I got struck hard recently, I mean very hard, and not by a bolt of lightning; no, just by a new blog I discovered and, I have to admit, probably months if not years after everyone, I guess.

Well, the fact and the matter is, as well put in a book co-written by the author of this newly discovered blog, Julien Smith: “Attention wars are raging; everyone is distracted, and competing for attention with everything else...”

So, I just haven’t had time to get to it, to his blog, but once I got there, I got struck... and stuck.

Of course, Julien has earned quite a reputation for himself in the last 2-3 years or so, and not the least because of the success of his book, Trust Agents, co-written with his buddy, Chris Brogan, and which hit the New York Times bestseller list two days after its official release date, and the Wall Street Journal bestseller list shortly thereafter; but also, because he is a reputed speaker in great demand all over the globe, he is well-versed and trusted in the social web and online community and his services are highly quoted.

But then again, this is not what struck me.

And I insist, his book really did make it big in major bookstores, both online and offline. “The book, Trust Agents, looks into, and unveils, why success happens for some people on the web, and not for others. Informally, Chris and Julien call it the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” for the social web.”

But the point is, this is not what struck me, what really hit me was the tone and the topics of his blog posts.  I have been blogging for a few years now; I mean, I’ve read and seen a lot on the battlefield of reputation: the most recent tech scoop post, the geek argument post, the inflammatory ego post, the insults from comment to comment and blog to blog series of posts, the long and detailed explanatory blog post about the marvels of the new revolutionary application that will change the world, the highly thoughtful Social Media Strategy “à la Forrester” post, etc.  Well, you get used to it after a while and it kind of loses its appeal.

Back to the Basics

There was a time, just a few years back, when people were talking about “transparency”, “authenticity”, and the like; and it made sense to me, I agreed with and shared those values.

Reading a post and getting the feeling of having a conversation with a genuine, authentic and honestly transparent human being was a very refreshing experience I haven’t had in a while on the web and, for once in a long time, reading Julien’s blog, I found Food for Soul again, not Food for Thought!

So much so, that it triggered a kind of reflection and overall review of my “web content publishing strategy”.  Here, I’ll make a kind of short review of some of his posts just to give you a glimpse of what I’m talking about.

Why We Must Open Source Happiness; first, just the title caught my attention right away. I mean, wow, what a great idea and well put, on top of that.

How To Deal With Arrogance... means what it means and, just says it all!

You Are Fight Club is a kind of metaphor about making a name for yourself.

The Elbow Thing presents an interesting perspective on the attitude dilemma when being elbowed by the guy sitting next to you on a plane.

Why We Climb Mountains is a good reminder of the price of success, be it personal or professional.

In Subverting Social Roles he exposes the rules of social roles and relevant, or not, expectations associated with.

Why Women Will Take Over the World is a brief and honest confession regarding the oldest debate of the last... millennium.

In What Are You Really About?; he, while confessing about his own positioning struggle in life, is inviting us to ask ourselves: “Do people really know what you’re about?”

I mean, I could go on and on like that; because frankly, it’s been a while since I discovered some... well, a place where I felt just like if I was sitting in a comfy chair in a good bookstore, spending the rest of the afternoon reading, scrolling, reading some more, and scrolling some more, and...

Simply put; it’s real talk for real people!

Anyway, drop by his blog In Over Your Head and... well, you’ll understand what I mean.

My advice to you

His conference, Social Capital and New Tribes, sure promises to be interesting. 

We will never need more advertising. We will always need more community, and tighter links between those we care about. Learning to build tribes using the new radios has never been more important, and understanding social capital has never been more valuable.

The guy sure can tell you a lot of interesting stuff about successfully building a Community and striving to become a Trust Agent; because he certainly knows a thing or two about being part of a very large Community called the Human Race.

I strongly recommend Julien Smith, if only, for his Humanity!

Believe me; you can Trust this Agent!

Bon Webcom 2010,

Denis P van Chestein