It's kind of funny.  I've been slow to adapt to the wave of social media, eschewing the 'online' community in favor of in-person, or at least relationship-based interaction. In the past few months however, I've established an Hpowermarketing identity on Twitter and now have several thousand people following me, as well as being listed on 10 or so lists.  Please don't misunderstand this as bragging, pride or vanity.  I'm not selling anything online; the only things I post are articles...

Read More "Facebook... becoming a fan"

It's been quite a day so far... and interestingly, quite a few weeks.  I know I've been mostly absent from my blog the past few weeks, but when I get focused on giving, there sometimes isn't enough time to give to this too! An article forwarded to me by a trusted colleague made the point that if all you do when communicating is talk about what you want to 'get', you somehow (not so mysteriously to me) end up getting nothing, and may find yourself only 'wanting'. I define 'wanting' as believing...

Read More "Give to Get - No. Give to Give"

I don't go in for forwarding emails very much, especially when much of what I have to say comes from the heart and most of what I see in emails doesn't resonate with my soul.

This rings true with me because it's about the human condition, and while not universal, it paints an accurate picture of sorts.  The condition that Dr. Cosby writes about is a human condition... where human beings have come to believe more and more about their separation from one another, instead of their obvious solidarity and unity. 

Most human beings tend to use only their 5 senses to immediately judge how different each person is from him or herself, instead of letting our most obvious traits help us see how we're all really the same.

Here's what Bill Cosby has to say on the matter:

They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English.
I can't even talk the way these people talk:
Why you ain't,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be...
And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.
And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth
In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an Education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around.  The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.  These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2?  Where were you when he was 12?   Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father?

We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer.'
Dr. William Henry 'Bill' Cosby, Jr., Ed.D.

Okay, so the list of people I'm following and who are following me has jumped into the hundreds.  I feel so popular, yet I think "who" I am has less to do with it than "where" I am.  I'm on Twitter, at least my company is.  It's not that I think any less of myself, I'm only saying that having a presence of Twitter... and now some knowledge about how better to use it for a greater good...is the 1-2 punch behind the growth in the number of people 'following' me.  And while I don't have thousands upon thousands following me...yet, I have the belief that I will, in just a few short months. 

What I've been educated to in the past couple of weeks is that there is a bucket-load (more visual than plethora but means the same thing) of tools out there that will let someone as new and ignorant as me learn hwo to engage in, and automate the process of inviting people to follow me by supplying people on Twitter with concrete, honest-to-goodness content that might be meaningful to them and be difference-makers in their lives!

No need to read between the lines; there are several ways in which to make money by supplying timely and relevant information to people.  And I in fact have tapped a friend of mine to put together a video showing other Twitter novices how to do this, if they wish.  But for me, the profit motive falls to below the radar and sits squarely in the back seat, where it belongs.  As I've said before, if I miss out on 'making millions' from being on Twitter, that's okay... it's just not that important.  Really...

And that wasn't always true of me (although I often pretended it was).  Time was I'd be intrigued with, and take part in any money-making scheme.  I'd shell out money like nobody's business to 'learn' the tricks of the trade, purely on the come, determined to make my millions.  The only people who made money were the people I wrote checks to.  Today's Internet environment is substantially the same, with the profit motive, and extreme lack of value for money-paid being the engine that drives so much of what we all see on the web.

What I've found however is that there is the capacity, with not so much effort, at finding tools to be more productive and help others in the process.  This is how it's been with Twitter... from Twollo, to Tweetlater, to Twellow and Bitly, and, well, I could go on and on about all the different tools available to help me (and you) do more with Twitter, instead of it being another "Waste of The Web".

I feel glad to have stumbled onto these great tools that allow me to give timely, relevant content to more and more people everyday...without the profit motive being the driver.

-Peter

During my quiet time this morning I was inspired by a line of thinking concerning accountability.  As I sat and let the thoughts weave through my consciousness, the idea of accountability sprang to mind. 

It focused on taking credit for the great things "I" do and taking responsibility for the mistakes I make.  It wasn't a long and complicated line of thinking... it went kind of like this:

Since I let my Higher Power (whom I choose to call God) guide me everyday, I give Him/Her/It credit for the inspirations I receive.  I can take credit for the actions I take, the work that I do, or the direction I give to others, as a result of the original inspiration, but since the 'idea' to do came from my Higher Power, He/She/It gets the credit for starting the ball rolling; I can accept credit for the willingness to listen to the inspiration and for putting into action the inspiration... and I can extend kudos to everyone who follows my direction and accomplishes great things... but to really accept accolades, I have to give credit where credit is due:  God's voice is my inspiration, where ALL my great ideas come from.

