Demystifying the Social Medianess – Unselfish Communication June 23, 2009
In my last post we talked about this thing called Social Medianess and the responsibility those of us in the digital landscape carry to help others understand how it works.
Today I’d like to dive into the essence of social media and clarify exactly what that is.
People equate technology with social media. I can see why this easily happens, however, technology has nothing to do with social media.
There are two words in social media. Take out the “media”, and that leaves you “social”.
What do we do when we are social?
- We talk
- Communicate
- Share ideas
- Give advice
- Help
- Listen
- Swap recipes
- Share sports scores
- Tell stories
Simply, we engage with one another. And, if we are doing this in the true essence of being social, then we do so unselfishly. That’s important:
Social Media thrives on the unselfish communication and sharing of ideas and information.
We’ve been doing this since the dawn of time and we will continue to do so regardless of the medium. It’s easy to get caught up on the tools, but the tools are only that – tools. They are not what make social media work. People and the people behind the tools make social media work.
Technology has simply enabled the platform to open to those who have been doing social media before it was called that. This has changed things.
People now have the “power” to request a new way of communication from the brands and businesses they’ve done business with. On the flip side, companies and organizations have the opportunity to communicate with their customers on a level that wasn’t available before.
This creates tremendous opportunities, and the people and organizations who follow the general principals of being social will find the social media pool not as intimidating.
How would you define unselfish communication?
