It’s something that I’ve always liked to do…talk to new people – people that are interested in the things I am and also people that aren’t. It’s the way you expose yourself to things that you would never have heard about or thought of before and it’s the perfect way to learn something new and grow as an individual.

I’ve just finished reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s book “Crush it” which talks about unlocking the power of social media platforms. A few hours before I’d even started reading the book I tweeted saying:
“Six degrees of separation is dead. The world is smaller now than ever before.”

I’ve since finished the book (in under twenty four hours) and it’s compounded my opinion that there’s never been a better time to put yourself right under the nose of the people who are going to help you succeed and hopefully, the people who you are going to help out too.

If you’re an up and coming photographer who is desperately trying to make waves in this huge pond, have you been in touch with the one or two or three photographers who’s work you admire  the most?
Have you dropped them and email asking their opinion on your work?
Have you @’d them on twitter asking them a pertinent question?
Have you left your thoughts on their latest blog post and put questions to them about what they’re saying?

If the answer is no to any or all of the above, then why the hell not?

The world is shrinking and it’s shrinking fast.
This is a good thing.

Here’s an example:

I spent two weeks in Cuba last year on holiday and while I was out on a catamaran trip around the island I met a guy who it turns out works in TV here in the UK. He’s a freelance producer and has put together some pretty big shows for Channel 4.
Yesterday I updated my twitter (and Facebook status) jokingly saying that it was in my destiny to marry Cheryl Cole because in this video it appears she has “Cheryl Cole Swords” written on her shoulder (I’m aware it says Cheryl Cole 3 words, but let a man have his dream!).
This TV producer is now a friend on Facebook and by coincidence he was online when I posted this and dropped me an instant message telling me that he was putting together a show for later this year and in fact he would be meeting my “future wife” as she was going to be featured. I’m currently waiting to hear back from him about a job as Crew for that shoot.

Look out Cheryl.

Granted, that example is tongue in cheek and might only get me a photo with the future Mrs Swords so it doesn’t fully demonstrate the potential of social media. But take a look back through my blog and you’ll see that I interned with Chase Jarvis in Dubai and Seattle last year – an opportunity that actually arose from me contacting him about finding funding for photography workshops.

Now don’t get me wrong, words are cheap and so you’ve got to have the goods to back up what you’re saying. I’m not suggesting that you can simply tweet David Beckham and he’s gonna train you to be the next football super star, but what I am suggesting is that you can tweet him to say you’re a big fan and love his new designs for the Sport Relief T-shirts Victoria has come up with. Then you might tweet him a few days later with a link to your YouTube video showing off your football skills. If he watches that video see’s you’ve got potential, when you tweet him six months down the line about looking for a football scholarship it might just be that he knows LA Galaxy have a great training programme and gets back to you about it.

Obviously that may never happen because he’s got a hundred thousand other people doing the same thing – the principal I’m trying to get to is that if you have a USP and a clear focus on where you want to go in life, there are so many tools you can use now to help you get there.

Be heard, get your message across via your blog, twitter, facebook page -whatever. If people are talking about something that interests you then get involved. If nobody is talking about what interests you then spark up the conversation yourself. Reach out to your peers and reach out to the people you admire and look up to, because you never know where that conversation might lead.

Get talking!

(For those of you from outside the UK who don’t know Cheryl Cole – that’s her up top…)