SENDING SIGNALS: Social Meteor Threatens the Earth

Dear Readers:

I owe you an apology. I have changed the name of my column to SENDING SIGNALS. The previous title, "The Re-Humanization of Networking," although brilliantly ambitious and possessing of a deep reformist social agenda and spiritual significance, was just too long and boring. It was so boring, in fact, that I kept forgetting it myself. The other problem was that I don't write about Networking. I view networking (per se) as a miserable chore, but as a necessary first step in the process of relationship-building and facilitating commerce. I try to avoid most networking events (unless a terrific dinner is being served, and there are real plates and silverware - if I see any plastic sporks, I feign a seizure or an attack of spontaneous Tourette's, and get out (sometimes in an ambulance!).

So the column is now officially title SENDING SIGNALS, and it will only remotely relate to networking. My guess (which is at least as good as yours) is that it will have to do with COMMUNICATION and PERSONALIZING RELATIONSHIPS . I do both.

It will also have to so with such exciting and arcane subjects as body language, subliminal messaging, hypnosis, NLP, speaking effectively and everything else that pertains to getting noticed, getting attention, publicity, image-building, being different than every grinning ninny with a business card, and, ultimately, turning conversation into commerce. Adam J. Kovitz, the Father of Relationship Capital [all rise!], says that repetition is important, so I'll say it again: TURN CONVERSATION INTO COMMERCE!

A quick and frightening fact --- on Twitter, and on the average, more than 1 in 4 postings (and growing) is something relating to:

1. Getting more followers on Twitter;

2. Applications using Twitter;

3. Applications linking Twitter and other Social Media;

4. Get-Rich-Quick opportunities (that can never, ever work);

5. Ladies who want me to go to their private website to see them on webcam.

As I've said before, on every social media channel the signal-to-noise ratio is shrinking. To glean a bit of useful or interesting information, you have to cull through a mountain of useless crap. And this process of "panning for gold" is becoming increasingly time-consuming. I think our society, and its possibilities for commerce and friendly interaction is due to be wiped out by a giant SOCIAL METEOR heading toward our planet at an amazing velocity.

We are so inundated with noise that the greatest challenge is to get noticed. The next challenge is to be memorable. The next challenge is to create a bond - a relationship. The next challenge is to make commerce happen. And the last challenge is to make it happen over and over again.

I'd forgotten what I had wanted to write about. Anyway, I have to get going... I left some stuff on the barbecue grill, and I hear fire sirens in the distance. Well done, anyone?

I'll be back soon.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. If you really want an article, there's one below:
-----------------------
THIS TREASURE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN DOUGLAS CASTLE'S BLOG,@ http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/, which you should read immediately after your bible study. Also, if you are not currently a subscriber to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter (which is free), you may salvage your position in in my pantheon of pals by subscribing right now at http://twitlik.com/OK ------------

WHAT IS DOUGLAS DOING? AND WHO CARES?

Dear Friends:

Yahoo!, jumping on the bandwagon of social media, has taken to asking me the same stupid question that every other social medium (or is it "media?") insists on asking..."What are you doing now?" They even try to help me out by starting the response box off with, "Douglas is.....", so that I don't have to struggle with the spelling of my own name. Sometimes I inadvertently add an extra "s" at the end (as in "Frederick Douglass"), which is silent, like the "p" on swimming.

My latest response to Yahoo! was:

Douglas Castle updated his status to Douglas is inundated with crappy "functionalities" being added to his browser and programs by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc.
Status Updates.

While I am interested in what I am doing (some of the time, anyway), I cannot understand why anyone else would be interested. What if I were just shaving, or trimming my toenails? These are not interesting things. Then again, if I were Johnny Depp, these would be headliners.

In the future, I am thinking of inventing interesting things like:

• playing bocce in the nude on my neighbor's lawn;
• burning ants on a sunny afternoon with my magnifying glass;
• pulling a dead tapeworm, segment by segment, out of a horse's anus;
• barbecuing a rat;
• singing into my wife's hairbrush;
• passing a kidney stone;
• memorizing Pi to one hundred decimal places;
• sending resumes to the Vatican for a position as one of the Pope's guards;
• watching reruns of "The Fugitive";
• paying my bills with IOUs drawn on the State of California;
• hitting a hornets' nest with a short stickball bat;
• giving my neighbor's Siamese cat Viagra;
• tracking down the source of a bad smell in my root cellar;
• getting a tattoo on my buttocks.

I'm open to suggestions. Keep watching.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

*Follow DOUGLAS CASTLE on TWITTER - http://twitter.com/douglascastle
*Follow DOUGLAS CASTLE on THE NATIONAL NETWORKER - http://twitter.com/TNNW_BUZZWORKS

****Blogs to visit:
http://Braintenance.blogspot.com
http://theglobalfuturist.blogspot.com/
http://TheInternationalistPage.blogspot.com
http://humanitasmaximus.blogspot.com/
http://douglascastleiep.blogspot.com/
http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/
http://SrMeetUp.blogspot.com

-------------

Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies

Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

SENDING SIGNALS: Social Meteor Threatens the Earth