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.

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.

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 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…

and thats why Me/my company or into Social Media

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

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!