On February 10^th, 2009 I attended the SocComm event in New York organized by Jeff Pulver.  There were many interesting speakers at the event who focused on the emergence and use of Social Media in communications. 

Jeff’s introduction was fascinating, as he showed a video where he taped teenagers and our children of today discussing how they communicate with their friends and family.  The three main ways they communicate with their friends are through social networking sites like Facebook, text messages (SMS) and e-mails.  When asked about communicating with their parents, it was on the phone or preferably in person.

What an interesting dichotomy to think that day to day contact is taking place over the ‘net’ whereas relationships with parents are in person or on the phone, a more personal approach to communications. 

This got me thinking, in our business world, how do YOU communicate?  Personnally, I use twitter (@ilissanyc), Facebook (for both personal and personal professional contacts), LinkedIn for professional networking, e-mail – everyday and all day, instant messenger and Skype.  Yes, I use AIM and Skype for business still – and it has always proven to be a remarkable tool to communicate with clients, partners and co-workers. 

Recently, one of my clients requested to have a Skype conference call.  It was a little choppy for starters, first getting us all connected and secondly hoping and praying that our Internet connections wouldn’t fail us, because then the whole ‘bridge’ would by tricky to patch back together again.  Unfortunately, my cablevision Internet connection appeared to be the worst offender; one of the factors attributing to our pending change in service providers. 

So why do we communicate more through the ‘net’ than in person?

1.  E-mail is easier and quicker.  No need to put on a cheerful voice or figure out what to say in 20 seconds or less on an answering machine.  E-mails are basically the written form of ‘leave me a message.’

2.  Instant Messenger is a direct conversation via ‘e-mail’ but the person is on-line and actively responding, a ‘live’ converstation using our mad typing skills!  With 2 letter short-hand, a conversation could easily read as follows ‘Hi’ ‘u K?’ ‘Yup’ ‘TY’ – very informal, but conversational all at the same time.

3.  Facebook – I will call it the ‘Facebook’ phenomena.  One of the speakers at SocComm pointed out the fact that Facebook forces people to use their real identities, so that you are properly yourself.  Back in the initial days of AOL chat rooms, anyone could be well… anyone.  So the fact that it’s simple, fun, and you are indeed ‘yourself,’ makes it a tool that is useful and interesting to use.  You can send e-mails, have direct ‘instant messenger’ conversations, communicate among a group of people, set-up ‘private clubs’ or groups, it takes our real world and mimics it electronically and allows us all to be involved whenever we choose to be and as often as we’d like to be – from the comfort of our computer, laptop or cell phone device.

4.  LinkedIn is another social media tool that has taken remarkable shape.  It allows you to build a business community, showcasing your business talents and relays your professional experience in as much detail as you choose to share.  By connecting with other professionals that you know, or would like to know, you can create interesting conversations and share meaningful information among your industry to a group of like-minded professionals who opt-in to receive the information.  It’s not a tool that forces people to read your news postings, updates, answers to questions, but one that people choose to read, which has a higher value than simply sending an e-mail requesting them to ‘check out this article.’

5.  Twitter.  Most people struggle to understand what and how this tool can be used effectively, and honestly, I often times feel the same way.  One way to look at twitter, defined as a micro blog, it’s a unilateral chat room of people that you choose to follow and those that choose to follow you.  Another way to look at it is a group of people who are vying to share information or observation and just want to be heard, taken seriously or not.  Most information shared on Twitter is very interesting and includes links to websites, however, the more people you follow, the more tweets you have and honestly, who can keep up with it?  There are people on twitter following tens of thousands of people – I can bet you they are NOT reading all of the tweets.  It’s a way to ‘try’ to connect to a greater group of people.  I actually use Twitter to follow trends, see what people are tweeting about and to share information about my clients.  Good news often gets picked up and read via my tweets, the less mundane is ignored.  Perhaps

6.  Skype – well, we use it at home for personal use (calling family and friends that are far way) and for business to keep costs down on conference calls.  To know why you’re using it helps with any frustrations you may have with the quality of the tool.

I can continue with my social media observations and sharing of these tools, and I will – in another blog.  My next blog on this topic will be about how businesses, especially B2B, can benefit from social marketing, and how I can help prove of its viral strong-hold, especially among communities.  So until then, keep typing and keep skyping! 

Your comments are appreciated!