I really really love this beautiful post by Brian Solis, which he just wrote upon his return from SxSW this week.The lessons learned here are prevalent to all who use the social tools to facilitate interaction with friends, associates, influencers, tastemakers, brand ambassadors, and your community.
The real story is the human network and the Social Economy that fosters the conversations that serve as its currency - on and offline.
But it’s not just about the tools...it’s about the emotional and psychological connection between people and our investment in the personal traits that others find irresistible.
Relationships….RELATIONSHIPS…count for everything here, and they’re measured by the mutually beneficial rewards that all parties experience over time. We invest in each other and harvest the fruits of our collaboration and interconnection.
I follow you on Twitter!
We’re Facebook friends!
I “like” you all the time on FriendFeed!
I subscribe to your RSS feed!
It may seem surreal, but it’s fascinatingly real and momentous.
We’re forging new and relevant links online. It’s the metamorphosis from online to offline that validates and certifies connections and symbolizes true opportunity to develop genuine relationships.
We’re putting faces to avatars while in person exchanges of emotions and sincerity replace emoticons.
Read the whole thing. I wasn't at SxSW, of course, but that's not the point. The point, which I totally "get", deep down in my bone marrow, is that all of these online social interactions are about getting to know real people, making real friendships, real connections. Face to face and in real life. Especially for those who are naturally shy, who might find it hard to just start talking to a stranger at some networking event. Which is actually most of us, I think. Social media tools and social networks and social spaces enable us to get to know each other, over time, in a very real way which is only enhanced and makes for true happiness when it culminates in meeting someone face to face for the first time.
Technology enables community. I say it a lot. A good friend told me that a hundred years ago when I first started this blog, and it's been my mantra ever since. Posts like Brian's serve as a good reminder that (even while we bitch about Facebook, and moan about the time suck, and stress about monetizing, and pull our hair out trying to figure out the ROI...) this is what it's all about. I don't want to ever forget that. Thank you, Brian.
3.19.2009
Technology Enables Community
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2 comments:
Amen! Read Brian's post yesterday and had the same reaction. Read the ASAE Exec Mgmt listserv and felt sorry that so many appear not to have gotten beyond the "new" and "technology" and the "social_media" to understand that the trend is not Twitter or Facebook, it's continuing to seek ways to build community and relationships.
I read this last night and felt, like you, that Brian has written a heartfelt homage to what compels many of us to participate in twitter and other social networking platforms – the good feeling we get from sharing with others, learning from others, getting to know others. We are driven by relationships – what after all is more important than relationships in our life?
I know without a doubt that I will one day meet many of the east coast association friends (yes, friends) that I have come to know through twitter, blogs, and other networks. And it won’t be like meeting strangers, we have already shared conversations, insight, interests, problems and laughs.
I like how he addresses the “shy” issue. I don’t consider myself to be shy but I would have felt a little bit of natural hesitancy in just going up to any of you and babbling away. But now we are “bound by context” (not sure I’d call it that but I know what he means). Heck, I’m ready to introduce myself to Chris Brogan now too!
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