A Word About "Youthiness"

It's true. The idea for my new word "youthiness" is a direct spin-off of Stephen Colbert's "truthiness" ("The Colbert Report," October 2005) but it just works so well in describing the leadership of the social media revolution that I'm going to roll with it. In my last post I mentioned @jack (Jack Dorsey) and the fact that he conceived Twitter (then Twttr) on March 31, 2006 and gave birth to it five short months later. To recap, Twitter's been around for about three and a half years. Kind of puts "youthiness" in perspective, doesn't it? In SOcial Media Years (SOMY is another word I hereby coin), it's bordering on at least a decade. Read this if you read nothing else. A "somy" happens at warp speed and is the equivalent of ten regular years.

One of the first books I purchased as I embarked on this new journey was The Social Media Bible  by Lon Safko and David K. Brake.  (They don't call it the bible for nothing. This book is a fantastic resource that I keep right by my laptop for easy access.) Right away, I noticed Chapter 5, "It's Not Your Father's E-Mail." Really? My father's e-mail? My father wrote with a stick in the dirt on a small farm in Odum, Georgia. Yep, that chapter title and the fact that a goodly portion of the experts throughout the book have titles like founder and senior vice president and CEO and appear to be under the age thirty.  I think Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WordPress, www.WordPress.org) may be too young to have dated either of my children.

But, friends, I'm here to tell you these people are dear and very approachable. And, they're so incredibly smart. If you are serious about joining the revolution, throw off that nappy bathrobe and jump in the stream. Start following their blogs. Start following their lists on Twitter. Start following them on Twitter. Engage. Interact. You will learn so much so fast from these wonderful folks. You will find yourself embracing their "youthiness" and loving them for it. I do.