Tag: Facebook

Social Media: How the Big Dogs Get Paid

This is such a fun blog post to write, because I am going to tell you how the “big dogs” in social media marketing get paid. I hear it all of the time, and many of my peers say they hear it, too … “so how do you make money with social media?”

Please note that this relates to social media marketing consultants who earn their living by helping clients with marketing their products or services better with social media. There are many branches to the field of social media, such as bloggers who earn money as writers and blog owners. There are providers, such as Twitter, Digg, Sphinn Linked In, Reddit, Facebook, etcetera. There are social media marketers who saw some success in the industry and decided to write a book about it and sell it to make money, and similarly those who speak about their success in public forums. These are various methods, and this article is not about them (maybe later).

What I am writing about here are the social media marketing people you encounter and wonder how they earn a living. The “big dogs” are the ones who seem to have a lot of connections, including many thousands of followers on Twitter and elsewhere, and who seem to always be active with socializing in social media.

Social Media Big Dogs Love People!

The big dogs of social media marketing really love people. The most successful social media marketers are the ones who would give you the shirt off their back and ask if you need their shoes, too. I can name many of these big dogs, and I will get to that. The truth about the biggest dogs with the best pedigree in social media marketing, and with the biggest social media respect, are the same people who can laugh with you when you tell them a funny story of how your son got even with his brother by writing all over him with a marker, and counsel you when you have a bad day. They may not reach each and every person, but they sure try, and they are sincere. They care about you, and you are not a part of some underbellied marketing plan.

Social Media Big Dogs Get Paid to Have Fun

It is really an amazing thing, but yes, social media marketing big dogs get paid to know people, make friends, and have fun. So, you may think that is crazy, right? Let’s examine this. The big dog of social media marketing consulting does not look at you as a meal ticket or a box lunch. They want to know about you. They want to hear from you and have a feel for who people are. The big dog of social media has a genuine enjoyment of being your friend.

Social Media Big Dogs’ Agenda

So the business side of the big dog comes out, and I will tell you their agenda. The agenda of the social media marketing big dog is to know people. The big dog uses an understanding of people (yes, including you) to know what people want. Once the big dog knows anything and everything about what people want, they use this information to help their client (the people paying them) to be a better company and to best express themselves to the appropriate audience, and to do so more abundantly, providing a greater return on their investment. By the time the social media marketing big dog is ready to bring something to market, he or she has polished that offering to be positioned at the top of the given industry.

Social Media Big Dogs Run in Packs

A pack hound mentality is not really as ugly as it may sound. Here is how it happens: Once the big dog has done their homework and knows the perfect way to reach the people who will best benefit from their cients’ product or service, they search their brain and their contacts to seek assistance. The big dog will likely make telephone calls to other big dogs to ask for advice, and for references of who they know that can help. This may be to find an editor at a popular industry-related news agency, blogging site, or other periodical. It may also be a series of email and social media messages such as Twitter, Digg, Sphinn, Linked In, Reddit, Facebook, etcetera. If the big dog has done their job well, and has improved their clients’ message to one that is appealing to a massive audience, they will put their reputation on the line and ask other big dog friends to pass along the clients’ revised and shiny new image directly to their networks.

Social Media is Easy

So here you have it. Social media big dogs get paid for a lot of fun, doing what they truly love to do. It is really pretty easy in some ways. You may wonder why they get paid for it at all, since it is so easy. The truth is that although it is a lot of fun, the social media big dog also uses a lot of social equity, analytical marketing experience, media insight, and much of their time in making their clients massively successful. The social media big dog makes many efforts to help their clients understand where their offering should be positioned in the marketplace. They often train and coach key client personnel in proper public relations, keep watch over the client’s reputation, open doors the client never realized existed, and much more.

What Can They Do That a Client Cannot?

The social media big dog often encourages individuals and companies to do everything they can to engage in social media. They try to give their best advice, and hold very few secrets. However, even with all of their coaching and training, and even their list of contacts, a well polished message will often still fall on deaf ears. The relationships and the experience of any big dog will vary, but you can be assured that a real big dog has put in the time and effort to build an invaluable network. If it is truly a big dog, you have one that you are not wise to let walk away. That network sits silently behind them when they are at your bargaining table, and they can prove it to you.

A company can do this all on their own, but it is often the equivalent of a father going to school for dentistry in order to take care of his own family’s teeth. When it calls for a professional, it is best to hire a big dog.

