Archive for August, 2009

Social Web Karma

The savviest social networkers understand Karma.  By keeping Karma in mind when communicating in your cliques, you will expand the reach of your own content.  The concept is VERY basic.  Invest your social capital in your clique, and your clique will invest theirs in you.  Here are some basic guidelines you can use: On Twitter, re-tweet content from your clique often. Read the blogs of your clique members and make sure to comment when you have something to add.  Help increase the value they add to the community.  (Side note: If you are commenting with the intent to only get a link back to your own site, your clique will see through your actions and your relationship will take a hit.  Don’t do this.  It’s not worth it.) On Facebook, if you see content from your clique members in your stream, give it a thumbs up and even make a short comment. Do your clique members have videos on Vimeo, Viddler or YouTube?  Comment there.  Take time to share the links, even if it’s one-to-one in an e-mail exchange. Play connector.  Help your clique members meet other interesting people offline.  Give them opportunities to build more relationships and make the clique bigger. Recommend your clique members on LinkedIn, if you have a good basis for the recommendation.  ALWAYS be specific. Attend your clique members’ offline events and show support for what they are passionate about.  Generate good Karma by being present and engaging with them and their attendees. Get one-on-one time with members of your cliques as often as possible.  Get to know them away from the screen or mobile device. Be a cheerleader.  Encourage your clique. Support their ideas.  Ask questions.  Be genuinely interested in what they do and not what they can do for you. How else do [...]

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Digital Relationship Context

Answers.com defines the word “clique” as a particular social group: circle, coterie, crowd, set. Informal bunch, gang. The organic formation of cliques is an inherent part of networking and using social media communication tools.  My clique consists of people like Cheryl Harrison, Ryan Bauer, Jim Borchowski and Michael Bowers.  Guys like Bryan Huber, Dave Culbertson, (Bryan and Dave and I work together in case you didn’t know) and Perry Maughmer always add value to my conversations, by using their own expertise and social reach to enhance the communications. (To all of you above, thank you for investing in our relationship.  You really do mean the world to me and I’m grateful we’re connected.) These great people invest their social capital in me in order to help me spread my content.  Guess what?  I do the same for them.  We work together in a community, and since we all live in Columbus, Ohio, we’ve been able to form deep relationships through offline interactions.  If you think about it, there’s a cyclical element to this sort of relationship development.  Here’s what this might look like: -> People meet online = relational context is created -> Offline relationships are nurtured = relational context is deepened -> Greater affinity = ongoing support of online communications Relationships Across Boundaries Then there’s people like Bryna Jones and Cori Padget, neither of which I’ve had the chance to meet in person.  Both of them are also in my clique, and we too have relationships.  Cori lives in Orlando FL. Brynna is a native of Ontario, Canada. I met both of them on Twitter, but I know them through the content they create across multiple other mediums.  We’ve been able build our relationships through the content that makes up our visible self-brands on the social web. What’s interesting [...]

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Happy Birthday Kaden

If you read this, you probably know I’m nuts about being a dad.  Yesterday was a very special day as it marked my son Kaden’s third birthday.  This post is for him, in hopes that someday he can read this and be reminded of just how much he means to me. Dear Kaden, I can’t believe that you’ve been in my life for three years already.  You are so big, and every time I look at you I am reminded that you are no longer a baby, but a have grown into a wonderful, active and smart little boy. I remember every minute from the day you were born, from the frantic drive to Riverside Hospital to the very first moment when you arrived in this world.  The delivery was rough on your mom but she was a trooper, and was going to stop at nothing to make sure you came into this world OK.  When the doctor finally got you out, I was the first person who got to see you.  As I stood over you, the tears rolling down my face, you reached up with you little hand and touched mine.  At that moment, time stood still. Your Grandpa Steve once told me that seeing your child born was like experiencing the presence of God.  I know now that Grandpa was right. I am so proud of you. Your mom and Sarah are proud of you too.  Your grandparents (all four sets now) cherish you and have been such a big part of you life.  You are so very special to each and every one of us.  Life has been full of change for you and I in the past year, but we’ve come out on top of new beginnings.  You’ve found a friend and brother in Jacob, [...]

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