“Our mission is to break the world’s oil addiction.”

Compliments of September’s Wired cover story, I learned of Shai Agassi’s phenomenal start-up Better Place. An admirable mission as Green is my number one current cause. And social causes have rapidly become critical professional matters for those of us writing on the Buzz Bin.

Shai (see his blog here) abandoned a promising career at software giant SAP to fulfill his quest to end oil dependence. His vision of all electric cars is so ambitious it makes your mouth drop. Forget GM’s broken Volt model. Instead, envision battery power readily accessible through a networked grid everywhere. And the cost? One third of the gas-guzzling fuel costs the average American spends.

Impossible you say? Yet he has Renault, Daimler, the Israeli and Danish governments, powerful investors, and talented individuals across the globe getting in line behind him. He is attracting the world’s most incredible minds, and breaking so called rules left and right. And he is likely to break current paradigms for hybrid and electric cars.

Why? Because he was tasked by fellow entrepreneurs to change the world, to make a difference for the environment. In his relentless passion to achieve what he sees as the world’s biggest environmental challenge — oil addiction - he has turned the heads of many, and may become one of our generation’s greatest heros. I hope so.

Many times on my personal blog (this piece is cross-posted there), I’ve stated a definitive intent to use my communication “powers” for good.

At Gnomedex this weekend, I will have the great pleasure of meeting Beth Kanter, one of the leading change bloggers out there. Beth’s work is so prolific we felt compelled to interview her yesterday. Voices like hers, like la Marguerite, like EcoGeek, speak to me every time I open my reader. It’s dedicated, 110% committed people like these change bloggers, like Agassi, that let you know the impossible can be achieved.

Inevitably my mind returns to our internal mission: Building a significant social cause practice, and using our social media skills for good. In the past week, we’ve made several steps that have put us in position to kick some real butt on behalf of organizations trying to relieve poverty, end genocide, educate America, and more.

We live once. No one will remember us for marketing body armor, wireless networks, cars, software, etc., etc. What will your legacy be?

Yes, we have to pay the bills. Not everyone can direct corporate strategy in this way. Or maybe you can just quit like Agassi — like me — and start your own company. But all of us, every single one of us can do more. As communicators we have the ability to help in ways most people cannot. We can use social media and traditional channels to heighten public awareness, help fundraise, and build better companies. And it’s hard to imagine that there isn’t some cause that every person holds dear to their heart.

2008 is 66% over. What are you doing to make Earth a better place this year?

Fame, (fame) makes a man take things over
Fame, (fame) lets him loose, hard to swallow
Fame, (fame) puts you there where things are hollow
Fame (fame)

- David Bowie, opening lyrics to Fame

You’re Internet famous! So what?

Seriously, so fricking what?

Does it really matter? Apparently so, or at least that’s what WIRED wants you to think based on the cover of this month’s issue.

But perhaps the catch comes early in this How-to celebration of Julia Allison’s rise to fame. It doesn’t raise money, it’s not part of her day job, and there is no financial reward. But, hey she gets invited to lots of parties with folks that most people  read about in US or People.

I guess if that’s what you want, great, but I see no value in it. Too many of the daily business activities that occur in creating social media brands are really thinly veiled disguises to pursue personal Internet Fame (a.k.a. Personal Brand). And that’s a management error, as well as a youthful mistake on the part of the individual.  Because quite frankly, if it doesn’t have a business objective, that junk belongs on the p.m. dial for the ambitious seeking to reclaim their high school popularity contests.

Nothing screams bubble to me more than social media activity for the sake of people getting to know you. That’s a waste. Have an objective, find the people that matter, build value for them and your organization, and make a real difference that will keep you in your seat for a long time. 

Or you can have a lot of "friends." That can work if you want to be a parasocial type headed to the parties, and if I was younger that may still appeal to me. But it doesn’t. For me, branding and relationship building online in social media is the 21st century equivalent of networking and relationship building. And popularity doesn’t necessarily pay the bills.

Doug Haslam is a great example of a personal brand that matters. He is not Internet famous for sheer popularity. His brand means something in the social media marketing world because he brings value to the table. I respect what he brings to SHIFT (see his take on personal brands here).

Think about it. Is it business or personal? Does it make you valuable?