Do You Want to Make an Impact?

Do You Want to Make an Impact?
Do You Want to Make an Impact?

It seems as the global population grows, more and more people feel the need to “make an impact.” This philosophy of making a difference with your life has really got me thinking a lot about how the way we think is changing. As future generations become more and more “mainstream” there seems to be less diversity in our occupations and less time away from work.

America (and other Western countries) are shifting more and more towards service and away from industry. Not too long ago it was common to have coal miners and factory workers as your neighbors. They were good people, working hard for an honest living. Now, in the suburbs of America, it seems that most of us work in cube farms providing services for other individuals and businesses.

There is nothing terribly wrong with a shift from blue collar to white collar work, but it seems as though we are finding our jobs more and more mundane and they are taking up more and more of our time. No longer do we have 40-hour work weeks with worry-free weekends. Instead, we drag ourselves into the office each morning and try to pry ourselves out sometime in the evening. The work doesn’t stop there, though. Usually there is a Blackberry or other device constantly reminding us of our occupational duties.

I think that our increasing passion to make a difference comes from the separation of ourselves from our vocation. No one wants to be known as a “project contributor” and they probably don’t want to define their life by that. I, for one, want to die being “the person that…” and I don’t think I am alone.

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” – Jackie Robinson

It doesn’t matter what your passion is, but I bet you it probably isn’t related to your work. If you love doing what you do, then consider yourself lucky. But, if you are like so many other people, what drives you to be independent, to succeed at something? Is it money? Is it happiness, fame? Why do you want to make an impact?

If one thing is for certain (well two, if you count taxes) we have a limited amount of time to enrich our lives and the lives of others. So putting your nose to the grind and finding something that will benefit not only yourself, but others—and possibly society—is a huge desire.

“I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try they can figure out how to invent things that actually have an impact.” – Bill Gates

I would love to make an impact on the world, but I don’t think that is going to happen, so I’ll settle on making an impact to my audience. I have been working hard to create content, engage my audience and build a tribe. Hopefully when I move on to do other things, create other products and services, I might have a few members of that tribe standing behind me. But, as I am doing all of this I need to keep focused on what pays the bills and keeps the lights on at home.

Perhaps in a few years I will hit a breakthrough and finally find myself loving what I’m doing. Until then, I’m going to keep trying to put a dent in a few people’s trains of thought. The universe comes later.

How to Use Google Plus for Your Brand

Google Plus for your Business
What is Google+?

Last night I was asked to speak at Ross Jones‘ IMD405 Internet Marketing class at The Art Institute of Nashville. Ross and I met at the SpeakerUp meeting for the 2012 Podcamp Nashville as we are both interested in speaking this year about our perspective niches.

Ross is a SEO expert and has been doing it for longer than most people knew what Search Engine Optimization was. Ross owns a business called 2 the Top Design where he helps businesses get their website optimized for search engines and in turn, getting them more leads.

Continue reading How to Use Google Plus for Your Brand

Amazon.com Unveils New Website Design

After midnight, Amazon released a fresh new makeover to their e commerce website. Although there was not information available from their Press section, the new design is much sleeker, trimmer and visually appealing than previous versions. If you haven’t seen the new design, check it out here, using this affiliate link.

13 YouTubers You Should Circle & Subscribe

And some really good reasons why.

Sharing quality content is what drives the Internet. +YouTube is the one-stop-shop for all things relating to, well, everything. So, with 48 hours of content uploaded every minute, it can be difficult to filter through all of the not-so-good stuff. In an effort to help you, here are 13 YouTubers that I reallylike and why. Some of them you might know, but hopefully others will be completely new to you.

Continue reading 13 YouTubers You Should Circle & Subscribe

How to Meme Your Images on Google+

Using any image on your hard drive, you can instantly create a meme by adding your own text. There’s no need to use photo editing software or a third party website. You can do all of the work, effortlessly, right here on Google+!

Face it, no one likes boring funny images without a witty caption. Spice up your original photos by making your followers laugh! Now start getting creative! Who knows, maybe your next meme will top the What’s Hot list!

Creating Impactful Presentations: How-To

Using nothing but Google Docs’ Presenter, Google’s stock images and a Google+ Hangout, presentation expert +Harold Carey Jr. was able to teach me how to create a very simple and effective presentation.

No more sliding text or sound effects, just a header, image and…well, I’d tell you the rest, but you can watch the video!

Check out Harold’s website at http://haroldcarey.com/ .

How to Be Circled on Google+

Interaction. Interaction. Interaction.

In real life, people commonly ask me, “how in the world did you get so many followers on Google?” Of course, being an early adopter helped, but the most important thing I did when I arrived here wasinteracting with other users. I can’t say it enough, interacting with people’s content shows them two things: 1) You’re paying attention. 2) You invested time in starting a conversation.

Continue reading How to Be Circled on Google+

How to Create Engaging Content

Recently I spoke with +Derek Ross about some of his posts about #Android and why they weren’t getting the type of interaction he was looking for. +Derek is an original content creator and a great resource for all things related to #Android.

After taking a look at some of his posts at the time, I noticed that a lot of things he was posting were unembellished hyperlinks–simply a link to a website and the default snippet without any sort of summary or call to action.

Continue reading How to Create Engaging Content

Want to Track How Many People Click Your Links?

When you post things in social media, especially on Twitter and Google+, sometimes it is hard to determine how many people are receiving your message. If you are posting unmodified hyperlinks in your post, you won’t be able to track how many people are clicking through.

By using a link shortening service such as goo.gl you can track how well your posted links are doing. Simply copy the link you wish to track, visit http://www.goo.gl/ and paste it into the window. Once you click the button, the link will be shortened to the right using a series of letters and numbers. When you copy and paste this into your tweet or post, you will be able to keep track of how many people clicked through.

You will be amazed by the difference between +1’s, comments and click-through of your posts.