At a breakfast meeting today, I listened to a presentation about Social Media. Given that I am blogging, and you are reading this, the chances are high that we both ought to know all this stuff, but it made good enough sense to me to want to repeat it on here:

• Your online network is not the same as your personal address book.
• Don’t add technology to the way you do things, change the way you do things when you know what the technology can do.
• Social Media is about sharing; it won’t work if you are selfish.
• Accept the fact that there are those who already know their way around Social Media (Digital Natives), if you are new on the scene you are a Digital Immigrant, and it is incumbent on you to learn the language and customs.
• That said, it is up to you whether you abide by the established language and customs.
• The 5 steps involved: Arrive, Listen, Ask, Provide, Advise. In that order!

I gave a presentation to a business-networking group this week on the subject of Social Media and Business.

Realising the audience was at best sceptical (with a couple of exceptions!), and at worst cynical, I used the following images.

• Plain website = shop window, hopefully directing you to the door in.
• Blogging on your website = shop front glass now removed, allowing you to talk to potential customers, and for them to talk back (for example by leaving comments).
• Social Media (such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn) = you have left your shop and are walking about sharing your ideas, and encouraging others to talk about them as well (not always with you present).

It is a bit blunt, but seemed to get the key messages over:

1. Social Media is not something that only happens online – it’s a mesh of physical meetings and online activities.
2. Ideas that are spread through groups of people are far more powerful than ideas delivered to individuals.
3. Real engagement is when people do things for you that you didn’t ask them to.
4. Learn to lose some control – in return for greater reach.

With thanks to Steve Bridger (http://www.stevebridger.com/) for his insights…

Social networking seems finally to be “coming of age”. Business leaders I meet vary in their opinion of such sites and means of communication, but this article shows that even serious sites have a lot to offer.

http://lateralaction.com/articles/social-networks-for-creatives/

That said, I don’t think that online networking will ever beat the good old fashioned chat over lunch or a cup of coffee. Or is it me that is old fashioned?

Just had a meeting with someone who confessed she did not possess a socially advanced phone. I suddenly had a sense of man and machine being closer than I had previously feared.

Are we now so reliant on technology that our social interaction depends on having the latest gizmo? Are we approaching a point where technology might replace face to face meetings to provide social interaction? Might your hard, or soft, ware dictate your social group? Maybe it’s been like this for a while, but is the point becoming more pressing?

Has the debate about have and have-not’s been extended to those who have the right gizmo’s, and those who don’t?

Are face-to-face meetings and social-technology two circles that overlap perfectly?