Social Media people are social

Social Media has the word social in it.
I’m not trying to point out the obvious.  I’m enlightened by that statement.  Social Media is a terminology used for this new thing that’s going on over the internet.  It’s linked with digital marketing, SEO, and branding.  But at the root of that term is the word social.

According to wikipedia…
The term Social refers to a characteristic of living organisms (humans in particular, though biologists also apply the term to populations of other animals). It always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary.

At the 3rd annual Social Media of Arizona conference
I took a series of refresher courses in this field by listening to some awesome speakers.  Greg Chapman, Matt O’Brien, Arnie Kuenn, and Laurie Buczek were a few of the brilliant minds that I listened to.  I am thankful for everyone’s time in putting together such engaging content.  As always, during a SM conference, I was meeting the “attendees” over twitter during each speaking session.  We were live tweeting important points, retweeting those points, and joking over things like a can rolling down the isle, or my favorite – how to spell spyfu.

Then we get to meet.
Grabbing lunch, going to the bathroom, or just standing around recharging gadgets – you get to talk to people!  The same people you just heard speak, or random strangers, or people you just “met on twitter” are all people you can talk to.  You socialize with real people and then realize that social media’s most important aspect is the word SOCIAL.  There’s no ROI that I can compute, but I can tell you that the relationships I formed at this conference are important.  These people are awesome!  (You know who you are).

Relationships are important.
So next time you’re figuring out your strategy or computing ROI for social media as a business tool, keep that in mind.  One person at a time, you need to engage with people and build a long lasting relationships, whether that’s on twitter, facebook, or linkedIn.  Sound simple?  It is.

Connect with the people – stop marketing to them.
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