The folks over at Geary Interactive tagged me in a post to share 7 things about myself.  Here is how this little online tagging game is being played (from the Geary site):

“The game’s rules state that you: Share 7 facts about yourself in the post; Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs; Let them know they’ve been tagged.  You should also include the person who tagged you in the post.”

I’m actually happy I was tagged to share 7 things about myself because I realized that you folks probably don’t know much about me.  So here it goes:

1)  I was originally born in Melbourne, Australia, am from Georgian decent, live in the United States, and am fluent in Russian.

2)  I played soccer for around 12 years of my life and was actually pretty darn good at it.  While in college at UCSC I played for the school soccer team, racquetball team, ultimate team, and was a member of the chess club (you already know I love chess right?)

3)  I worked for my first startup right after college and hated it because I was doing mindless drone work and was often tasked with bringing coffee to executives and management, something I definitely did not sign up for.

4)  I wasn’t a good high school or community college student yet when I attended UCSC I graduated with honors and a dual degree in Business Management Economics and Psychology.

5) I absolutely love dogs, probably more than I should.  I’m the guy that wants to go to a dog shelter and take all the dogs home, I can always find homes for them later

6)  I’m a bit of a health nut.  I watch what I eat and workout on a regular basis.  That being said I love In & Out, I’m sure you can see my dilemma?

7)  My family lives in LA: mom, dad, 16 year old brother, and lovely dog.  I see them a couple times a year and usually spend all major holidays with them.

Hope you enjoyed these random 7 tidbits about me

Now here are the 7 people that I tag to share 7 random things about themselves:

Josh Peters

Danny Brown

Tyler Willis

Justin Goldsborough

Allen Stern

Christopher Peri

Greg Verdino

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Today I was reading a post over at emergence marketing talking about influence and it inspired to me to write a post of my own, after all the topic of influence is quite an important one.  I believe, that influence and authority go hand in hand.  The more authority you have on a particular subject the more influence you have over people who are interested in that subject (or product).  In order to understand what influence is, we must first understand what influence is not.

Influence is not:

• about how many followers you have or about how many  connections you have
• about forcing or convincing people to do or buy something

According to the dictionary influence is defined as:

“ the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command”

So if I recommend using a particular social media tool or product and 70% of you go try that product or service out, then I have a good amount of influence.  If I recommend something and you tell me that I’m an idiot and should be beaten with bamboo sticks, well then my influence is not so great.  The issue that Francois from emergence marketing has raised is that I may be considered an influencer in some industries yet not for others (or for some companies and yet not others).  Therefore how do you measure influence?  If Barrack Obama told you to try out a social media service would you?  What if he told you to vote a certain way on a particular issue?

Again, I think the issue here has to deal with authority as well as influence.  If you are an authority in a particular field you can influence not only your field but also other fields.  So if Obama was a nobody and told you to try out a social media tool, you probably wouldn’t listen, but as President Elect if he tells you to try out a social media tool, you are much more likely to listen because even though Obama is not a social media authority, he is an authority on politics and government, make sense?

As Shel Israel mentions on his blog, influence is very difficult to measure and is pretty much based on a case by case basis.  I try to establish myself as an influencer and authority by sharing my ideas, tips, and strategies with all of you.  I don’t have as many readers (yet) as Chris Brogan or Techcrunch yet the conversations I have with all of you are not any less valuable here then they are on other mediums.

I think this is a very interesting topic and am curious to hear your responses.

How do you measure influence (or authority?)  What is influence to you?

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What chat client do you use to talk to people online?

Right now if you want to chat with someone you have to log into a platform, whether the platform is aim, gtalk, or facebook is irrelevant.  The point is that you need to log in to “something” to have access to your friends, contacts, networks, etc.  Online networking and communication is fragmented with a countless number of platforms, chat clients, tools, and resources.  There is information everywhere yet nowhere.   How do you think online communication will change in the future?  What are the possibilities?

