I am speaking tomorrow on The Tools of Change Panel at Envision Hawaii 2009. It has me thinking about what changes are happening right before our very eyes and how we can proactively embrace them to move this party forward with more intention.

Barriers and Gate-Keepers Are Being Removed
One of the most exciting accomplishments for me professionally occurred 5 years ago when one of my clients had her blog added to Tom Peter’s blogroll. Mary Schmidt was a marketing consultant who had a common name in a crowded profession, along with the usual limited budget of a solo-preneur. She was also a risk-taker though and pursued the blog strategy we created for her with religious fervor! (Update: I forgot to mention this. Search for “Mary Schmidt” on Google – and see the results of all-organic SEO.)

She found the thought leader in her profession: Tom Peters – a well-respected, highly paid speaker and consultant who already had a blog himself. (That’s part of being a thought leader in this decade.) Due to the simplicity of being able to comment on his blog, she was able to have a barrier-free conversation with Tom.

That would have been impossible in the old days of “find his office, call in, encounter one or more levels of personal assistants whose job is to screen out callers, get frustrated, and probably fail” unless you were wanting to book him or quote him.

To me, this is a profound shift in the spiritual balance of power among humans. When she told me she had earned a place of respect due to her contributions to the conversation on Tom Peters’ blog, I literally felt the rumble of thousands of years of hierarchy crumbling. The gate-keepers are no longer essential and the ability to connect with each other across virtually every barrier – geographic, economic, social status, etc – is now unlimited. The White House has a blog and a Flickr account – we can comment directly.

Everyone Is a Publisher and a Therapist
The invention of the printing press changed the power structures of the time dramatically. We are seeing another round of that, as information continues to provide access to power. Yet as I realized in a talk I gave earlier this week to the Hawaii Insurance Advisory Board, information is also a tonic. People who share, literally are saving lives via chat rooms and Twitter, as well as providing a steady stream of inspiration.

This seemingly built-in desire to share how-to videos on YouTube and share links of useful information on Twitter and share honestly via Facebook when someone is having a bad day is changing how we think about ourselves and about each other. It is changing how we value things – and pricing becoming a smaller part of the equation in many instances.

It is also confusing us temporarily, as our financial systems are so out-dated. What is that tip you shared really worth to me? I could count hours of time it saved me, or pleasure that I reaped, or even products I created and then resold. Of course each metric will produce a different price. Then I must decide to decide, what it is worth, for me, for now.

Is Psychology Starting to Catch Up with Technology?
I have thought for a long time that we as a species seem to advance much more quickly in virtually every arena except human behavior. The most modern artists and programmers still fall prey to school room urges and antics of competition, of malicious behavior, or under-handed practices in personal and business relationships.

Yet on the social web, these behaviors are more transparent. And they are certainly more commented on! We are each faced with a choice every day: do I follow a herd and jump on the bandwagon of criticism or do I seek out alternate points of view? Do I cut someone some slack as I would have them do unto me or do I cast them aside permanently? Do I move my consciousness forward and not sweat the small stuff or do I pour gas on the flames?

I see people reaching across the aisle daily. I see people being willing to respect different points of view. I see people who seek out their opposites because mechanically speaking, that makes for a stronger platform. I see bloggers talking about art, I see spiritual teachers using tech, I see everyone creating in their own ways opportunities to each beyond our known worlds. Leaving aspects of our families or tribes to explore new frontiers.

To me, this is the real value of social media today: it is letting us share our worlds with each other that we may each become not just smarter, but also kinder and more collaborative when that is what is required. I think of myself these days as consciousness coach as much as anything else. Now that we can all be connected, what really is the point of our connectedness and conversation? That’s the juice that interests me! What interests you and how does the social web support you in that?

Aloha,

When we get a new client, we often compare the internet to a foreign country. It truly is its own culture, and building a web site there (aka a storefront) is like setting up business in a foreign country. Even though most of what you do will be in English (for most of my readers – their native language) it is still foreign. We like to think of ourselves as tour guides who will help you not only enjoy your trip, but actually want to enjoy it as a second home!

In that spirit, today’s blog post is a little etiquette lesson in how to “act like a local.” I (a person with web in my DNA) find it amazing and informative that CC Chapman can get a ton of response from a Podcamp lecture just by asking people to go leave a comment on a blog. It appears that people are confused about how to do this, when to do this, why to do this, and so forth. Just like blogging a lot of people face that daunting question: What on earth will I say? So let me be your friendly tour guide.

Let’s make it stupid simple. I like stupid simple. I think hard on complex things most days and being able to “dumb it down” is something I really appreciate!

When to Comment

• Anytime you have an opinion to add to a conversation.
• When you want to promote your products and services (Just don’t be crass about it. Add something of value to the conversation.)
• When someone has featured you on their page or site. (If you know about it or your blog software can track inbound links, this is VERY easy). I consider it one of the top ten blogger “miss manners” recommendations. This one is probably the most neglected, yet in my world, the most important.
• Timing can be important, especially if you are tracking A-list bloggers. Our former client, Mary Schmidt took to blogging really well and paid attention to when well-known excellence author Tom Peters would typically post a new blog. Mary made sure she was available to be one of the first commenters. It helped her get noticed and become a key influencer in Mr. Peters popular blog discussions. And yes, it has helped her build her consulting business,

What to Comment

• See above for initial instructions.
• Add your opinion – especially if it is against the flow. Life is not black and white – virtually every conversation is well-served by a range of perspectives.
• Details baby, details. The more specific you can be, the better. Cite examples, give props to others, share your experience. It’s all good.

Why to Comment

• Because your point of view is just as relevant as anyone else’s.
• Because it is a great way to build your personal or company brand.
• Because it creates inbound links to your site, which helps the search engines rank your site higher.

How to Comment

• There is always a place for your name. You can put anything you want in there! It is what will be displayed on the blog. Some people consider this a personal banding opportunity, and you can say, “Roxanne Darling” or “Nerd Queen” or even enter Rox of beachwalks.tv. Like all things, you can be savvy or you can be obnoxious, and all points in between. As my little 2-year old friend Kaile is learning to do, “make good choices.”
• Email: you will be required to enter an email address. If the software is set up correctly, your email address will never be displayed. It is to sort you from the spammers. If you do not enter a URL (see next item) some blog software will show your email. As a precaution, always enter a URL! (if you don’t have a web site, you can always link to another web site – a cause you support or CNN or whatever. Best to have your own site of course.)
• URL: Universal Resource Locator, aka your web site address. Be sure to link to individual pages on your web site when that is more appropriate to the discussion at hand. Just navigate to that page on your site, copy the page address, and then enter that into the “URL” field as you are leaving your comment. UPDATE: Consider also linking to you social network pages, like Twitter or your LinkedIn Profile or even your Flickr page if that is your primary home on the web.