Hiring a Social Media Big Dog

It seems that most social media marketing big dogs are pretty busy. They usually have a lot of work to do, even when it does not relate to a specific client. This is because their job has a lot to do with building and maintaining relationships, and a constant study of the world around them. It also seems that many are not really into selling their service, but rather educating. After all, their job is far more about making a product or service so attractive that selling is not necessary. This can be misleading to both the big dog and the potential client. When the social media big dog sniffs you, they want a feel for the culture of your product or service. If it smells bad, they will likely walk away without any further interest. The real truth of the matter is that if they really have what you need and take the time to prove it, the job is then up to you to recognize it quickly, and be ready to strike a deal. This is because a real social media big dog is truly your best friend, and you will be lucky to have him or her in your family.

When you read this blog post, it is not at all unlikely that it reached you because a dog broke his chain and delivered it to you. The author runs with a lot of really amazing hounds.

So there you have it. This is my job as a social media marketing consultant and search engine optimizer. I enjoy it very much, and I love to help others. If you know somebody seeking to make the most of their business, I am a phone call away at *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*).

Jack Walden Teaches Social Media

Jack Walden Murnahan, Twitter’s youngest user, sent a message to social media yesterday that we should all take heed of. The message that Jack Walden sent at only minutes old was not just as you would think, and it should prove to each of us the greatest of lessons in social media.

Jack Walden’s message was delivered more directly to the heart of social media than even the most cleverly devised sales pitch or news story. It did not need to be spread around the world to every Internet user, and there was no attached agenda. It was simply the sharing of one family’s very excited welcome to their little boy.

The Response to Baby Murnahan Tweeting

The responses have been overwhelming. As I made announcements of progress toward the birth of our son, the outpouring of excitement and love was more than I could possibly keep up with. I sat down today to write a personal thank you to each of the people offering their congratulations and excitement for us. After writing several hundred personal messages of thanks, I started realizing that I was actually losing ground. More messages were coming in by Twitter, Facebook, and email, faster than I could keep up. Beyond just that, I knew that I would soon reach the 1000 direct message daily limit and 100 per hour limit for @ messages on Twitter. I have reached both of these limits before, even without having a new son.

What this incredible outpouring of support for and about Jack Walden teaches is that people really do care about people. Social media provides a means to reach into people’s lives, get to know them, and share in their joys, defeats, likes, dislikes, and more. It allows for unique and often touching insights to people’s lives, and for many of us, it provides great joy to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. The power of friendshinp and caring is something that cannot be described in a single blog post, or in only a few lines. It is built over time, and built with trust.

Even if you skip the rest of this blog post, I hope that you will heed the message that a little boy named Jack Walden Murnahan has come to deliver about sharing in joys and pains of others, and the very deep-reaching power of communications with others that is so greatly enhanced through social media.

I will, however, since so many people have asked, share some of what lead up to Jack’s birth, and give you a story of this piece of my life that has been very touching to me. So read it if you like, and know that I have held your many well wishes and congratulations very dear.

Jack Walden’s Story of Social Media

A while back, I announced that my wife, Peggy (@pegmu) would soon give birth to our new baby. Since so many of our friends are spread around the world, the Internet and social media is clearly the best way to share our excitement and details with our friends and family. It is a lot faster to make a baby announcement using Twitter than to call each person to deliver the great news. Plus, it is a great way to show the new baby photos and video to the people who wish they could be there but cannot.

One of the earlier announcements of our joy was our Twitter Kids video. The video showed how our “human resources department” (Peggy) was working on bringing us more help to keep up with our work. If you have not seen it, you may get a chuckle from it. This was a fun video for all of us to make.

As the pregnancy progressed, I shared it with friends on Twitter and Facebook. On April 1st, I shared that we thought we would be welcoming our new baby that day. This was not an April Fools Day joke. Peggy was having very regular contractions, and they were increasingly strong. However, once she finally got too tired to stand any longer, she went to bed and the contractions subsided.

Several times since April 1st, we were pretty convinced that it was time to meet the little one. It really dragged on for a long time. We were visiting our midwife weekly, and we kept our fingers crossed that we would meet our baby soon. On April 16th, we made yet another a visit to our midwife following a series of contractions that seemed productive and getting closer together. Peggy was having contractions as frequent as every two minutes. Norla, our midwife, promptly put Peggy on a monitor and checked dilation. She sent us home and said that she would not be at all surprised to see us back either that night or the next day. At this point, Jack was already a week late, and we were becoming concerned that we may end up in a hospital where they would require a cesarean section (surgical) delivery, because Peggy had a cesarean section delivery with our first born, Simon. This was a very frightening prospect for Peggy, and she hoped to avoid it.

