Does Social Media Create More Passion?
Do you have a favourite sports team? Do you have a favourite hobby? What about a favourite television show? Besides family and work, we all have a passion for something we really enjoy.
For me, that passion is hockey. Like you didn't notice. :-) I have always been a fan of hockey, but I must say the last two years have been the best fan years for me since I was a kid. Why is that? I think it is a combination of a number of things. I know one thing, it's not because the Habs are lighting it up. :-)
Here is why I think I am more engaged then ever before.
- My son started playing hockey last year and watching him makes me feel like a kid again.
- I have been retired from the game for almost 10 years now. I am 100% all fan now.
- The online hockey community. (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, The NHL)
For this post I am going to focus on the 3rd point. Over the past couple of years I have been really engaged by the online hockey community. There are so many great people outside of your local network and social media, web 2.0, whatever you want to call it is a great way to meet and make new friends who are somewhat like minded.
Here is a perfect example of how social media can build relationships.
My brother Adrian and I have our own hockey tv show called The Hockey Zen TV Show. Over the past year we connected with a couple of guys who produce a show out of LA, called Kingscast. We recently created our first ever video mash up with our two shows. It was a ton of fun, we worked with some great people from LA (Keith, Chris and Matt) which would of never happened 5 years ago and I got heckled :-).
Here is the show we put together.
This is just one example and there are many other great hockey folks we have collaborated with since we started connecting online. So, if you have something you really love and you want to talk to more people about that topic. The web might just be the place for that conversation.
