it's about relationship and community building

I wanted to be sure to highlight this post: Does Your Message Fit the Environment by David Wescott (It's Not A Lecture Blog) where he takes a look at what a tag cloud of blog posts of some social media leaders vs. their Twitter conversations. (I always love when I find a new blog that I haven't seen before!) You'll find that the blog posts are very work-oriented, while the Twitter conversations are more personal interests oriented. Makes sense...

In the online world it seems like blogs are conference events. You know that you're going to be promoting your business, your ideas, talking shop and that sort of thing. You go to blogs to learn something or to see what's new in your industry or area of interest. Whereas Twitter is more the meet up for coffee chat, or less formal networking gathering. Both I think are pretty relevant to business uses. (Professionals attend both conferences and less formal situations with customers/friends/clients.) Even in the informal meetups, it's about relationship building. Twitter has facilitated a lot of social gatherings and meetings offline as well.

It's interesting to see how community has and is being formed online and how that influences offline community as well. I've seen a few blog posts on the topic of social media and how it has helped give voice to introverts to speak their minds. The Boston Globe article and Penelope Trunks post (which for some reason has disappeared, otherwise I'd link to it) and the Monster Blog asks for readers to respond to this question. I think in someways social media opens doors for everyone, not just the introvert. I have seen examples where in my own blogging, I have been able to connect and been given a voice in situations where I would not have otherwise had the opportunity if we were just relying on in person situations. It's a way to sound off with a new group of people and share and collaborate ideas.

I really believe that people need one another. I think it's a natural sociological instinct that we have to congregate into groups. And it's interesting to see that the more time that we're spending online and less time we're spending in an office or with friends, we have to go somewhere to satisfy that need for community. Right now that means tweeting and facebooking and myspacing.

Besides, without Twitter, I'd never get (maybe not-so-relevant but still) cool links... and then I'd never learn how to make a secret compartment book. Ok, I probably could've figured it out but how strangely entertaining was that video?

Also equally worth a read is David's Blogger Relations post.