Rather than try and throw together a post with lots of juicy links about a sexy topic that might get lots of love and some retweets, I wanted to just throw this thought out there. It has to do with bubbles. in this case, social media.

For the majority of us, we operate in bubbles. Our lives consist of numerous bubbles. work bubbles, play bubbles, family bubbles… In some cases, our self importance is derived from our bubbles. What do we mean to the people that are in our bubbles? I’d like to think that I influence those in my work bubble. My work bubble is pretty much the social media space. Even more importantly, and a larger question is, What impact do you have on people that are not in your bubble? What does your name and your credentials mean to them? Damien Basile was right when he said:

Online influencers with large followings are not the offline influencers.

But there’s the rub. In order to have true impact we need to be able to influence those with our knowledge and understanding who are “outside” the bubble, those that are offline.  That’s hard to do. Does what I do really matter to those outside the bubble? Not really, what they might want to know is how what I know can make them better at what they do. It’s less about influence and more about performance for them.