Use social networks to grow your heart and spirit

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself. ~Anaïs Nin

One huge possibility for the individual, for the community, via social networks is embracing transparency as a road to mystery. Out beyond the one’s edge, beyond a community’s mores, there lies a possible “other” way of doing what has always been done a certain way.

I’ve been pondering “edge generators”: machines that learn one’s edges in search + content generation AND THEN suggest content + experiences to push one “over the edge” into new “unknown” territory. Edge territory. Edge territory is the location where one finds answers to the questions that remain unsolved in one’s life. Edge territory is where others live that have been where you are AND have THEN found a path to subsequent locations.

Humans want to expand, want to grow, want to deepen. And social networks are a giant example of this expansion, this growth, this deepening. TO BE CLEAR: As humans we are expanding and deepening into multiple dimensions via our social networks, our apps, and our niche communities.

Following is a very simple set of steps for discovering a community of people surrounding an issue you may be wishing to deepen within. This involves diving into the Interest Graph (Twitter) via a multitude of simple social intelligence tools.

1. FIND YOUR COMMUNITY via social intelligence tools. Try http://www.listorious.com and http://www.peoplebrowsr.com as first steps. Use Listorious first to find key influencers in your area of interest and then use Research.ly (PeopleBrowsr tool) to track with what is being said and dialogue with others.

2. BUILD A FOCUSED TWITTER ACCOUNT. The purpose of this account is to aggregate those you feel akin with and or curious about. You can then follow or track with these thinkers, fellow journeyers, and dialogue with them. Once the account is built, divide it into lists segmented to even finer degrees or shades of specificity. Use this Twitter guidebook to start off.

3. CONNECT IN THE FLESH. Through this Twitter account you will learn of conferences, venues, and in-the-flesh meeting places where this tribe you have assembled meets. Here you can take in the full experience of “your people”. Start with MeetUp, as an example.

4. RESOLVE TO CHANGE. The first three steps will change you, no doubt. But now you have the very important task of changing your everyday life to go on the journey you have created for yourself in the digital realm. There will be a single step, a single first moment, when you get how your life NEEDS to take on this new meaning, this new identity. And it’s a leap you will probably remember forever. It’s a leap into depth!

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