Consultant and media expert, Paul Gillin, calls us "influencers" in his book The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media. When published in 2007, Gillin's book brought focused attention to the voice of the people - the bloggers and podcasters who led the way to bringing a collective voice to the net.
As the blurb to Gillin's book says, "Bloggers and podcasters come from all walks of life. Many are journalists, some are technologists, but others are single mothers, educators, graphic designers, and even dairy farmers. They share a passion for community journalism, thoughtful discourse, and commitment to change. They are," he says, "the new influencers."
The book may be outdated already - the word "new" when attached to influential bloggers, podcasters, media writers, and just plain every day citizens sharing content on the web, no longer applies - and yet, many of us are feeling that power as 'new'. We're passionate about pets, at BlogPaws. As are you, our community. Having a collective voice is 'new' to some of us. Using that collective voice to create the power to move mountains, is also new. But, only in its application to the web.
Bloggers are people and we have, in our humanness, been supporters of pets and other animals, for a very long time. The ability to be influencers online, using our collective community in "direct and powerful ways, " as Gillin says, may be a bit new to us, but it merely extends the work we've always done. It's rather like trying on a new hat and liking it so much, you have to show it off to everyone. A hat is a hat, isn't it? New hat, old hat...who cares?
But, this hat - the Be the Change for Pets hat - is like no other and it makes us proud to wear it.
It's because we're passionate about change - about promoting the change we want to see in the world, the whole world, protecting our precious animals - regardless of species. Our Be the Change for Pets Facebook page - launched this week, isn't for us. It's for them. For animals from all walks of life, and as we embrace the desire to help each other get out there and be that change (for our pets, for our precious other animals; for those I call "the least" among us - those without a voice), the extent of our influence grows.
Gillin is right that we are the new influencers. At no other time in history have so many people had such an opportunity to participate in real change. At no other time in history have we been able to combine our voices and our actions into one - across the globe- one focus, one desire: to work together, you in your hometown and me in mine, changing lives with each rising sun.
Will you join us and use your newly gained influence - your blog or Facebook page, your comments on other blogs and your YouTube videos, to show the world that change happens first in our hearts, second in our hands?
Please participate in BlogPaws' Dog Days of Summer, where shelters across the world can be changed overnight by having just a small group of citizens deliver food, supplies, and hope - heart and hands together. Dr V of PawCurious has a great post about it. Click the Dog Days of Summer link above!
You won't see pictures of starving dogs, abandoned kittens, terrorized animals, lost and alone, here. They exist everywhere - you've watched them on the net and on TV, and you've cried when the voice in the background droned on about the cruelty of these lost creatures. They are embedded in your brains, no doubt. Never forget them, but, instead, work to save them, to give them hope and happiness.
It's time to celebrate the changes we see everywhere around us; the changes we influencers are creating; to celebrate out loud all the animals and pets we're saving. Let's Be the Change for Pets and bring friends, family and neighbors with us, to save those who are 'the least' among us: the animals who cannot speak for themselves. Our voices, and our actions will speak for them.
Be the Change for Pets, and for all animals...today and every day. Let the Dog Days of Summer begin...
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