The Change Michigan Needs…

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life: deciding it’s time to join a cause

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A lot has happened in the past month. Some of which has changed my perspective on the world I live in… but let’s start where we last left off:

I spoke at my first conference, Web 3.0 in Santa Clara, where I met many semantic web enthusiasts and interesting people. I walked away buzzing with all sorts of ideas and ended up writing a 5 part series for ThreeMinds, Organic’s blog, which might lead to a feature for Advertising Age (stay tuned).

Then, we elected our first ever YouTube president:

My opinion to the now president-elect has gone from curiousity to true hope-filled inspiration. During the campaign, it seemed that all people could talk about was the economy, while I sat patiently wondering if Obama’s technology plan would ever come to fruition.

Now that the campaign is over, it seems that technology is ALL people can talk about. How the internet changed the race? How will Obama use social media to change government? Let’s just say, it’s a good time to be a blogger in the social media niche.

The day after our monumental US election, I attended the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. It would be an understatement to say that the conference inspired me. Smart people from around the world were putting web 2.0 tools to work to not just sell products and services, but to actual make the world a better place… to create transparency in areas that are lacking, to make consumers smarter about the choices they make, and to bring people together to solve problems they couldn’t have solved on their own.

Obama talks in his first YouTube address about:

“…new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and not only look after ourselves but each other.”

Some might view a spirit of looking after each other as akin to socialism. And still others will see it as the American way. We help each other out in times of need, and come through for those who have been our allies. I’m not going to get into a political discussion, so much as to say that I am feeling an itching desire to DO SOMETHING… something actually useful, something helpful, something worthwhile.

I also realized something else at that conference. I love Michigan… I really love it, and in case you haven’t heard, it’s not doing so hot right now. I’m about ready to root myself and my future family in this area for good and the economy is collapsing to all sides of me. And I am not terribly confident that government, including our new YouTube president, is going to be able to do anything about it.

We are on our own, and that might be for the best. The change Michigan needs is going to come from the groundswell, from movements like CEOs for Cities and the dozens of pro-Michigan blogs online. We need tools that connect online enthusiasm to offline activity, like Obama’s social network managed to bring local people together for events and grassroots efforts. It’s a good time for social media tactics to really have a positive impact, and I’m not talking ROI on ad dollars.

For the first time, I feel really proud to be in the industry I am in and proud to be living in this sad, but beautiful state. So sign me up. I’m ready to join the Michigan brigade for change. I’m ready to put my social media strategy skills to the test. Who else will join me?