Categories: Articles

Bigger Than Your Own Head

It’s worth noting that just because everyone can publish anything to the world, it doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone is listening or cares.

One of the most amazing things about being able to publish anything (text, images, audio and/or video) online is the simple act of publishing. Never before – in the history of civilization – has an individual been able to express themselves to such a mass audience and engage in direct feedback and conversation with that audience. It’s easy to let something that powerful go to your head.

Don’t let it go to your head.

While it is about "who" sees your message and not "how many" people see it that is most important in the grand scheme of things, it’s amazing to see the mass amount of people with a Blog audience or Twitter following who actually think that they can have a substantive impact on the world.

There have been many instances in the past little while where people with a minor (and sometimes major) amount of followers have either threatened big brands or tried to create their own little storm in a teacup just because they felt like they could flex their person online social network muscles. In many instances, the net result has backfired. But, there’s something else happening beneath the surface that bares mentioning:

Trust is a very hard thing to regain once yours is put into question.

Don’t believe me? Check out the soon-to-be-available book, Trust Agents, by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. If you can’t wait to read their business book, always remember that if you use your audience for your own personal gain, or think you have the right to speak on their behalf – when really all you’re doing is looking out for your own personal interest – you will feel the burn and brunt from your own community faster than you can say, "if I don’t get a free pair of shoes from you, I’m going to Blog to my whole community about how bad of a brand you are."

It’s amazing that after all of this time, there are still so many small minded people who have such big heads.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.