manage all the information we need to do our jobs; networks of trusted sites, searches and sources that would wade through all these exabytes with surgical precision and deliver the goods we need to do nourish our expertise.
Recently, author Nilofer Merchant added a new aspect to the ‘trust network’ discussion in her book 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era [affiliate link] when she pointed out that another aspect of work in the #socialera – work is now freed from jobs:
“This means that human resources change when most of the people who create value are neither hired nor paid by you. And competition has changed so that any company can achieve the benefits of scale through a network of resources”.
Merchant, Nilofer (2012-09-12). 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era (Kindle Locations 665-676). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.
As Schmidt says the real issue is user-generated content. People all over the internet are posting, pinning and tweeting up a storm! We can leverage all this activity for our own thought leadership if we simply track the sites, searches and sources that publish in our brand space and then leverage that content to provide social proof of our own thought leadership…
I’ll try to explain it better here:
Here’s a growing list of tools that help me track the sites, searches and sources I need to nourish my thinking:
[listly id=”6P9″ layout=”full”]
This list will have a permanent home on the site here. Questions? Feedback? Specifically, do you have a cool tool that I missed?
Your world suddenly shifts completely to the other person. You pay them undivided attention, listen to what they want, and try to give it to them.
Your heart opens.
You want the best for them.
You become wildly generous in all ways.
You show patience, tolerance, and understanding.
You give them the benefit of the doubt.
You focus on their best qualities and ignore the rest.
You are affectionate, considerate, complimentary, and loving.
You crave their company.
You trust them.
You even like their quirky behaviors.
You support and encourage them.
You feel protective and have their back.
You forgive easily.
Now, imagine giving all those wonderful things to yourself.
Really imagine it.
Slowly.
Meditatively.
Each and every one.
How does that feel?
If it’s fabulous, turn your reverie into action. Do everything you possibly can to show yourself tenderness, consideration, patience, and compassion.
Now, watch how your relationship with yourself changes.
Lest some of you think this is narcissistic, it is not. Falling in love with yourself doesn’t mean you think you’re better than anyone else, just equally deserving of kindness, compassion, and time. You realize how wonderfully healing it can be to appreciate and care for yourself. Paradoxically, the more lovingly you treat yourself, the more tenderness, compassion, and patience you will have for others.
Doubt has been a constant companion, a shadow friend I could not escape. No matter how hard I tried to see if anyone else stood behind her, she’d contort herself in strange ways to block my view. Continue reading “The Opposite of Doubt”→
Psychologist and writer Barb Markway shares this this ‘Independence Day’:
The Self-Compassion Bill of Rights
Today, this fourth day of July, year two thousand and twelve, I, Barbara Ellen Gerth Markway, do solemnly declare these inalienable truths and freedoms for myself, and for my Self-Compassion Project friends. Continue reading “Hearts Set Free…”→
“This is my simple religion: your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
It’s been said that we are our own worst enemies.
In this insightful video clip, the spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, speaks about how we can unwittingly create unnecessary suffering for ourselves, and how things like money can actually create more anxiety, frustration, suspicion, and sometimes even jealousy.
In under 2-minutes, he manages to impart some of his ever-impactful and inspiring wisdom about where the true source of happiness lies, and how we can tap into it.
Google Reader is gone. No farewell message. No thank you for the support. In fact, I can see my feeds in Google Reader, I just can’t interact with them.
A pretty clear indication that Google really doesn’t give a Tinker’s Damn for customers – only their data and the dollars they can glean from it. This whole experience has had a profound impact on me from the first moment months ago when I first learned that Google was killing Google Reader for no good reason [and believe me, I’ve read them all over the past few months].
This stupid move, along with other ones like Windows 8 by Microsoft leave me wondering where I can place my trust. Oddly enough, I find myself rethinking open source products like Ubuntu, Firefox and Thunderbird. Who knows where that will lead?!
In the meantime, thank you Google Reader. Thanks to you, I consumed over a half a million articles in the past 6.5 years of use and I am what I am today because of what I learned from you. And, thank you feedly for stepping into the breach! I have loved you for over 4 years and used you alongside Google Reader. I’m glad you won the reader race!
Chatting with a new client in Australia yesterday, he asked the question should I care about Google+. The answer, of course, is an overwhelming yes! Here’s independent proof…
I know I’m opening myself up to a flame war here but I’m going to come right out and say it; the Mac is just not worth the money, especially if you do most of your work in the cloud.