The other part of this stream of thinking that inspired me was Accepting Responsibility.  I made up in my mind that this line of thinking is all about when I make mistakes.  And this is really cool, because we all make mistakes; it's a human-being thing!  Okay, so there's guilt and then there's shame.  Anyone care to take a stab at commenting on the difference between the two?  Do you think there is a difference?  I believe there is a distinct difference.

Guilt is a feeling that I've made a mistake, usually for me connected with a sense of remorse and a desire to make right what I've made wrong.  It also comes with a sense of duty to examine what I did wrong and make note of it, so that I don't repeat that mistake over and over.  Shame on the other hand is the mind telling you that you're worthless pond-scum (or whatever comes to your mind), that your imperfections are unacceptable and that your defectiveness can't be fixed, so you shouldn't even try.  Shame is the great paralyzer; if you allow shame its voice, you can't take action... you can't allow guilt to help you through a situation, you won't allow the power of guilt to help you notice what you did wrong, accept responsibility for it and correct it.

I know, I know... what the heck does this have to do with Social Media, or Per Inquiry Advertising?  Everything.  Think about it.  What do you during the day that doesn't have some connection to every other thing you're doing.  The connection here is simple:  Be okay with making mistakes; no I'm not encouraging you to go out and purposely screw things up, I'm only saying live life from the belief that no matter what you're doing, you're going to make mistakes, and it's okay.  Use the sense of guilt you feel from discovering a mistake to help you accept responsiblity for it, correct it and learn not to repeat it.  Allow guilt to help you take action, without falling into the paralytic fear of shame...in your personal life, in your business life... in your life...

And when great things happen, always look for the source of the inspiration.. and give credit where credit is due!

A friend of mine has become addicted to social media.  He's hooked on Twitter, but I think in a good way.  He's seeing it for what it is, and perhaps seeing through to what it isn't.  And I think that's an important distinction, because for many human beings the creation of an attachment, bordering on a damaging addiction is all too easy to make.  Just look at the plethora of 12 Step fellowships that offer true help out from the traps of addiction for confirmation of this fact.

For me, I'm on Twitter and Facebook.  Both are fun, neither do much for me, other than give me a slightly easier way of communicating with people than I had yesterday.  The reality is... and that's the focus here... that still in order to accomplish anything two people have to communicate with each other one on one.  Twitter especially is like a massive introduction service. I get introduced, on an ever-growing daily basis, to some very brilliant people, as well as some who give me pause.  And while that may sound judgemental, it's really just setting up and keeping some pretty strict boundaries.

I don't follow everyone who follows me... I read their profile, I look to see who they're attracting, and I decide if I have anything to offer them, and they me.  And if we do, then we're in the conversation together.  I have no grand designs to let Twitter, or any other social media platform replace real human interaction, at the personal level; I will let it however be a platform through which I can publish things that come to my mind to people who are interested... as well as pass along gems that resonate with me.

So as far as the bandwagon... I'm not on it, I'm not off it, nor am I undecided.  Instead, I'm following my intuition and taking advantage of what each platform has to offer me and others... and leaving the insanity of 'needing' it to be the next best 'thing' to others.  And if I don't make millions because I 'missed out' on an 'unbelievable' once in a lifetime opportunity, that's okay.  It's just not a big deal.  Life for me isn't about how much I make but how much I can contribute.

-Peter Feinstein

I've been on Facebook for a couple of months and Twitter for a couple of weeks... and while I know I want to be there I haven't really completely 'gotten' why I'm there.  It wasn't to make money, I really didn't have a purpose for being there, I just put myself there... well, I got a great insight this morning after I got a notice that someone new was following me on Twitter!  I was thinking, why is someone following me?  And then I realized, maybe it's because, as this new follower pointed out to me, Twitter's a party, and he's following me because he's just interested in saying, "Hey Peter, I'm Perry, how are you?". 

It's a party... that's the thing.  So if you've been Facebooking, or Twittering like me, in a little boat on the ocean of social networking, without a sail or rudder, than maybe the insight I got from Perry Belcher (http://www.perrybelcher.com/) will help you too...