Why Are You Investigating Social Media

Much interested Chris. I recommend to install the Friendfeed plugin for Wordpress too, so you can have all your comments together.

I started using the tools as a sort of personal experiment to see if I could connect with other people that enjoy road culture. Not many of my friends or family understand my interests so where else to take it? I also wanted to record my little travel adventures better. So many trips and so many places and I have nary a photo to show for it, so sharing it all with people interested in that sort of thing is a good motivation to stop and record more. It's all met with mixed success.

The least commercial of reasons: to make friends. Last year, from a confluence of things (not as bad as it sounds), I was in the position to want to make a new set of friends whom I wouldn't need my wife's help meeting. (Avoiding a long story here.) At first, the loudest voices in social media were the marketeers, offering an alternate use of the channels. What I first wanted, and still do primarily, is the use that marketing is the alternative to. And yet, as a graphic artist in a marketing department where I think I've overstayed my welcome, one where my strategic input is not wanted, personal branding is now a concern; fortunately I hang with a crowd that's already all over that.

From a business point of view, I think social media defines targeted Marketing. For any product launch/campaigns, there is nothing more customized than an interaction with your potential & existing Customer. Also, the economics behind it makes it a very potential. For any organization, it costs a fraction of the amount one would otherwise spend on a billboard or on a SEM.

So, overall when we see the complete Social Media package, it does make lot of economic as well as marketing sense.

Chris - interesting question. I made a commitment to consistently reinvent myself when I started freelancing 20 years ago. I believe that social media represents the current and next wave and I can either ride it or tumble along on the bottom. I choose the former and am currently trying to learn as much as I can. From a strictly business point of view, it's critical to join that I join the fray than observe it from afar.

So the first bunch of answers are primarily about personal connection. The business answer from Harsh is that its targeted marketing, and a cost reduction.

I woke up this morning wondering about it all from a business perspective. I believe deeply in the tools. I'm not sure where they will all go in the business perspective.

How will people apply these tools as a business, is what I'm wondering.

For me, I think social media tools provide an excellent way to manage your own internet presence. By using tools such as FriendFeed and everything that links to it, you create a footprint on the web that defines you and/or your company that seems more personal and of a richer context than anything that could have been done before.

social media makes transparency almost mandatory, which is very refreshing when compared to routine living or even the earlier entities in the www.. voices of disagreement or dissent cannot be silenced now.. i honestly believe that what we are seeing today is the start of something that will fundamentally change society in the long term, though here in India, we have a loooong way to go..
and while we are going about changing the world, its interesting to hear what others have to say about fiction, music, photography and so on.. :) social media work very well as filters..
as for visits here, well, since its not the coffee, it must be the conversation :)

Social media opens up a much larger world than the one I see everyday - professional and personal. It appears to be a good vehicle to open my thinking and push myself as a professional (and as a person). It also represents to me "globalization" on the personal interaction front.

For me, the journey into Social Media from a business and personal perspective is all about opportunities. It creates the opportunity to connect with a diverse group of people, many of who have thoughts about what my brand/company should be doing. However, most existing channels, especially at a big company like P&G, discourage people sharing those opportunities with the Brand Managers of the world. What I love about Social Media is it takes down those walls...if someone has a great idea, they have a way to connect with me now. A dialogue can be created through Social Media that could result in all kinds of interesting doors being opened. The endless opportuntiies are what attracted me in the first place...and are what keep me motivated to keep coming back.

Even Pharma Industry is investigating Social Media

I work for a professional membership association. For 200 years, our people have connected FTF. That doesn't work well any more. Social media erases time and distance barriers, and allows our people to connect, and learn.

I dived into social media on a personal basis a few years ago. I like communicating with people, and, because I'm quite an impatient person and get bored quickly, I like the immediacy of it all. I can blog about someone and they can respond within minutes.

Then I used my personal blog to find a job; that opened my eyes even further.

Now, I work for a PR company and we offer social media strategies as part of -- not the be all and end all -- our services to clients. It's great to be immersed in this world as part of my job, and I love keeping track of who is doing what, and with whom.

John Carson.

I'm interested in social media to counter the stereotype of fine art galleries being intimidating and unapproachable. To me, social media provides technology to extend what I already do in my day-to-day life in terms of connecting with others, networking, making friends, being a part of my community.

I come to this blog to get some guidance on where to start, how to navigate through all the various elements to find what is appropriate and manageable for me and my gallery, to hear what others are doing, and to find references for other experts in the area.

