While at Cisco Live this past week, I was fortunate to be invited to be a guest on the Geek Whisperers. This was a real highlight of my trip. While it may just have been convenient, I was very pleased to be included. I have long listened to the podcast created by Amy Lewis, John Troyer, and Matthew Brender . Respectively: @CommsNinja, @MJBrender, and @JTroyer on Twitter. Distinct presences in social media, who’ve with knowledge, intelligence and humor debated cajoled and enlightened the whole concepts of social media and community. I told Amy, actually, that I feel like listening to the podcast is like sitting around with some friends and listening to some intriguing conversation to which I wish I could add my admittedly limited value. I guess this was that opportunity.

http://geek-whisperers.com/2014/06/the-collective-noun-of-influencers-episode-50/

Episode 50 seems a bit of a landmark as well.

As you can see, the production methodology of this show was not at the average levels for my friends, but surprisingly, the show sound quality was really impressive.

What makes their conversations so compelling for me is that I get to hear the perspectives of marketing and other approaches to what social media can bring to you and your company in ways I honestly about which I never thought. They’ve opened my eyes to a lot of thought in this vein that I’d really never even considered. And they do it consistently in a compelling manner that never lectures, but always intrigues. They talk of Twitter, Team Building, Branding, Communities, metrics and so many other things. Their guests are generally, with the exclusion of myself, experts in the field.

So, with an amazingly professional rig, we sat and discussed many of the issues in what can be a complexly textured conversation.

I have been a member of the social media world for a long time. When I was an employee at EMC, my boss, Chad Sakac (@SakacC on twitter) said simply: If you’re not already on it, get on twitter. So I did. I hadn’t really thought about a personal/professional blog yet, but I’ve now been on Twitter for over 4 years. I’d thought of what I wanted to say, and how I wanted to be perceived on Twitter and made a number of rules for myself. These guiderails were mine, and I could preach them to others, but that’s irrelevant. What your rules are, what you choose to show about yourself, and what interests you have either inside or out side the professional career. I think that we all recognize that what we do actually does become part of the digital archive forever. But how important is that aspect to you? What you choose to publish versus what you don’t should, in my mind, be guided by that basic rule. Those who do follow me know that I’m just as likely to tweet about music, the Blackhawks, as I am virtualization and storage.

Ultimately, many of the conversations that I’ve heard about these things, in my mind, have rolled up to common sense. Some of the things that I think about are my rules on curse words, my thoughts on politics, and my thoughts on religion. I rarely have these conversations in a public sense, or with my coworkers, so why would I use a different voice on public social media? Sometimes I think about the book “Everything I ever really needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten.” I do believe in honesty, kindness and tolerance. So I would on social media as well.

I recommend The Geek Whisperers highly, not just because I like these folks, but because I respect their opinions, and intelligent approach to a potential quagmire of a subject.