How Do You Connect?
Marketing to Build Relationships
RSS Feed
I think Flickr-ing sounds kind of off, too.
Posted by erinshea on May 22, 2008
Yesterday a group of us at Imagination had the chance to attend a social media forum sponsored by Agency Bootcamp, and two questions were asked that got me thinking:
- Is community dead?
- How authentic are these connections made online?
Community is not only alive, but thriving thanks to the Web. Geography is no longer an impediment to who takes part in your life and how. One click of a mouse and people are able to gather in town halls of their own design. For ten years now, I’ve regularly communicated online with a group of women (and a few men thrown in for good measure) about everything under the sun.
We met courtesy of a common hobby – blogging, though back then it was called “online journaling,” and we hand-coded our Web sites, up hill, both ways, in the snow - and now spend a good portion of our downtime exchanging our thoughts on everything from world politics to what is considered proper etiquette when purchasing a shower gift for a co-worker, not to mention what that gift oughta be. This network of people has been invaluable when it comes to making decisions in my life, big and small. With this in mind, I can answer the second question pretty easily: connections people make online are as organic – authentic - as those that are made IRL, or “in real life.”
Thanks to the affordability of personal computers, and a gradual dissipation of the stigma that those who assemble virtually are all basement-dwelling geeks with a penchant for Star Trek, people of every race, creed, gender and class have met and created online villages of their own, based on everything from a shared love of Pomeranians to how they troubleshoot problems at the office. They trust each other, they rely on each other and take their buying cues from each other.
There is so much we’re all still processing when it comes to the ins and outs social media that even evangelists like me get a bit dizzy some times. Should I be Bebo-ing or Facebook-ing or both? What in the world is a “tweet” on Twitter, and am I a total square for thinking that the act of “twittering” sounds awfully dirty? There are a lot of questions when it comes to social media, and it can be overwhelming, and lead most to run far, far away. But here is the most important question you need to ask yourself before you delay any longer joining the social media foray, and all of the millions of communities that exist within them:
Are they having a conversation without me?
If you’re not actively looking to engage them beyond a URL, I can guarantee you: they are. And they’re going to continue to do so whether you Orkut or Xanga or YouTube or not. And while Vlogging may seem like the last thing you want to be doing as a company, better to be the one communicating your message than letting someone else do it for you.
Tagged with: bebo, blogging, community, facebook, orkut, twitter, vlogging, xanga, youtube
Possibly related posts:
Comments
How Imagination Connects
Imagination is the leader in content-driven relationship marketing. We’ll engage your clients, members, employees or prospects with the right content delivered the right way: print or digital, audio or video, podcasts, webcasts, blogs or email, magazines or digimags. Here we explore how to do all of these things better.
Monthly Archive
Imagination Blogs
How Do You Connect?
Marketing to Build Relationships
Blog Archive
Browse the Cloud
abm ad advertisement advertising apple asae association association publishing associations awards b2b batman battlefield bebo blog blogging blogs bluetooth bmw brand branding brand management c-level cell phones change chick-fil-a circulation civil war commercial commercials community competition content context conversation copy copycat bud caddell custom customer service customer touchpoints custom publishing dancing data digital digital media discount disney excel excellence executives facebook fear firewalls folio forward gettysburg goodwill marketing graphics hulu ibm iida imagination journalism leadership mad men magazines magnum opus mailbox members marketing martial arts media member experience message movies msci newspapers nfl nielson orkut perspective pharmaceutical photos pmi pmp passport professional membership organizations projections publishers publishing re-branding redesign relevance representation sales search site small business social media social networking steve jobs streamgraph superhero technology teens teen research online offline television text tivo tweets twitter value visual vlogging web web 2.0 web 3.0 webaward webcast web marketing association website websites wells fargo wonderlic xanga youtube zappos
