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Blinded by the Light

Posted on Mar 20 , 2009 in Communication & Thoughts

I was driving into work this morning with the sun shining right into my view of the road. Very bright and blinding.

Sometimes the passion for a new communication model also can blind us from everything else. We forget traditional models and time-tested approaches for forming interpersonal relationships in our blind promotion of a new idea.

Yesterday I had the privilege of talking to a group of professionals who do not use Twitter or Facebook and really hadn't taken the time to clue into social media. Yes, I know, shocking. Or was it.

For these individuals, person-to-person contact remains a high priority. They just hadn't caught the fever for the social communication tools. A year ago roughly 600,000 people used Twitter. Today more than 6,000,000 use the service. It has grown rather quickly in just a few months. So forgive my colleagues for taking a slow approach. They still value communication and networking; they just haven't jumped into the fray.

Peter Shankman addressed a Ragan Social Media Conference last week in Las Vegas and essentially told the group to forget the hype because there is no such thing as social media. There is just communication, period. Twitter extends interpersonal communication. It allows you to carry on a conversation and extend into new areas. Never forget that communication is the key and don't refuse to meet someone or put them down because they don't use Twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon or even email. Social media communication may seem clear to you, but again, you may be blinded by the light.

  • http://everydotconnects.com Connie Reece

    Hear, hear. We do workshops and labs that are targeted for people who have never dipped their toes into the social media stream, so to speak. We caution them not to drink the Kool-Aid, just to take a few sips at a time. It’s easy for us early adopters to get blinded by Shiny Object Syndrome; we get excited by the array of new and fun tools, forgetting they have to serve an old purpose–communications–or they’re worthless. Those of us in the consulting field have to sort through all the available tools and pick the ones that match the business objectives of an organization. Then teach them how to jump into the fray.