What are you up to Jimmer?

Last week, very late Wednesday night I did something I have never done before. I asked specific people to go comment on my blog. Today, I want to thank everyone and explain my thought process a little bit.

Last Monday, I met with my friend Nate Riggs to talk about his affiliation with TeamBuilder Search. I am considering different career directions and I was intrigued by the possibilities there might be for me to work with Nate as part of his new endeavor. I also really wanted to talk to Nate because I think he's super smart, and has great ideas about taking advantage of our individual strengths.

During our discussion Nate and I started talking about Internet presence and I mentioned that I posted my girls' blogs to my network and community whenever they wrote something new. Nate gave me big props for that (Thanks, Nate!), and then an idea was born. (Thank you Nate for that too!)

I'm beginning work on building a base of information, outlines, something like that to use to present as a curriculum of sorts for kids' responsible use of the social web in particular. As this evolves I hope to find a way to share this information with kids and help them safely find their way through the maze of tools available. I love kids. I love to coach. I love to use social media. Why not coach kids in the best, and more importantly, the safest ways to use social media? Right?

On Monday, I put up a post talking about this new idea, and the feedback both public and private (from parents who didn't want to embarrass their kids or post too much about them in a public forum), was nothing but positive.

As the next step, I thought it would be a good idea to share this project with my family. I asked Netter and the girls to work on guest posts to talk about their thoughts on the subject. The girls are still working on their posts, but Netter finished hers, and I couldn't have been more thrilled. It was a perfect piece to kick off my project. Much better than anything I could have written, and exactly where I wanted to start things. I couldn't help but think: "More people have got to read this. This is really an important topic. I need to start a little buzz."

So, as Chris Brogan might say, I decided to spend a little social media capital and ask some folks to take a look. Thank you to everyone who took the time.

Now just to clear up a few questions folks may have:
  • No, if this had been my post about my project I would not have done this.
  • No, my blog will not become all about this one topic. There will still be plenty of stories about families, and IGs, and all the other things my brain rambles around all the time.
  • No, I did not just ask the heavy hitters / rock stars of the Social Media community to take a look. I didn't even ask them all. I asked folks that I had interacted with in the last week or two using the tools I am discussing, and Netter was addressing.
  • No, I will not be soliciting comments for every post on this topic. I put it out there and let folks know what I am talking about here from time to time. If they are interested, I trust that they'll come back. If they're not, that's okay too. I'm not really good at blowing my own horn so I don't anticipate I'll be beating my chest here or anywhere else anytime soon.
  • Yes, I like the word "folks."
  • Yes, I think you should check out Nate Riggs' work and follow his blog.
  • Yes, I think NetterB is an awesome writer who should write more often.
  • Yes, I am grateful I have such a great network and community of friends.
You're all rock stars! Thanks for stopping by.

5 comments:

mbk said...

I think this is a great idea and something that would be appreciated by parents and their children at least later if not now.

Nice post as always and you're right, Netter is a good writer too.

Nate Riggs said...

Dude. You've got the brains, the platform and the passion to take this idea and run with it. Go get em Jimmer! :). Thanks for the mention. :)

Julie said...

Who knew that my questions about dealing with an irresponsible kid would lead to such a wonderful and perfect project for you!! Go for it Jim! (Yeah, I've chilled a bunch...)

And on a selfish slant here--include ideas for what to do when the kid is irresponsible and ways to deal with consequences from said irresponsible behavior...

:-)

Thanks again for keeping me rooted in reality and sanity--you Julie Whisperer. Hee!

Erica said...

You know, I was a little weirded out that you asked me to comment, but I figured you had something up your sleeve, haha! Love the topic and I'm excited to read more - glad that you and Annette have such a level-headed and realistic approach to it as well!

WineLover said...

I agree - this combines your passions and that can only be good! I'd love to see you run with this!