Thursday, May 21, 2009

The Boss on Chasing Your Passion

Like him or not (but let's be honest, how couldn't you?), it's tough to argue that Bruce Springsteen doesn't have a way with words. But you don't have to take my word for it, check out this version of Thunder Road.

Still not convinced? Have a look at what the Boss had to say about his passion, Rock 'n Roll, before that performance on vh1 Storytellers:
"What I got out of Rock 'n Roll music was a sense of a larger life, greater experiences ... a sense of fun, more fun, a sense of personal exploration and your possibilities. It was all lying there inside of you, just there on the edge of town."

So what the hell does that have to do with social media? Well, nothing if it's not your passion. For me, however, it happens to be a passion. I love the way social media seems to be opening up the world of marketing and public relations; worlds that, up until not too long ago were considered by some to be, at best, less than open ...at worst, outright deceitful. Social media is inherently the opposite of those things. It's an open forum that engages with communities and, if any tricks are tried, usually those communities will retaliate and quickly right the ship ...much to the damage of the organization.

And that notion excites me. When I think about a campaign that's going to benefit the organization as much as it does that org's members and/or customers, it fuels my fire. I get the sense of a larger life, greater experiences, more fun and better personal experiences ...all those things the Boss mentioned when talking about his love of Rock 'n Roll.

Unfortunately, since social media isn't nearly as cool as Rock 'n Roll (and since I'm no Springsteen when it comes to anything) the magnitude of all those things probably won't be as great for me. But, never the less, finding a passion and doing that for a living is pretty cool. Whether it's teaching, carpentry, medicine, social media ...or, for the lucky few, Rock 'n Roll.

Friday, May 8, 2009

It's alive!

Minnesocia has real people in it! PEOPLE! But don't worry, there's no Soylent Green in this or any other episode of Minnesocia...

In case you haven't seen it before, Minnesocia is a somewhat-weekly roundup of what people are looking at and talking about when it comes to social media in and around Minnesota. So please, have a look and let me know what you think!



Special thanks to @kareemy, @cydneyw, @arikhanson, @rickmahn and @lulugrimm for their help in producing this episode of Minnesocia.