Part of my job as Small Group Catalyst at National Community Church is to convince people of things. I try to convince group leaders to raise up new leaders. I try to convince new attendees to try out groups. But I’m not a salesman, at least not in the traditional sense of the word which conjures up images of a guy in a bad polyester jacket trying to sell you an overpriced, under-maintained 1997 Dodge Caravan.
What’s the difference between a leader and a salesman?
A salesman tries to convince you of the value of what he’s promoting. A leader believes personally in the value what he’s promoting and wants to help you understand its value too.
I don’t just ask others to lead small groups; I lead them myself. I don’t just ask others to reach out to people they don’t know; I meet new people. I don’t just ask others to commit to raising up new leaders; I commit to raising up new leaders. I model the behavior I want to see repeated.
I believe in the value of the actions that I’m trying to convince others to take. I believe they are good things, necessary things, and I’m inviting others to join me.
I stumbled upon (as in came across, not actually Stumbled Upon) a blog post about Tweet Clouds, a service that provides a tag cloud of your tweets. This is pretty interesting for personal use, but what are the other ramifications? Eric Gonzalez asks these questions:
Will Twittercloud analysis become as common an HR proceedure as a background check for hiring? Will nerds like me run social media metrics prior to doing business with someone? Is this an effective (or ethical) way to get inside a prospect’s head for salespeople? What are the shortcomings and caveats here?
How would you use cloud statistics in business, or in your personal life?
I must say, I find these to be incredibly intriguing questions. I will say that on first blush, I don’t have any ethical problems with using a Tweet Cloud to better understand a prospective client. When people openly publish information on the Internet, I think they have to expect that information to be used to market to them, but I am curious what you all think about that. Is there something I’m missing?
Unfortunately, Tweet Clouds is down right now, so I can’t actually produce a cloud for you all to see. Perhaps I’ll update this later. It’s not my night for web services.
Update: It helps when you title your posts 