It has long been held that relationships create better customers and better vendors. With that as a truth, I can think of no more effective way to create that solid relationship than to start the conversation early and often through social media, perhaps even before we are vendors and customers.

That is why I am here!

“How will people apply these tools as a business, is what I’m wondering?”

From the way I look at it, social media is the tool which helps you in generating 2 way communication unlike any other medium. Now, this in itself creates a very powerful platform for any business/product/brand to convert their customers into their evangelist. And when your own customers become your salesman, it has the potential to generate the amount of buzz which no other medium can achieve.

To put this whole scenario very practically, we can consider an example of say, a movie release of a popular star. Now, media hype can certainly make the audience aware of its existence, but making customer talk about this movie for days and getting the fans together for that popular star can certainly create an excitement of a soccer match outside a movie theater.

for me social media has been about "being relevantly" connected to those i walk with as a pastor of students. even in my own household with teens, email has been replaced with text messaging and mediums like facebook have been the core of building relationships and communicating with my charges. social media is more valuable because of the cost and immediacy than snail mail because with txt msging services and blogging and networks i can connect, encourage and communicate with not only students, but parents, adult leaders and volunteers.

my interest in your leadership here on this blog is so that i can stay up to date with the trends and help us and other non-profits grow their influence by also understanding how to navigate the waters of technological change so we can be culturally relevant and able to impact for good the world we live in.

So in a way, David and the gang at BzzAgent have it right when they talk about professional word of mouth marketing? This is a way to build the relationship around the product, service, event, and a way to have more open dialog about everything?

Are companies ready?

I graduated with a degree in Comm. Arts, and I minored in Speech Comm. I've always been fascinated by interpersonal communication and technology as two separate entities, but as we move forward, the two have merged and created a lively community.

Many have said I was wasting my time getting involved. I began by signing up and participating in the social, and this year expanded into blogging. Already within my first couple of months I've been asked to be an author on two separate websites. I am by no means an expert, nor a perfect writer, but I thoroughly love what I do and will also look at ways to become better.

I have personally attempted to get my non-profit organization to take the step into social media, but there is too much of a stranglehold on the corporate communication level that they must approve any and all material that markets them, thus eliminating the freedom of voice to truly communicate with the community. I will continue to press the issue professionally and hopefully there will be a breakthrough in the near future.

Keep up the great work Chris, your articles are inspiring and insightful and I personally learn a lot from reading them.

That is why I do what I do!

The main reason? Friends and knowledge. Making new friends is just so easy and rewarding through these tools, it makes it very easy even for shy-type people like me to make connections online that eventually become real-life.

I also value the knowledge database that exists with my online friends.... its like having a big rolladex for dial-a-friend option. I can always count on someone out there having the answer to my questions.

As far as the business end, I get great ideas on how I can make my racing team grow, and sometimes make some good connections that lead to more.

Hi Chris,

I'm really just getting into Social Media and exploring more of what's out there in the last month or so. I've been on Facebook for a little over a year, but beyond that didn't have much involvement online.

I started digging into this stuff a little while ago after a career planning session with my boss. Basically it was something to focus on for my own development. Now, I'm really enjoying myself and while I hope that I am able to use some of what I'm learning in my career, I'm just happy to participate.

I think the social media space is so cool right now and there is so much going on. I'm feeling very challenged personally and it's a great outlet, forcing me to be more creative and to push myself.

Hi Chris,
I love meeting people all the time and from all around the world if possible. That's how my experience with blogging (and social media in general) started. I needed to express my thoughts and connect to others with shared interests, hobbies etc. It also became a constant source of information, a virtual place where I learn something new everyday, the place where I meet with my friends from abroad. Yes, it has also taught me about business benefits and all that, but what keeps me coming back each day is the fact that I can build such wonderful relationships.

Spreading the Monday Cheer,
Alina :)

Increasingly it seems that companies are aware of the importance of communicating through social media and know they need to take the plunge into social media but are uncertain about how to do so effectively.

The longer companies ride the idea that they can get by on traditional media relations the farther from the consumer conversation they are going to become. For a company to ignore social media increases the risk they will lose touch with, and control of, their reputation online.

I think that is why many of us are here participating -whether we're communication specialists, "new" PR practioners or media consultants - because working together, we're both developing and mastering a new medium to help companies bridge developing communication networks.

Personally speaking, I'm a geek, so I'm interested in investigating all sorts of stuff -- technology or otherwise -- that most people aren't.

