Being Fully Present

My July 17 post shared a link to an article about Fast Company‘s “The Influence Project.”  In my introduction, I shared that I felt “sucked in” by the influence project tweets.  The standard message was a link to a Fast Company article, along with the text “You are more influential than you think.”

I clicked the link the first time I came across it.  My action had nothing to do with the person the tweet was attached to.  As a person who is interested in leadership, I was very much interested in the topic of influence.

I was hoping that it was going to be another great article from Fast Company; well-written and informative about a current business topic. I was disappointed when it turned out to be nothing more than a popularity contest, of sorts.  How many people could the users “influence” to click the link?

Although I saw the link in many, many more tweets, I did not click it any more.  I felt tricked by the project.  I felt bad that someone’s alleged influence rating was going to be higher because I happened to click the link attached to that particular person, instead of someone whose thoughts on leadership and influence I really do respect.

Curious as I am, though, I could not let it be.  With each subsequent tweet, my interest was piqued a little more.  I decided to do a little quick research about what prompted The Influence Project.  The explanation is in the link I provided in my July 17 post and can also be found here.  Once I understood the genesis of the project, I thought I was done, until…

…This past weekend I received an email, inviting me to become a “pirate” and join ItStartsWith.Us in ”hijacking” The Influence Project.  The plan is to steer the project away from a simple follower count and towards a mission of real purpose – sharing good.

Ahoy, matey!  Now, that IS influence!

More to come over the next week.  For now, join me!  Click HERE. Let’s see what’s possible.

#hijackFC

This entry was posted on August 3, 2010 at 4:00 am and is filed under Leadership In The News, Possibility, Technology. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Communication, Integrity, Possibilities, Social Media