The Power of We and Me #bad2012 #powerofwe

It’s Blog Action Day again! And this year’s topic is ‘The Power of We’. What a great topic, don’t you think?

The Power of We
The Power of We is what lots of us are experiencing when we use social media. The fascinating reality that lots of people sharing what they think can change and create things. And if sharing doesn’t create things it can catalyze, support and accelerate it.
Just look at what Wikipedia has done for us. And what a simple tweet or lots of tweets can do. Or how a blogpost can trigger and inspire.
I don’t think we’ve tapped into the full possibilities of the Power of We yet. To me the key is to ask more questions. It’s something we should do, but I’ll just start with myself and encourage others to do the same. Why more questions? Good questions level us with others. It gives others a chance to relate to us and help us. We need more questions inside organizations, between organizations, from (local) government to the people, etc.

The Power of Me
I just wrote I’ll start with myself (instead of talking about we or they). Because, I think, the Power of We starts with the Power of Me. There is no we if we don’t have a bunch of interesting me’s. I think this is where the challenge of social media in general and especially blogging comes in. I hear the following phrases a lot:

• I’m not going to blog until the organization I work for gives me an assignment to.
• I don’t have anything interesting to share. Who wants to read my posts?
• I’m afraid of what others will say about my posts.
• I’m busy enough with my email and other tools. No time for the ‘social stuff’.
• Blogging is only for the thinkers. My job doesn’t involve thinking, others do that.

I think most bloggers can relate to these statements. Explicitly or implicity they thought the same things before they blogged. But for good reasons they stepped over them and started blogging. Why?

• Because they were finally convinced waiting for the organization or your boss to understand is not the way to go. These new social tools can empower me, showing we how it can be done.
• By sharing their interests, they experienced there are more people interested in the stuff you’re interested in.
• They found out that almost all bloggers are dead-scared the first time they publish their thoughts. And most experienced bloggers are every time they push the ‘send’ button.
• They saw in practice social tools can make your more productive, by shifting communication and information streams from email to the new toolset.
• They realize: Everyone thinks for life. Not only the ‘smart’ people. Everyone. Sharing your thinking helps you learn, connects you to interesting people, etc.

So, for a powerful we, we need powerful me’s. All those me’s have an opinion about blogging, water, fashion, knitting, soccer, nature, famine, business management, innovation, cars, environment or … You fill in the blank.

So, what are you thinking about? Please share your thoughts. And join in celebrating the Power of Me and We!