In a professional sense, I'm a public relations and marketing consultant at an agency, and I have little interest in "investigating social media" in that context. What I do have an interest in is investigating places where the right people gather to talk about the right topics (for me and my clients). Guess what? Those places often happen to be Twitter, the blogosphere, other Web communities, and the like. So here I am!

Any business OWNERS or senior budget spenders here reading this? I'm curious what your take is. Why would you divert money and attention to this?

My title is director of community relations. My company has operations in 100 different communities, 100K employees and a national brand. We’re also determined to be a leader among the food industry in the fight against hunger. So our opportunities for community-building are limitless. I first saw the power and beauty of online communities in the Compuserve forums in the early ‘90s. The PR forum was an invaluable resource for me as I learned the art and science of public relations. Many of today’s social media-for-PR evangelists were prominent participants in that forum. There was a strong community therein. While the forum is no more, and the tools have evolved and been refined (Some forever not for better), the capacity of social media to educate and inform, to form and nurture relationships, to build communities holds more potential than ever before. That’s why I’m in it.

I am a nonprofit techie, and one particular thing that I love about social media is that it is becoming easier and easier for someone with little tech training to share photos, videos, ideas and build powerful social networks.

In Ye Olden Days of the broadcast web, corporations and techies had all the control. I love this continual shift where the web increasingly belongs to those of us who have access to it (still an issue, too, but getting better). I love that people can post video, photos and a blog without the help of a techie, and I love that social media makes it more difficult (in many instances) for corporations to control messaging and conversation.

I've built and sold 2 ".com" companies, the first back in 1997. Social Media, SEO; it didn't exist. I started blogging 3 years ago, and it lead me and my business partner to create a new product (http://www.mediabadger.com) to monitor, manage and measure Social & Traditional Media through a passion for how the Web is changing the world, driving the 90-Second Economy and impacting even how we think.

The greatest societal changes are always subtle and take a long time - the Web is, I think, a prime example. And Social Media is the latest driver in this massive societal shift underway.

Great question Chris!

Chris,

I'm using SM as a learning tool (meta-learning using SM to learn about SM) and with an eye toward helping clients improve customer/partner/employee communications. As a side note, since I work from a home office, it is also a good point of connectivity with others in our field -- like an on-demand the breakout session at a conference.

@ahg3 (Arthur Germain)

On your point relative to business use of social media. One analogy I like is the one of open source software where communities created product.

Maybe the business use of social media is to opensourced their marketing department ?

I am a 40 something. I am too old to know how to understand text message talk, too young to retire. I think I am in a big group of folks that are trying to learn everything and just dont know where to start.

I just bought my first car with automatic windows and it practically talks. I try to embrace technology and explain it to people in a way that shows them why it is a good thing for them, but first I need to understand it and use it myself. Yes I have an iPod, yes I subscribe to podcasts, yes I know some things, but this trend of stepping away from the intimacy of person to person contact is a little disturbing, yet I know I need to learn to do it.

Forgive my ignorance everyone, I am just trying to learn. Any resources would be helpful.

These are great comments, everyone. I'm excited to hear people's perspectives on things.

@Ed - I think you've got some good points about community. And it goes along with my "social media is like a toilet" theory. : )

"Social media is like a toilet..." You've aroused my curiosity there. You might want to reprise that one for those of us who are recent followers.

We started with a blog last year originally to announce our new software version releases. We decided that the few "subscribers" we had were a captive audience that could grow if we provided a bit of entertainment. That's when each person at the (small) company started making blogposts about funny or informative information security related topics. According to clickthroughs and links, our overall audience has grown exponentially since this change. And we're having fun doing it! The blog still announces release dates when we have them, and now so does the Twitter we started under the same strategy.

I have been drawn to the social media scene as a means of sharing, discussing, and researching information on a wide range of topics (at all hours of the day or night too!). As more of our lives become dominated by the prescence of the internet (the original online social network) it has become important for us to develop tools to maintain connections to those we know and meet. I think we are living in the most sociable time of human history and I am thankful that people like Chris are opening our eyes to new and exciting ways to share with each other.

Chris! - Thought provoking question encourages me to think deeper for my own business reasons. As a Realtor, I've always tried to stay current with the market, to improve the service that I deliver to my Buyer and Seller clients. My early static website was initially good at providing service and converting visitors to clients. There followed a huge shift in the marketplace towards social media. Social media is like the old style conversation over the back fence or around the water cooler-on steroids. For me increases the possibility of connecting,demonstrating caring, a level of trust and at it's best a sense of community. Simply put though, our potential clients are in the social media marketplace which is reason enough to follow suite. The best ways to do that are why I read your blog:-)

@ED - stay tuned and I'll give a courtesy flush. : )

At Alensa we use social media tools to build our community of users as well as to stay connected to our users and support them on as many platforms as we can manage.

