Elizabeth Norton has a fire in her belly. I’ve known that about her quite some time. But what I didn’t know is that the fire in her guest post would be about the real or imagined social hierarchy out there on the web. These types of issues always tend to rear their ugly heads right after a major conference, like SXSW. She gives some great food for thought and I’d love it if you shared your thoughts at the end of her post.
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I have had this post mulling over in my head. Having the words flow through my fingers is long overdue. Nothing shall ever make any progress, nor will any point be made if it is perpetually in my head. So out it goes and into the inner workings of the web will it flow.
Recently, I have felt some spite between the communities of the web. Perhaps it’s the latest platform making its debut and the older platforms trying to keep up. It’s an endless horserace where the finish line is nowhere in sight, yet we are all in a hurry to get there. It could be that, or it could be the fact that everyone on the web seems to feel they rule it.
It is their web.
True, they may have a slice of space: a “.com” perhaps, a Webby app they created, a patent, a web profile, even a highly vocal blog, or their own server. This space is theirs. But it’s not. It is ours to share.
We have the content providers who think content is King and all else are what, the Jokers? To an extent I see this as a valid point, but in reality King of what? King of Google?
I think not.
Even Google has its faults. It can be assimilated to big government on the web where the little people can be locked out of their emails and have nowhere to turn. No number to call and no shoulder to cry on. But Google is not the ruler of this online world we all seem to live in. This, I am sure of.
The developers, although intelligent, are nothing without the web personalities that provide value to them. Yes they can create, but who will use? Without these personalities, they would be pointless, dusty from no use. Their brilliance would be wasted.
On the other hand, the web personalities, those that have thousands of followers and can wreak havoc on Fortune 500 companies in the name of poor service, have nothing on those that provide content and write about them, or the shameless writing they do of themselves. And, those content portals where their popularity feeds (aka blogs), are nothing without a search engine to find them. They would be pointless. Limp. Their social medieval personalities would have nowhere to shine.
Google and such would be nothing if there was nothing to search. If there were no blogs or Tweets or Webpages, there would be nothing to index. The search engines would be pointless, empty… showing nothing of use. The way I look at it, the web is an agnostic place. There is no God over the Internet. We are all equal.
The web has become less of a web and more of a revolving circle with nothing at its core. There is no God of the Internet. There is no ruler of the Web. There is no king.
Developers: check your ego at the door of your bedrooms, your basements, or your high rise corporate workplaces. You may have an office, but you certainly do not have it all.
Social Media personalities: you are an integral part of the Web as others follow suit. But besides the person in front of you in the Starbucks line, the man next to you at the press event or the blogger that just commented on your blog, you are just a being like everyone else. You certainly do not have it all.
And Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Bing and the latest search engine motors that help us connect: you play an integral part as well, but so did the radio and look where that is now. Last time I saw one was on “The Brave Little Toaster” when my son asked me what it was and why it was being saved from a trash dump. You certainly are not it all.
Don’t you see the web is an agnostic place?
There is no leader. There is no corner of the web where web developers, webmasters, community leaders, social media managers, and/or web crawlers can meet, because the Web is round and has no corners. Contrary to an actual web, there is no beginning or end. We are all equal and dependent on each other. Without that dependency, the revolving motion would be faulted and the sphere would be broken.
Although competition is healthy, realize the web is one of its own. Together we will spin and make a better today for a more connected tomorrow. Separate, with no respect for the other web equations, we do a disservice to not only each other, but our own divisions of labor. We do a disservice to the revolution for tomorrow.
Check your egos at the power buttons to your computing devices. We are all in this together. Face it. You are nothing without my typing and my typing is nothing without you.
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Elizabeth Norton is an online personality that collaborates with companies that have products and services that she believes in. A blogger since 2004, Elizabeth Norton has nurtured numerous relationships that make up an online community by sharing and being personable. Elizabeth detests cold calling and believes in marketing by relating and knowing the community. Elizabeth works with numerous companies, usually ones unrelated, traveling, story telling, and meeting many. The more humans she meets the more she discourages hard selling and instead helps companies find their target audience and a deeper success rate for finding loyal customers that return again and again! Elizabeth truly believes that life is a lesson as much as it is a story! Live it. Learn from it. Share your findings.
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If you’re interesting in contributing a guest post on Social Dialect on the subject of brands, blogging, or social media, in general, drop me a line at fadra@socialdialect.com.