Perhaps this is a hypothetical topic, perhaps not; but think about this.  What if the internet became it’s own social network.  Meaning, there was no login, there was no platform.  What if every time I moved my mouse and showed that I was active online, all of my contacts and connections immediately new and could connect with me?  Using the internet as a social network would make the internet the ultimate aggregator and macro social network that could exist.  But is it probable or even possible, and what would happen to sites such as facebook?  I’m curious to see what will happen to social media and online community collaboration and communication in the next few years.  Could internet service providers, computer manufacturers, and technology companies offer a universal client that came preinstalled on every machine and with every internet connection, for free?  If not, then how much would it cost?

We are seeing sites such as friendfeed and socialmedia act as aggregators and we are also seeing sites such as ning allow for the creation of extreme niche networks.  We are moving to the fringes on both sides, to two extremes, the ultimate niche networks and the ultimate aggregator networks, but when does it stop?  How much of a niche network can you get and how much of an aggregator network can you get?

I ask these questions because I think it’s important to look at the big picture and to understand where things are now and where they can possibly go.  I don’t know we wold create an internet social network that acts as the ultimate aggregator but then there was a time when people didn’t know how they would light up a room, explore space, or communicate with each other without seeing each other.  We have the technology…will it happen, when?

What are your thoughts?  Can the internet become it’s own social network?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and anything else relationg to the subject.

Thanks for reading everyone!

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I received a phone book today.  A big fat yellow phone book.  In fact, my whole complex received a phone book, we’re talking about thousands of people with thousands of notebook.  I did what everyone else did with their phone books and put it down the recycling bin.  Whe is the last time you used a phone book and why do phone books still exist?

What if instead of a phone book I was just given a little sheet of paper that said “If you are looking for anything, we are now online, here’s the link (if you would like a hardcopy phone book call this number….)”?  It is actually faster to go to google and type in “san francisco plumber” then it is to actually look up a san francisco plumber in the phone book (time yourself if you think I’m crazy).  This made me wonder how many more times I’m going to receive a phone book before someone figures out that it’s just not worth it anymore to deliver a phone book to my doorstep.

Print media and publications are in trouble, but at least we have no shortage of recycling material…

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Let’s be clear, there are no rules for who you need to follow on twitter.  You follow who you want, block you want, and talk to whomever you want to talk to.  I’ve had several people tell me that I should follow them or that it’s twitter etiquette to follow everyone who follows you.  I want to be very clear about who I follow and why I follow them.

I respect and value every twitter follower I have but I cannot follow 1,300 people because it is just too much for me.  I can’t participate in 1,300 conversations and I can’t use twitter search to look for my name every single time it pops up, it’s just too much.  If you can handle following 20,000 people like Robert Scoble does, then hey, more power to you, but I can’t, and why should I?  If I’m interested in technology and you are a master underwater basket weaver, then thanks for following me, but I’m just not interested in under water basket weaving, and so I won’t follow you but if yous end me a message, I’ll gladly respond.

I’m very responsive to every DM and reply I get, that is how I participate in conversations that involve me, and that is how I feel that I can add the most value to my twitter followers.  It’s not because I hate you and it’s not because I don’t think you’re an interesting person; it’s because I am trying to effectively manage my time while still being able to provide value and quality tweets!  It’s like signing up for 50 different social networks, sure I’m on there and I have a presence, but there is no way I can manage that much information.  I try to rotate who I’m following and discover new interesting people but please do not get upset or offended if I am not following you.  Every person uses twitter differently, you have to do what makes sense for you!

You guys all rock and kick ass but for my own sanity and effectiveness I just cannot follow everyone!  Again, if you ever want to get ahold of me all you have to do is send me a reply and I will immediately respond to you.  If you need to send me a message longer than 140 characters, email me.  I’m really very easy to get ahold of so don’t hesitate to do so.

Tweet on and thanks for reading!

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