Our service is a sort of niche, B2B application of social media, so it seems natural for us to explore those services and methods also as our main method of marketing. Personally I've been somewhat resistant to many applications of social media since the noise-to-signal ratio is often so discouraging. However, I'm also not particularly drawn to marketing as a discipline, so the idea of substituting traditional methods with making substantive contributions to a conversation, using social media to establish our company as an active member of our corner of the creative and intellectual community--that is very appealing. We're just starting to develop this approach, and I'm interested to see what we find out about how our methods will have to differ from those that might be employed by a company offering a more general service application.

I am a Retail Industry 'Insider' and my industry is facing some great challenges. CIOs have been asked to reduce their enormous Maint spend in order to invest in emerging technologies that will enhance the customer experience. Not only have CIOs been the guys that simply kept the lights on, their staffs have also been emersed in legacy technology and ill equipped for what's to come. Bottom line, Retailers need conversation before the sales cycle, relationship from trusted sources, and information in order to build confidence and meet the challenge. They also just canceled 1 of the top 2 retail technology shows because vendors could not justify the cost. Not the need. So voila! social media and social networking. i am trying to create an offering here and learning from all of you!

From a corporate point of view I would say the key drivers (at present are)

1. Fear of being left behind
2. A wish to improve communications (especially globally)
3. A wish to drive efficiency and innovation through collaboration
4. Improving Knowledge Management, and finding a way to keep pace with velocity of Web2.

Tonnes of others, but those are top 4 for now...

Hi Chris,

I like using the tools to find out what others are thinking, and as a means to align myself with like-minded folks. A good example of someone I met simply by hanging out on your blog is Becky McCray of smallbizsurvival.com. I really appreciate the excellent opportunity you present for people to meet like this.

I think of today's social media tools as the blooming flower on the stem of RSS and the natural, evolutionary replacement for email. It has been a long time coming, but we are now picking the flower. I think this was a popular meme in the industry a few years back - "RSS replaces email".

Certainly the marketers will be able to use these tools, but also mom and pop, maybe even sister and brother will also use the same tools, but to different ends. Not unlike the starting phases of radio transmitting, where shortwave broadcasting was popular with all sorts of amateurs and the professionals eventually moved in and set up shop. Despite the presence of professional broadcasters seeking profit, the amateurs (HAM radio ops) still thrive.

Like email marketing and radio advertising, social media marketing is finding a useful place and moving toward the top of its trajectory. This is the time when it serves the most people, while being a disservice to the least number of people.

Sooner or later (hopefully later, since "we" theoretically control this medium via community sharing) the "abuseful" phase will start and the downward trajectory will begin as this eventually becomes a pain in the rear for the members of the communities being marketed to.

Then the next wave will start and we will talk about the new email, the new social media, the new radio broadcasters, whatever they may be.

I initially started getting involved with social media out of curiosity…in part because I have a 17 yo kid and wanted to see what MySpace was all about. PS – she’s no longer into MySpace – it’s FB for her. Recently called me a twitidiot!

Professionally, a few of the folks I work with (@seerysm) rapidly embraced social media and I followed along mostly to learn. Eventually I became a participant and some what of a defacto champion of social media with my clients. Since my clients are primarily hospitals, we’re exposing them to some of the new social media tools to source and recruit; using social media for competitive intelligence gathering, online reputation management, communicating and connecting via recruiters blogs.

What social media has provided me with is the ability to learn from many different points of view. I have decided to be part of the new solutions rather than become an ‘experienced’ dinosaur that is perceived of not being with it.

I work in the educational field and now see a golden opportunity to incorporate social media and web 2.0 technologies into the educational landscape.

Instructors are becoming more and more tech savy and, as the older professors retire, we see more and more technology adoption. Students are also taking more and more social media tools for granted and it is up to us as trainers and educators to help those who are not as familiar with the technologies to provide the kind of environments that will facilitate learning

It is also a good chance to get to know some awesome people who do wonderful things

One of the many important reasons for a business to invest resources in social media is the ability to ‘listen in’ on the market. Listening in and then engaging with your customer has the potential to establish brand loyalty, promote word-of-mouth marketing, and access real-time market research.

