Take Social Media Off-line

I always enjoy talking with people concerning Social Media topics. I thought it would be great to discuss taking Social Media and actually moving it into a ‘real world’ situation.

I first met another Indianapolis New Media Marketer on Twitter. We first began our conversation about Harley Davidson bikes.  Our passion for things in common, led us to more discussions about New Media challenges we both face in our respective companies.

Upon meeting in person, we found we had more in common than we originally thought. The one disadvantage to keeping everything on-line is that you can’t read the tone of the person entirely.

Upon further discussion, he knew of a company that wasn’t a great fit for his company but he felt may be a great fit for our company.

After our meeting, I received a contact from the person he mentioned. We met for lunch ( I love food!), and decided to meet in our office and discuss further.

After the lunch discussion and discovery, I’m proud to say that we now have a ‘raving fan’ client that we offer our full service offerings. All because of one ‘tweet’.

Through this discovery we not gained not only a client, but gained a new friend in the Social Media community.

Social Media Sucks!

As we venture into 2009, and all the negativity going on in the world. I’m watching other nasty trends peeking inside social media sites.

It’s not a Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, MySpace, text message or email issue. It’s goes back to the people behind it.

Now, if you’re reading this and I’m not making sense, let me clarify.

A while back I contacted a CEO of a well known tech company. He’s a great guy, offers great products and I know him personally.

He absolutely hates talking to people when he doesn’t have to…

Why? 1. Well he’s a busy guy for starters. 2)He’s too busy wrapped in 200 kinds of New Media to have the time to respond personally!! 3.) I’m not sure he really enjoys talking to most people!

IF you want to reach me, contact me on these xyz platforms?!?!?

Now I understand that text messages are ‘easier’ and ‘more convenient’ than calling somebody or answering the phone. Right?

Well it depends. It seems the more tools that we have at our disposal, they more we misuse the best tools we have- ourselves.

Text conversations will never had the intimacy a phone call will nor will virtual meetings completely replace one on one meetings. Nor should they.

Now I know that we all communicate differently, and some of us with lesser social skills like the non-intimate and more elite types of social media. Just remember, we ARE human behind these keyboards NOT robots.

I’m not asking people to become something they aren’t; we’re hard coded down to the DNA! I just want to clarify that we use these tools to promote all that we believe in. They should be used to join the masses, not separate them.

The world needs more ‘humans’ and less ‘robots’!