That night, Peggy did as she had been for days, she paced up and down our street, stayed on her feet, and hoped that gravity would help to enhance the labor, as it should. She finally wore out and had to go to bed. She was completely exhausted. She finally got some good rest, and I did my part to be sure the kids would not wake her too early. I wanted her to rest as much as possible because I was certain that she would have a very exhausting day ahead.

That morning, she walked with her mother around our neighborhood, and went shopping, mostly for the walk. By about 1:00pm, Peggy said that some of the contractions felt stronger, but they were just short ones that went away pretty quick. i suggested that we call Norla just to be safe. We described what was happening, and Norla said to come on in and we would take a look at her. As we left our home, it looked like things were getting more serious. Peggy had a couple of pretty strong contractions.

We arrived at the birth center at about 1:55pm and they checked her blood pressure, pulse, and the baby’s pulse. All of the sudden, Peggy was hit with a really strong contraction … I mean really strong. Of course, I tweeted it with one hand as I held her hand and comforted her. 🙂

It became clear that it would not be very long before we met our son. Norla could tell that things were happening fast, so she told Peggy to go ahead and put on a gown and that we would not be leaving without a baby in our arms. I will save some of the graphic details, but Peggy went from being dilated to 4cm to giving birth in under a half hour. She pushed three times and delivered our son directly into daddy’s waiting hands in under five minutes.

Minutes after his birth, Jack was ready to send his first tweet. Jack’s first official tweet was as follows:

Jack’s 1st tweet: Hi Tweeps. I was born! #baby #twanic #whew (now press enter, Jack)

That message, and the ones leading up to it, caused a huge rush of support and congratulations that I have been shockingly unprepared, I did not expect so many people to listen or care enough to show their interest of compassion for our moments of joy. I feel very honored by the warmth given to our family. As much as I want to respond individually to each person, I have provided this story to tell a bit about what happend for our family, and how deeply thankful I am to each person giving their support and love.

I owe a huge “thank you” to each of you. You really are the reasons that social media is great. You are the people who understand that the very best things in life are the people and relationships that you build. You are my social media rockstars!

The Social Media Marketing Dilemma

There is a lot of buzz about social media marketing these days. We have all heard it, and no industry is immune. All of the facts and figures point to the inevitability that your business will be affected by this turn in the marketing tide. This all got me to thinking about the dilemma that social media poses to each and every business entity.

The dilemma is in weighing the cost of participating versus the risk associated with not embracing social media marketing. So how can you mitigate your risk? Spend a moment with me to understand why you should not overlook social media for another minute.

Social Media Marketing: Now or Later?

The part that may be the hardest for many companies is that this shift in the marketing tide has occurred during an already frightening time for business people. Companies who used to advertise in newspapers have found that they are largely ineffective. This has further added to the already obvious demise of print media. Similarly, television is losing the marketing battle at an astonishing rate. Your local affiliate stations used to receive a piece of the national advertisers spending, and that was cut by the major networks. This is all happening because the Internet has fully eclipsed all other media in both total adspend and consumer reach. 

I can give you a long list of the things which have added to the social media boom, but I do not think I will need to explain this. You know it is here, and you are quite possibly feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. It is a huge transition. It is kind of a big shuffle where everybody is just trying to find their way and hope when it all settles that they will have made the right choices and that they adapted to the new rules of marketing soon enough to be effective. This really is a dilemma of when to make a quantifiable effort: will it be now, or will it be later? When should you adopt the new rules of engagement? Are you too late? It is too soon? The questions are so plentiful and pressing that I have watched it paralyze many would-be good business decision makers.

Social Media Dilemma: Risk vs. Risk

Perhaps you are just warming up to the idea that this “new” media is where things are going. The fear of jumping in is really pretty normal. After all, it is hard to believe in something after you have watched all the things you always knew about business and economy suddenly change. Most of us were always told that our home would always be a great investment. That seems to be a bit shaky now, although it will certainly return. We thought companies like General Motors, AIG, and others were unshakeable and that the whole world economy could not all just collapse. Things have changed, and amidst all of that change around you, the thought of spending what seems like a fortune in order to effectively participate in a marketing method with a whole new set of measurement metrics probably feels a bit uncomfortable at best.