By tracking conversations - via services such as Google Alerts and Summize - companies can immediately and directly address customer feedback. First, this illustrates to the customer that you are not merely a profit-driven automaton (even if you are). Since engaging in an honest dialog with customers is still rare, it also establishes brand loyalty (or at least respect). Furthermore, it provides an exceptional story, which your customers are likely to repeat.

At the risk of sounding trite, we can readily see successful examples on Twitter. JetBlue provides followers with useful tips like Tech Travel Trip Tuesday (#TTTT). Useful content also engages the JB community to submit tips, creating a continuous feedback loop. JB recognizes its followers and rewards them with promotions outside their traditional channels. None of these interactions would have been possible with a static website.

Another benefit of ‘listening in’ is that you can attract ‘potential’ customers. Judging by @crowdSPRING posts, the company tracks phrases like ‘logo design’ and recommends its service to people on twitter. Some may say this practice is invasive, but the evidence indicates that users appreciate the suggestion. In fact, many end up using the service.

Other reasons (not twitter-specific) why businesses should invest in social media campaigns – to network with clients, suppliers, and industry leaders, to tap the knowledge of the community they’ve created, to brand themselves as they want to regardless of the industry they’re in. And lastly, more transparency = more trust!

DISCLAIMER: The above is only true if you are producing quality products/ideas that actually add value for the consumer.

I use it to sell student loans.

I think this is one of the most exciting times in human history: If you have a great idea, you can find people to help you develop it, shoot it down or turn it into something completely different almost as soon as you think it... and you can do it from anywhere in the world!

When I first heard about Twitter and read it's tagline "What are you doing?", I thought the social media elite who were obsessing over it had finally slipped over the edge into total self-obsession and were possibly even promoting celebrity worship: "Leo just made a cup of coffee!" There is some of that, to be sure, but the community is transforming it into something better. Not "What are you doing?" but "What are you thinking?" and then creating a conversation around those thoughts.

There are still a lot of problems to overcome, but today I am optimistic. Talk to me tomorrow and I might only see the negative stuff and what doesn't work, instead of what does and what *can*, if we use these tools creatively.

social media is another channel to communicate to people with. it is not something as scaleable as direct response as search or banners, but it is great for the "softer" side of things like changing perceptions and branding.

Chris love the question, and it really made me think about what are the real reasons. I think for me I have both a business and a personal reason for why I am Investigating social media.

From a personal point of view, I am doing it to re-connect with old friends, and stay connected with new friends. I think a lot of time is spend on career and family these days and the social media channels allow me to stay connect with friends, in a convenient off hours way. I was able to finally connect with an old roommate from high school that I was unable to find for years through the use of a Ning site based on the school we attended. It had been 15 years, and the internet allowed me to finally re-connect.

In addition to the personal reasons, I am also vested in this from a business point of view as well. I am an owner of an online dating community that has just launched. I see the understanding of all things social media related as crucial to everything that I am trying to do. I am most interested in looking to see the mix between both online social media tools, and how they also help people connect in the offline world. In addition I have been involved with the internet since it inception, and have a thirst to know as much as I can about how to reach people, and create a compeling user experience in everything that I do.

I started blogging about association industry issues, and quickly realized that everything comes back to social media. Particularly for associations and non-profits, eternally a few years behind the corporate world, it's crucial for them to find ways to enter the social space in order to survive and better yet, to really thrive. Personally, I am also finding a niche for myself within this area and discovering that a personal interest in something can result in huge professional development - awesome.

I don't think the idea for my business would have come to me if I hadn't already been a part of the blogging community, so it only made sense for us to try to stay a part of it. That, and it's a great way to keep top of mind - I don't want people to forget we're out there, and to keep a "real" face to our company.

This article and these comments have been great. I am trying to get my company into the social media world. We just started a blog and now I am discussing getting into facebook, twitter and all the other sites. I have a meeting in a couple weeks with some of the big wigs any suggestions on sites to use (Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, etc...) or any tips on what to discuss would be great and very much appreciated. Great article Chris!

Great question, Chris. I'm new to your blog, but I've already gained some powerful insights. I'm a newspaper editor, so for me, social media and online communities have become as important as the more traditional communities -- neighborhoods, civic organizations, government -- for gathering and disseminating the information that our users want.
Journalists now have an incredibly direct and varied tools -- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace -- for finding stories that people are talking about. But these same social media outlets also provide new ways to share these stories with users all over the world. It's opened up a completely new way to reach and connect with people who want and appreciate what we do.