There was a time when the Mac was demonstrably better at some tasks than others and that’s why is used it as my primary platform for 15 years. Heck, I even worked for Apple for 3 years I believed in the product and company so much!
These days though, in my work as an internet consultant, I use Mac, Windows AND Ubuntu and I am fluent in all three. I see no perceptible value in using Mac over the other two; in fact, it’s more the other way around. I like my 64bit Windows 7 machine but as Windows 8 [which appears to be another Vista to me] grabs more desktop real estate, I’m spending more and more time honing my Linux skills. After all, the Ubuntu operating system offers many of the benefits of a Linux or UNIX based operating system that looks good, but it uses inexpensive Windows hardware – the best of all possible worlds! Especially if all you’re doing is using the internet…
Right now, I think the best combination of hardware and software for business blogging is a Windows 7 computer although that may change soon. No matter what, however, you won’t find me paying for a new Mac – I don’t need the industrial design when I’m just looking at a monitor they’re just not worth the cost especially when Firefox, Chrome and Safari run on all of the major computing platforms! Questions? Feedback?
David Seah has some great thoughts on this thing called ‘imposter syndrome’ that Tanya Geisler discussed in her TED talk last fall…
Lauren Bacon has a really great article on Imposter Syndrome, the tendency for some people to not acknowledge recognition for their accomplishments because they feel it isn’t deserved for one reason or another. I suffer from this myself every time someone calls me an “expert”; I instantly demure, saying that I only write about what I experience, and that my knowledge and skills are not all-encompassing enough, blah blah. I hate disappointing people, and I rationalize my behavior by telling myself it’s prudent not to raise the hopes of others, since that would leave them open to the dangerous repercussions that might come from following whatever so-called advice I had. It also has prevented me from really pushing the various productivity forms I’ve made, because I’m not 100% sure that they will work for everyone. In fact, I’m sure they won’t work for everyone. People tell me I’m being silly, but I still haven’t resolved the WHY and HOW of it.
That is, until today. Lauren makes the observation that there’s a difference between expertise and infallibility, and proceeds to dissect the ramifications of not embracing your own expertise. Take heart! There are plentiful reasons why you should overcome imposter syndrome.
What I am reminded of is that there’s an underlying moral imperative that exists for me: while I didn’t want to inadvertently lead people astray with my pedantic mumblings, to not stand up for what I’m saying does not help people either. I want to see people overcome their own self-imposed barriers and achieve the kind of happiness they can share with the world. In that context, I owe it to myself as part of this community of happiness-seekers to powerfully broadcast the signal.
What I don’t like about the “expert” label is that I think it implies “superiority”. It also promises “superlative excellence”, which creates expectation, and expectation is the fertile minefield where disappointment lurks. As I hate disappointing people, I tend to avoid setting high expectations for my forms, which in turn diminishes their appeal because it looks like I don’t believe in them. However, I think I can reframe “expert” as a label not for myself, but for others who are looking for something. It’s part of being a beacon or a repeater of certain positive memes. That is a responsibility that I should be willing to take, as uncomfortable as it makes me feel, because it’s good for me and for my imagined tribe, whoever they may be. This feels a little half-baked to me still, but it’s a start.
I pretty much grabbed all of David’s article in this quote, but I added him to feedly so I can track him in the future. If I’m reading correctly, then David and I agree on this; that not telling your story is just as bad as narcissism in some ways.
When it comes to social media, I believe that there is what Aristotle called a ‘golden mean’ – he defined it as a virtuous path between two vices. I think the golden mean in social media is to share what Nilofer Merchant calls your ‘onlyness’ [which she defines as “that thing that only YOU can bring to a situation. As you see yourself, others can see you and the value you bring”] with transparency and humility while avoiding the pitfall of narcissism.
Jesus himself said ‘you are the light of the world’…
So, use social media to ‘let your light so shine before men’, but, don’t go overboard. The great Indian teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj once said, “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows.” So it is with social media as a tool for communicating thought leadership – to be effective you must find the middle way; a way I call a ‘me’cosystem — a system for finding and sharing the things you need to deepen AND document your expertise so that you get found when people are looking for you and what you do…
In summary, don’t hide your light under a bushel but don’t blind everyone with your brilliance! If you need help with the thoughts, tools and tactics for transformational thought leadership, I offer personal digital coaching. Use the contact widget in the sidebar…
Bright, Shiny Objects! 
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