Can't say enough about the talk with @Billhandy's* class at Oklahoma State on Tuesday. It was a home run and I was glad to do it.
Bill gave me lots of love on his blog here - which was pretty humbling. But I think there is something to "guru fatigue".
I had a similar conversation with Shelley @cadamy as well as with others about there being an overabundance of folks online who offer themselves up as social media wonks, when all they've really done is since up for everything under the sun and retweet links back to lists on other guru's blogs.
The title of Bill's post calling me a guru is entirely ironic. I don't want anyone to think I have anything on the web down cold**. The pace of developments and change is too much for most people to keep track of, let alone have a handle on implementing in any sane way. While I probably consume mass quantities of Mashable, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb more than I should, that still only gives a small glimpse at the mashups that are happening all over the place.
My contention, just like my contention was when I decided to go to SW Missouri instead of the Missouri J-School is that the work is the thing. It's that hardline Lutheran work ethic that still thickens my blood like Crisco.
The reason I have guru fatigue is because I think you need to get your hands dirty trying to figure out the tools that work and how they work and why they work before you can act like you have any sense of what you are talking about.
I'm all for sitting on panels, but the reason for me to do it is not to bring down tablets, but to talk about building communities, to brag on our business and the smart people who work around me*** and to pick the brains of the people in the audience.
Despite what my wife says, I am interested in listening to people**** and found it very interesting when the kids from our Newsroom 101 crowd said they started every day on their Facebook page.
Bottom line, here was my advice for the students at OSU and for anyone in earshot.
--> Consume as much info as possible.
--> Throw away your phone book.
--> Don't use Internet Explorer.
--> Find your niche.
--> Work your brains out.
End of sermon.
FOOTNOTES
* - Use of apostrophe's on Twitter. Discuss.
** - Except for finding Chinese bootlegs of old American Idol episodes.
*** - Not to self, blog post just listing people I am lucky to work with. (@nicktank, @jayspear, @mikesherman)
**** - Well, some people.
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