The Secret Fight Club

Weird metaphor, because the club ends up ruining everything.

In death we are all Robert Paulson.

Very interesting analogy. It is hard to stop hearing “The first rule about Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club!” Clearly we are all a twit about Twitter. Chris, I have become increasingly impressed with Twitter. Not just because of the shared information but of the personal connections. Just recently I hired a very talented naming copywriter @fritinancy for a project. She did a superb job. We met on Twitter. I was delighted when she suggested we both attend a salon by @focuscatalyst, and meet in person. Beyond the professional, I am enjoying the personal connections as well. Just to send a tweet of support to someone in need, or to share a laugh. I have met people through Twitter I would never have come in contact with any other way. It has been a delight.

And that's just the start. It can spread really really far. Crazy, eh?

It turns out that I am building a small, powerful (hopefully) network. I've been adding value via things I know, asking questions, responding to other people's questions and information, and boom. I have a small, yet very cool network. I didn't even really realize what was happening until recently.

This could very well be my favorite post from you so far! Cheers.

The second rule of Project Mayhem, Sir, is that 'You do NOT ask questions'.

Organized and cohesive might be the wrong approach. Instead, loosely joined and fast-acting. Something that forms and dissolves. Like a fight club.

The key is take a balanced approach. How can you use these new ideas to open your own mind up to new ideas and move away from what is holding you back.

I feel like a lot of the people who read your post are going to get excited and miss the point. It's not enough try to grow their own super double secret club, you need to see everyone around you as a possible collaborator.

That was one thing I instantly appreciated when I met you in person, was how personable you were. Granted it was 5 seconds in a crowded hallway at SXSW but whatever. I think you are right, there are a great many people in social media who are very approachable and real. Having said that, I have met my fair share of the other side of the coin too. But again, whatever.

And Fight Club is an amazing movie.

I agree with you along the lines that building networks and communities breeds good will. There is a reason they call it being neighborly after all. =)

I would point out that this good-will has always been present on the Internet and is not new nor unique to Twitter though.

Twitter and other social networking tools have helped vastly increase the “loosely joined and fast-acting. Something that forms and dissolves.” ability and tendency of online networks though.

I love the idea of this post. Love it.

I started to talk about how it was anything *but* secret though – we let anyone in who gets the reciprocity and value in our wider community… Then I started to think about Fight Club and the ending… and then I read the comments…

Then I realized something – it's not the title or the metaphor that's important here – it's your underlying intent. We know our own when we see them. We are at home in a room full of people we've never shared oxygen with before – because we “know” each other on Twitter, in our blog communities, in this 'space' as you put it. We can make plans with people we've never shared more than 140 characters at a time with and not feel nervous about it. We can be as comfortable around a “celebrity” as we are around anyone if they are part of our community.

Metaphors can always be dissected until they fall apart. Blog posts can always be misconstrued. In the end? I expect you'll have a handful of people who will post the comments I realized I didn't want or need to post. So I'll post this one instead: no secret – I love what you mean here and I'm happy that I read it here. You are so awesome.

:)

Great post Chris and unlike Fight Club the First Rule of Bacon Club @RSHotel is we talk about it to everyone ;-)
Rock on Buddy !

I really enjoyed this post because it's such a reminder of how we should all be helping and sharing for the greater good! I'm part of the secret fight club and I'm doing everything from in-kind partnerships with non-profits to helping start ups find new business opportunities. I also try to help my friends in my social networks when they need assistance with their dissertations, class research projects and some of them even ask my advice on how to write and publish a book. I actually have a call that I'm taking today with a fellow PR colleague who wants to discuss how to further her writing career. It's awesome what you are doing and you certainly are a great mentor for many people. Thanks for sharing!

Chris,

Beautiful post.

Though I famously don't use Twitter (no I do NOT know where you get the time, lol), I do make amazing connections through blogging, and I relate to this because I definitely have a secretfightclub sort of thing I do. I try to take social media good karma out to the “real” world, and give good karma back to social media connections.

How? Things like a while back, I got the urge to pay for the guy behind me at a McDonald's for breakfast… then I wrote about it and encouraged all my readers to do the same. Things like (shh) giving away a bit of what I do when readers forget themselves and get so excited about my ideas they email for just a bit of help without asking how to hire me. Things like a group art project (sending real life art out) that a bunch of artist and non-artist bloggers did together last month.

