Social Media Is a Giant Cocktail Party - Are You Mingling or a Wallflower?
As we're all trying to create or grow our businesses, it's easy to lose site of the "social" aspect of social media - you can talk to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. And that's freaking awesome.
Social media is a conversation.
It’s easy to forget the “social” part of social media when you’re so focused on getting YOUR WORD OUT that you forget that people like being talked “to” not “at.”
Back in the early days of "enterprise 2.0" (anyone remember that?), my favorite analogy was that all the socials are one giant cocktail party and everyone is invited.
I was reminded of that recently and it's still a great analogy.
The wonder (and frustration) of the various social platforms is that you can have a quick exchange or full conversation with a stranger literally on the other side of the globe.
As someone who remembers corded phones and knows what “don’t touch that dial” means – this is amazing. I remember spending a month in London in the summer of 1990 and calling home once. Thirty-four years later, the woman I’m dating was recently on vacation in Italy. We chatted daily on WhatsApp and she shared pics and short vids of her travels. It was fun to go from a salt mine in Romania to photos of Venice and the Colosseum.
Absolutely amazing if you think about it and not take it for granted.
Distance is down to zero when it comes to finding customers and fans of your work.
You get both scale and intimacy at the same time.
It’s daunting, but also exciting.
If.
If you remember to have a conversation.
Sure, you have stuff to sell and a message that you want to get out. Do that.
But also talk to your fans. Enjoy the conversations. Learn from them.
If you’re on full blast 24/7, you miss out on the best thing about the Internet — forming a community of like-minded souls. I wrote about “Community in the Cracks” earlier this year, check it out for more thoughts on social as, ah, social.