So what will make all of this feel better and help it all make sense? The answer is this: If your competition does it sooner and better than you, the cost of lost opportunity will be greater than any other potential risk. 

Social media marketing is truly not as new as you may see it on the surface. In many ways, it is the way it used to be done in every company, for as long as business has been done. The tools have changed a lot, but the communication basics are that if you develop a warm market, your business will always perform far better. Your sales process will be much smoother. Your brand image will be enhanced by the added customer satisfaction. The list of benefits to the added communication of social media marketing over advertising as usual should not be so hard to understand. All the same, as a social media and Internet marketing professional since the mid-1990s, I still often feel like I am trying to explain the color blue to a person devoid of sight.

A Picture of Social Media Marketing

I want to provide you with a mental picture of social media marketing. Work with me, please. Let’s say that you are about to walk out the door to drive to your local Wal Mart for a couple items. You are going to pick up a garden hose, some razor blades, a new alarm clock, and a few other items. As you head for the door with your car keys in hand, the doorbell rings. You get to the door and there is a salesperson standing there to greet you. They are with a company you have heard of, but you have never met this person. He says that he has all of those things you planned to pick up at Wal Mart. He has the garden hose, the razor blades, and even the alarm clock, and he happens to have them right there. He even has the brands you would buy. How does this feel to you? Are you a bit uneasy about it? Many people have answered this question for me, and it seems that the vast majority would still get in the car, drive to Wal Mart, sort through the aisles, wait in line, and return home. The trust factor compels them, and the guy at the door just did not have the trust yet, regardless how hard he tried.

I have a new picture for you. The person standing at the door is somebody you have had some brief communication with, and you realize you have some mutual friends. It warms up with a bit of friendly conversation, and what do you know. You belong to the same social group. It all starts to look different now, does it not?

The differences in these scenarios are very similar psychologically to an advertisement compared to a social media approach. In addition, with a social media approach, it is altogether likely that the phone rang before you even grabbed your car keys and a friend was on the other end to let you know they were sending the hose, razor, and alarm clock guy over. It has a completely different feel, and it is the reason that advertising has always been an uphill battle compared to proper relationship marketing.

Social Media Fears: The Biggest Dilemma of All

Now that I have walked you through an analogy of digital social media compared to yesterday media, let us look at the worst social media dilemma of all. This time, you are in the selling position, and you are the guy at the door. Answer yourself this question: do you want to be that guy at the door trying to peddle your goods, or would you rather be the hose, razor, and alarm clock guy who took the care to build relationships and will be walking up to the door already announced.

If you fear what happens if you embrace social media marketing today and that it may not work for you, the greater question should be in which hose, razor, and alarm clock salesperson you want to be. If you leave it up to your competition, your cost will be much greater indeed, because the deepest cost is that of missed opportunities.

Social Networking: A Call from Reg Saddler (zaibatsu)

We are all people … we have emotions, motivations, body odors, and a history. Some of us are funny, some of us are deep thinkers, and some of us just want to have fun. The bottom line is that when you peel back the layers, none of us are really corporate drones, regardless how the workday may sometimes feel. Making it personal is what matters.

Reg Saddler (@zaibatsu) Conversation

I had the pleasure early this morning (just after midnight) of receiving a telephone call from Reg Saddler(@zaibatsu). We talked for over two hours. I was very honored to speak with Reg, as he is a true master in the marketing industry. In our talks, a lot was more about fun stuff, like a plan to entertain you all with a road rally Webcast (as I did with CopMagnet.com). One thing that really sticks out is that Reg said “Most people do not even know what I do for a living.” Coming from a true Internet marketing master, this emphasizes this message that “I”, “me”, and “my” are not what drives success. Now I want to speak favorably about Reg Saddler as a person, and if that is not how to reach people, I do not know what is.

I, Me and My Don’t Belong in Social Networks

Now that companies have made their peace with their best assets, the people, they encourage their employees to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all of the latest social networking tools. The hardships lie in their use, and a lack of understanding that promoting an agenda is not a suitable part of social media / social networking. I have heard it described as shouting out your sales pitch at a cocktail party. That is not an image of success, and it will not create success.

These are just my thoughts … and I am just one guy. But when it comes to social networking, the agenda of serving yourself only magnifies a disturbance that likely exists in other aspects of ones life. If you live your life bugging people to hear all about “I”, “me”, and “my”, you may be well reminded of why you have two ears and only one mouth.