The best one is top secret: “If there's ever anything I can do for you, just ask.”

Those magic words were said to me by an author friend (a “real” author, who happens to blog—I love what a small world it is) a while back. Who ever says such a wide-open, generous statement? And he meant it. And it tickled me so much that when I really want to give good karma, I end an email with that. And I mean it.

Try it. Maybe no one ever takes you up on it, maybe they do with something so left-field you can't believe it, but if you really mean it when you say it, I guarantee you'll both have a twinkle in your eye. Very secretfightclub… but y'know, without the fighting. :)

Regards,

Kelly

We'll have to up that number some time soon. : )

And that, Lucretia, is the secret I always expose.

Every day, there seem to be fewer people scratching their heads…

Chris,
You are channeling Seth Godin today. And I say that as the highest form of compliment. Not sure how I feel about comparing a group of men who beat the crap out of each other for fun with the good will you associate with social media, but I get where you're going with this.

By the way, we had our own “fight club” connection moment when we stumbled into one another at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston in the rain and spontaneously shared a cab. It was great meeting you in person.

Kelly,

that's “paying it forward” at it's finest!! Saying what you mean and meaning what you say…not to intimidate, but to EMPOWER.

Hey Chris, great angle, not a new idea exactly. Heard of “Social Media Club” anyone?

Great post, Chris. A few of us were just discussing this on Twitter a couple of days ago. Someone tweeted they were looking for a ride, to which someone replied, “you're not supposed to take rides with strangers” and I replied, “on Twitter, there are no strangers”.

I guess in a sense there are strangers on Twitter (spam & bots I don't get that warm and fuzzy feeling about), but in most cases, I feel as if I know everyone in my “Twitter club” because I share in their lives each and every day.

As a matter of fact, it was I that opened my doors to @zaneology for SXSW having never met her before. And it was the kindess of @elysa and @couchsurfingori who reached out and gave her a ride.

None of us had ever met, but yet we knew each other quite well. As a matter of fact, when the 3 of us first met up, we found we had little “catching up” to do. It was as if we were long lost college roomies!

First rule of #SecretFightClub: No one talks about Secret Fight Club.

Chris! eTyler Durden is gonna be so annoyed. I suggest you change your soaps and don't eat soup for months.

Seriously — great post. And of course, now many people WILL be talking about SFC, though perhaps even more will simply keep on spreading that good will.

“Buying free plates of bacon at the bar” isn't a bad metaphor at all — can't forget that from the #140Conf — but passing out oranges to the homeless catches something closer to my heart. A member of my family always carried oranges in Philly and Baltimore growing up, where there are major homeless populations, most of whom have major Vitamin C deficiencies.

Instead of giving them money, he passed out oranges. A few homeless people became upset, since they wanted $ for whatever other cause, but most were incredibly grateful.

You pass out oranges all the time, like when you take pictures of others, feature them on your blog, retweet great insights or services, talk about favorite writers or services during conferences. Some cynics might say that's name dropping or crass brand mentions, like the unfortunate choice of Magic Johnson to mention KFC five times during MJ's memorial.

I don't buy into that.

In the social media world, regardless of what digital outpost you're on, sharing information and being helpful is the best and most important form of digital currency we have to share.

Instead of beating each other up to escape the banality of corporatized modern life, in order to FEEL something, we are all collaborating on building a global network of digitized human experience, caught on video, pictures or memorialized in 140 characters or more.

That's the kind of Secret Fight Club I'm proud to belong to and recruit others to join. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Let's go give away some oranges.

Hope the call goes well. : )

Not even CLOSE to my intent. Social Media Club is about educating people on using Social Media. That's swell and all, and it's a great organization. But what I'm getting at here is something far more human-empowering. Steve Wright didn't ask me jack about social media. He gave me a ride on his cool tram. Ron Harris and I shared a cab. Brian Simpson gives away bacon to bloggers and twitterers.

It's the human part I'm interested in, in this case.

With love for my clone. : )

Small planet, Elysa. Truly. : )