I was a guest tonight on Scott Wilder’s YMI Podcasting TalkCast on TalkShoe. YMI Podcasting is a weekly podcast that Scott does on podcasting tips and tricks.
We got into a conversation about the importance of self marketing and how social networks can play a part in self promotion. About half way through the show I made a statement that we each have a gravity of our own. Scott kind of liked the phrase and we used it several times. Frankly, I don’t know if I am the first to use the phrase but I thought I would expand upon the idea.
As we pass through our day we interact with people on different levels. But regardless of level, our actions have consequences. We can lift a person up or we can lower them down. This happens weather that is our intention or not. For instance, passing a stranger on the street may have little impact in most cases. But if you pass that person and smile then they may be affected by it. A smile is usually positive. However, you can easily charge down the street bullying people out of the way and negatively affect a person for the rest of their day. This is an extreme example of course. But now imagine how people respond to you.
Actions have consequences and people respond to your actions as well as you respond to other’s actions and consequences. Positive people tend to attract more people. Like gravity. Of course popularity is an intricate beast so I won’t attempt to go deeper into the psyche. Out of my league!
But we all have a level of gravity that affects the people around us. And in a small way we will attract new people to our sphere of influence and these ad hoc groups become a cluster of gravity thereby attracting more to our sphere.
Like oddly circulating comets occasionally gravity will pull us into the sphere of someone greater than us. We may spend time there before we drift on to new horizon or we may get caught up in the new group for a long time.
And that is what social networking really is. Allowing the gravity of others to pull us in new directions and allowing our own gravity to affect those around us. Get out there, market yourself, attract attention and create a gravity around yourself!
Now I will step down from the pulpit and say that I am generally a humble person. Like I said in Scott’s podcast, I’m not sure what I have to say is of great value to anyone. But Scott’s point about people looking for other intelligent people is where my personal gravity comes in. I’m usually positive, well spoken and knowledgeable about the things I am speaking of. So I need to get out there and self promote more.
What do you think?