Why Social Networking Started: In Summary

Let’s look at why social networking became commercialized. For a time, the Internet seemed very impersonal. It was like a contest to see which corporation could have the fanciest Website with the most views. The public went with that for a while, but it eventually only emphasized the absurd big bucks corporate mentality bred in the 1990s. You may remember the visions of the Silicon Valley executive taking his pick of ladies in line at the hottest nightclub after driving up in a Ferrari. It was like a Hollywood red carpet frenzy. The image of a company was more important than the real assets … the individuals. The passion to create a big corporate image was worthy of ridicule, just as much as the buzzards on Wall Street are in 2009. Fortunately, the culture has changed, and we see the errors of those ways.

As the Internet matured, and as people became tired of clicking around for precious minutes just to find a phone number to call the huge dot com, then wade through “press 7 to hold” hell, and finally reach a corporate drone, companies somehow found a better resource in the uniqueness of each of us as individuals. It finally made sense to personalize the Internet and quit trying to imply that computers could replace real people.

Related Article: Three Kids Prove Social Networking Works
Related Article: Twitter Usage Study: Pass the Tweet #PTT

Three Kids Prove Social Networking Works

Social networking has been analyzed, scrutinized, bastardized, and commercialized, but my family is proof that it works, and that it has worked for over a decade. If you will give me a moment, I will tell you why I am blogging about this today, and give inspirational credit to people I met and have built deep relationships with that have lasted for over a decade and growing, and those whom I only recently met. I will start with today, and I will go back to the really good stuff when I met Peggy.

My Social Networking Proof 

A little while ago, I sent a tweet on Twitter (for the confused, see: “Twitter Usage Study: Pass The Tweet #PTT“) and it read as follows:

“Social Networking Fact: I met my wife online in 2000 and we await the birth of our 3rd child in April. It works, I tell ya!”.

I sent this tweet after an engaging blog conversation asking “When will social media be ‘ready’?”. I am never the guy to leave a quick one-liner on a blog because I am just not a link-spammy blogger. I would rather say nothing at all than to say “Great article, it was really helpful.” As it should be, my comment was thoughtful, and it was engaged by the author, Caleb Gardner. Here is how it went:

Mark Aaron Murnahan:

When somebody questions the ROI of social media, they have already missed the point. It is worse than the mentality of trying to measure the ROI on taking a client to a ball game or going to dinner. Building relationships should not be measured by dollars and cents. I have just been communicating with a friend whom I met and have built a strong friendship since 1998. I have never asked her for business or for referrals, but you can bet that if she knows somebody who needs my services, I will get the call. Further, I did a lot of dating online years before it was common and finally met my wife online in 2000. We are now expecting our third child in April 2009. Social networking has been ready for years, but people being ready for it is another story. Social networking used to happen in ballrooms and the corner restaurant. The primary thing that changed was the venue.

calebgardner:

@Mark

I love the personal story about your wife. Way to make an emotional (literally) appeal for social networking.

It’s an interesting thought that social networking has been around for years. You’re right – it literally has in that we’ve always built relationships with those around us. I think what is happening is that the Web is making us more cognizant of the relationships we build, because we’re able to build them with people that we never would have been in contact with before.

Hmm… have to give that some more thought. Sounds like an interesting post on its own… 

Mark Aaron Murnahan:

@caleb

Since my comment, I was on the phone with a good friend I know from my “other job” racing cars. His very financially successful company has a churn issue because of a hugely competitive market with tiny margins. I used myself as an example with him. I explained that he would not hear my message as clearly if he did not know me, my wife, my children, and my integrity. He has been in my garage working on racecars with me at 3:00am before a big event, and we drive around corners at 100+++MPH together, for the sake of Pete. He knows that I have a lot more at stake than a sales pitch. We have a relationship. I have tried to reach his executive staff to understand that without relationships, all we have is a sales pitch, and that people do not buy the pricetag but rather what is attached. He gets the message, and he is really excited to work together, as am I, but he is getting a lot of pushback on implementation from his fellow execs. They have a corporate stuffiness that does not even match their written message and their goals. The bottom line is that if we miss the relationships, we work much harder and achieve less. You built on our relationship by engaging me with your reply. This is how stuff really works. My next blog article about it is forthcoming.

How I Met My Wife: Re-tweeted

Remember that tweet I sent? It was re-tweeted and replied to, which is always an honor, because it means I said something that people actually heard and thought enough about to tell others, and to ask a question. A question was posed by @askorkin as follows:

“really! you met your wife online, i am intrigued how? if you don’t mind my asking :)”

—

I replied:“Since you asked how I met my wife online, I am inspired to blog about it. It is my best proof that social networking really works.”