@Chris Penn

Nice answer :)

I jumped into Social Media as I felt it was important for the technology company I worked for, to know what was happening out there. The first word that came up was Podcasting - the rest ..will it keeps going.

Now looking at a solo project I see Social Media as a perfect and affordable medium to get things started, set the ground work and build the foundation of what will hopefully be successful non profit.

I like that a blog can now be your website, voice, brand, online indentity, company, etc. and it doesn't cost you anything!

I am involved in Social Media because I am a consultant...of what you ask, exactly this Social Media. Koinonia Solutions, the consulting firm I work for, helps businesses and organizations get actively involved in Social Media. We help people set up, use, and utilize Social Media. We believe that Social Media is a great tool and a new medium of which to reach out to people in a more personal way. There is much to it then my simple words, if you have any questions feel free to email me justin@thelacproject.com or you can visit our site http://koinoniasolutions.com

and thats why Me/my company or into Social Media

Justin
- Check Us Out ...
http://koinoniasolutions.com

Three months ago I was brand new to all brands of social media, apart from dabbling in Facebook and having a LinkedIn profile.

I contacted my clients/friends through regular email articles.

Then I realised that I had several ideas a day on topics connected to my business, and was scared of spamming.

So... I researched blogging, asked some advice, and set up my blog.

I can then write to my heart's content (on my topic).

Finding other people's blogs has been a total eye-opener too. So much interesting targeted writing - I'm in the first flush of subscribing.

So... I'm using social media (most recently added Twitter and Plurk) to reach people who are interested in what I have to say, and, obviously, to find people who are the right client group.

Having always hated 'selling' to people (ie getting people to do things that, if they were in their right minds, they wouldn't necessarily do, or at a higher price than they would otherwise pay), I'm loving the way social media is allowing me to claim my niche, quietly and without fanfare.

If people want to tune in, they can. If they don't, they don't have to.

In this way, all the concerns of interruption media are gone.

Plus I've made contact with some awesome people. The way that geography makes such little difference (apart from timezones, and even then...) is awesome.

Just finding how to swim in this new sea, after paddling for a while.

Oh, and having a life outside too...

Hhmm. I think I just mentioned similar in an email I sent you a bit ago. ;)

I'm a writer. I think social media and writing go hand in hand. I also think social media is under-used in the writing / publishing markets. I want to find ways to change that.

I've set myself up as the social media person for Apex Publications, but pretty much learning as I go along. It's been an interesting trip, and I can't wait to learn more.

And I agree with Manuscrypts about the conversations! I've learned just as much from reading the comments as I have the initial posts. I like that Chris can post a brief teaser, tell everyone to discuss - and we do. :) That doesn't happen elsewhere as much as it should.

I recently graduated with a degree in Public Relations and during my final year, we were finally introduced the topic of Social Media.

I have always been a member of social networking sites and the transition into becoming a particpant of social media has been natural for me. I realised that upon signing onto Facebook that this was just another form of Friendster or MySpace and I had the "why not" approach.

Now, in between finding jobs, I realise that social media can be used in personal and in business life to communicate WITH people more effectively. There is an entire world audience that is being ignored (if we do not consider social media) and I think Social Media is definitely a future trend of PR. Right now it isn't replacing traditional PR Tactics but its important to be aware of the ever increasing range of Social Media tools.

So I personally enjoy researching social media for personal and professional use and I can't wait till I can put my ideas into effect.

Chris - thanks for linking Mitch Joel's article on the top 7 blogs. He is right, this thing is a rabbit hole. I started exploring this space because I am working with a group of artists on creating and conveying a unique story through a site we are developing. I found Mitch through mention of Daniel Pink's book "A Whole New Mind", and subscribed to his podcast, and registered on Google Reader (I had no idea what RSS feeds were a couple of days ago). I just wanted to get ideas on how to make a site relevant, attractive, and able to generate traction. I am getting to discover some of that, but I am also being exposed to glimpses of how our species will communicate and continue to share knowledge in the 21st century, and it takes my breath away.

I am just blown away by the sheer velocity and enornomity of the marketplace of ideas being developed, workshopped, shared, and improved. It gives me tremendous hope for not only the survial, but the thriving of exquisite, sought-after, and meaningful ideas that speak to the human heart and mind. It is making me smile as I type this. Keep up the excellent work. You and folks like Mitch inspire beyond description.