Sometimes everyone wants a piece of the social media champ.

That piece may be bragging rights or it may be a share of the spotlight.

How about learning from the pro? Or acknowledgment as a form of social proof?

Is this a bad thing?

One of the greatest opportunities of social media is to interact with people both similar and different than ourselves who we might never otherwise meet. Technology becomes a common glue and a blank slate where we can interact with virtually anyone, whether they are:

  • junior to ourselves (but not inferior!)
  • equivalent in skill and knowledge
  • the type of expert or role model that we’d look up to.

This flattened playing field and the multiple access paths to attention share is an innovation that we sometimes don’t appreciate for what it is: the ability to punch above our weight.

I found a couple of good definitions of this phrase online.

Punch above your weight means to fight (literally or figuratively) at a level above what would be expected of you.

Another way of putting it might be to say you would be out of your depth.

In social media terms, punching above your weight is the opportunity to converse, query, and debate with people who have more experience, skill, and knowledge that you do, with the hopes of learning more from them while simultaneously proving your own worth. This last point is key.

It’s pretty commonly known that there are strong, vibrant personalities in tech, social media, and the blogosphere, much as there are in the off-line world. These folks are mavens, connectors, and salespeople (as per The Tipping Point).

They are experts, influencers, and pundits.

They command attention (figuratively and literally), share knowledge, start conversations, dominate conversations, and spark conversations. They are early adopters, trend setters, and keen observers of technology, commerce, and human behavior.

Many of them are smarter and better informed than either you or me. Others were clever and aggressive enough to be in the right place in the right time to make their mark. Still others… well, they’re probably in the limelight through personal connections and persistence, but in these times those too are useful skills.

In many cases we are attracted to people by their accomplishments and accompanying reputations. Being successful is very much like putting a huge target on your forehead because, much as boxing and sparring matches attract people who want to say they fought (and hopefully defeated) the champ, there’s a tendency to want to best the experts. There’s also a tendency to want to bolster our own reputations through association with the champ.

The more thoughtful people cherish the opportunity to engage the influencer as a way to learn and grow.

Blogging, microblogging, message boards, Ning groups, lifestreaming… these are some of the more popular forms of social media. They can bring like-minded people together and provide forums for discussion. They also provide opportunities to interact with the experts, influencers, and pundits by removing virtually all barriers to interaction, save one: capturing attention share. You don’t have to fly to a different city, spend a fortune, join the right clubs, or attend the convention of choice to interact with these experts. All you have to do is to emulate the behavior of these folks, who often tend to be early adopters, watch the proceedings, and wait for the right moment to make contact.

I firmly believe this is why social media sites like Twitter, Ning, and FriendFeed have grown tremendously over the past couple of years: in addition to their other considerable benefits, they provide the ticket to formerly rare access to the influencers. How? Simple. Each new toy, new site, or new service provides a new opportunity for grabbing attention share.

Think about it this way: if you’re at the same party as someone who you don’t know but would like to talk to, it’s going to tend to be easier to get their attention if there’s only 10 people there instead of 50 people or more. You start off with a common bond and topic of interest and you get an opportunity to sell yourself, either as a cool person or as a talented master-in-waiting.

Don’t get me wrong: during this first year of immersion I have interacted with a lot of great people, via social media, of varying levels of knowledge, experience, skills and, yes, influence. However, I must admit that there’s a certain thrill in being able to engage an A-List blogger, successful creator, or amazing entrepreneur via social media.

Why?

Because these are people who have done some remarkable things AND there’s no other way on earth that I’d ever get a chance to cross paths with them, if only because I’m hours away from any kind of major population center.

I realize that there can be a fine line between fanboy admiration and a more refined sense of appreciation and respect, but tell me honestly: wouldn’t you have gone a bit weak in the knees if you met Neil Armstrong or Alan Shepard after their pioneering spaceflight activities? Albert Einstein? The Beatles? Bill Gates? Sergey and Larry? Steve Jobs? Regardless of whether or not they’re kind and friendly OR unbearable egos housed in a human body?

Greatness attracts. Greatness sells. Greatness is both variable and relative, as well, but it’s still magical in the eye of the beholder.

Many of us would like the chance to engage our idols for whatever reasons we hold close to our chests. Others see the opportunity to establish a reputation for themselves, like the boxer who punches above his weight in a desperate gamble to make a quantum leap in their accomplishments and reputation.

Maybe holding our own in discussion, keeping a cool head, and sticking to facts is an even better way to punch above our weight. Isn’t conversation always better amongst people that we consider to be equals? Or, to put it more accurately, isn’t communication better between two people who respect each other?

We all bring our own strengths, weaknesses, gifts and gaps to every situation that we enter. Social media gives us unprecedented opportunities to interact with virtually anyone. We should thoughtfully make the most of any opportunity for interaction with those people that we can learn from (which could be anyone, really). Unlike the boxer, who may be physically constrained by biology, we can use our minds and social skills to vault ourselves into higher weight classes. We just need to be mindful of where we came from and who helped us along the way. I hope that Web 2.0 and beyond spreads that particular message far and wide.

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