—

My Social Networking in 1998

In 1998, I had a friend and business partner who did not really understand the reach of the Internet. He was a physician and I was a marketing guy. We were working on a project targeted toward pharmaceutical companies that were spending tons of money to bring doctors to luxury resorts in Miami, Palm Springs, Orlando, Phoenix, and elsewhere, to learn about their new drug. At the time, thanks to government subsidized travel and tourism in Central Europe, we found that it was actually less costly to bring American participants to a conference in Budapest, Hungary than to Miami. This became the target of our new conferencing company.

Jeff posed a lot of questions as to how the Internet worked into our business model. He did not really “get it”. I explained that I had developed a network of friends in the region, and globally. Even back then, my European social network of friends included Bianca, who was an au pair from Austria working in USA, with whom I have communicated even in the last 24 hours (see my Facebook).

We made connections with hotel managers, tourist attractions, and one of our favorites, Varsaci Karoly (“Karchi”). Karchi worked for the E.C. as a Euro Qualifier, and we were fast friends. We got to know him online, but he soon showed us many incredible times in Budapest. We had a lot of fun at the courtesy of the Hungarian government. After all, it was ideal for them to attract American dollars back then.

It was really sinking in for Jeff, by this point, that this Internet thing could be useful. However, he still questioned it as a marketing tool. It is funny how most people think of it as a marketing tool first, and a networking tool second. We (he) flipped that around. Jeff knew that I was pretty “Internet savvy”, but I needed to give him a clear example. This gets to how I met my wife.

Social Networking Study: “Mark the Single Guy”

By 1999, I was single, 26 years old, and retired. My marketing business had been pretty good to me, but my personal life was lackluster from years of focusing on my work. Jeff’s challenge to use the Internet to show localized results led me to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted a woman to hold, and he wanted to understand the Internet. Again, it is funny how he thought localization was the challenge back then, but now globalization is the challenge.

I set out to prove that there were enough people right there in our town of Topeka, Kansas, USA to show the Internet market reach. Of course, back then, his concern was that the audience may be too slim. Wow, I showed him. I used a XOOM.com account (back then xoom.com was a free host) to create a significantly detailed biography of “Mark the Single Guy”, and I used a “.cjb.net” account to shorten the URL. I included everything I liked, didn’t like, and I even had a special section about my baggage. The “Mark’s Baggage” section was complete with an affiliate link to ebags.com. I promoted my heart everywhere I could, and I used the equivalent of today’s “re-tweeting” by asking my online social network to pass along the bio and help me find the woman who would become the love of my life.

It was not too long before I was receiving 300-400 email messages per day from ladies within a 50 mile radius who wanted to meet me. I met a lot of ladies, and I had a lot of fun … yes, a lot! I met a few neurotic ladies like Sara, Nancy, and DeeAnne, and I broke a few hearts. I am still sorry for making one of the Stacys cry. She was a sweet girl, and I really liked her family. Of course, Sara, Nancy, and DeeAnne were the ones I really wanted, but thanks to them, I was single when I met my darling wife, Peggy.

After the neurotic gals had nearly broken my will, I was pretty careful when it came to being close to Peggy. I think I was in love with her before I ever touched her hand or smelled her hair. Peggy was clearly very special, and I would do my best to keep from hurting her with my baggage (and WOW, I had baggage). Peggy does not like to admit this, but she admitted back then to crying as she read the deepest parts of me, the man she really wanted but was afraid of.

Social Networking: Shedding My Skin for Peggy

Sharing the real me was like pulling a scab off my entire body and letting air hit my sensitive inside. In my biography, I had shed my skin and stood emotionally naked for the world to see and inspect. It is lucky for both of us that I was real. I showed my sweat, my tears, my fears, my body odor, and the things that made me a real person.

Is This Fact or Fiction?

Some will question if this is all real, just as Peggy did back then. The accounts you have read here are only a small part of the full story, but it is all real, and it is all me. Perhaps as you get to know me, I will tell you the really deep and hard stuff that I once shared more freely online.

It cannot be all wrong to share who you are. After all, that is how I met the love of my life and the mother of my six year old son, my three year old daughter, and the baby she carries today whom I will announce in April 2009.

If you would like to know me better, just tell me so, and we will make that happen. I know the value of social networking, and I treasure the many relationships I have built.

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