Which of the line items in my email signature (below) delineates “social media”?
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Curt Mercadante | Principal
Merc Strategy Group, LLC
(o) 202.470.2473 | (c) 312.301.9055
email: curt@mercstrategy.com
skype: curtmerc
twitter: @curtmercadante
web: www.mercstrategy.com
When I ask this of many of my colleagues, they quickly identify my Skype or Twitter accounts.
They would be correct — but they missed the other social media tools: email, cell phone, my office phone (which is actually linked to my Skype) and, yes, this Web site (which, as you can see, functions as a blog).
Heck, I might actually consider something as simple as a business card a form of social media.
Social media denotes communications tools that allow us to have conversations. Twenty years ago, that main tool was our land line phones. Then came the cell phones. Then email. Then instant messaging. Then blogs. Now we have Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc.
All of these have one simple thing in common: they are all tools. They facilitate conversation — we do the rest.
Online communications strategist Jeremiah Owyang has a great post about how email was the first — and is the largest — social network. While I would argue that email was predated by other social networks (like phones), I agree with his overall theme. He writes:
Well if you agree that Facebook, a private community of your friends is a social network, then so is email. They both have the same requirements 1) profiles (emails have signatures), 2) Ability to connect to each other (the act of emailing, and often responding, 3) Do something useful (email users share information, and sometimes collaborate). Next email still an important mode of communication, while we often complain about email overload, trust research indicates people still trust emails from friends –this will only continue.
I still recall the first time I logged in to my email account assigned to me at the University of Iowa back in the early 90′s. I was able to email (text only on my black-and-white Windows PC) with friends around the country. Limited – yes. Revolutionary – absolutely.
Up until then, I’d spend time (and money) calling friends at other schools from New York to Ohio. Email helped change all that.
It’s funny to realize that I became a social media user way back then.
My point is this: many people still resist using new social media tools because they fear learning a “new skill” or they are scared away from what they think are complicated technical aspects of these tools.
What they don’t realize is that they’ve been using social media tools all along.
What other social media tools do you already use? By reading this post, you have the ability to share your comments here on this site — a form of social media. Twitter and Facebook are no different — they are tools that allow you to communicate with your friends and business associates (and to make new friends.)
As with any toolset, you have to figure out the ones that are right for you. Would I recommend Twitter and Facebook for every organization? Probably not (although I will say, as Shel Israel writes about in his new book Twitterville, businesses large and small are constantly finding new, unique uses for these tools.)
But, as I wrote about in this post, your first step should not be choosing your weapon — but deciding upon a communications and content strategy first … then choosing your tactical tools to meet that strategy.
But don’t be scared away from new online tools. Odds are, you’ve been a social media maven for years — and you didn’t even know it.