You wanna go where everyone knows your name.

It's funny how true the Cheers theme song really is. Everyone wants to be heard, to be known. Which was sort of the point in my last post to show why people are so attracted to social media and why there is this new connection between people and the businesses they patron.

It's interesting that Rebecca on Modite blog posted about social media and how it can't replace human interaction. Lately I've been trying to figure out what my best approaches are in several areas of my life. Reevaluating my use of time, money and resources is something that's been on my mind a lot.

She makes some great points and I think it's important to remember that while we still are in search of fulfilling our social needs that we don't forget to really seek out meaningful relationships. Online communities are great to connect, to get a message out and inspire action...

However, Rebecca reminds that while online communities can inspire and educate, it's still up to each of us to act. We can easily spend our whole lives sitting at a computer screen and reading about the wrongs in the corporate world or all the different things we can do to change. But reading about it doesn't actually accomplish anything. There still is a responsibility to act.

It's similar to your online personal brand. You can set yourself up and project yourself a certain way online all you want. But when it comes down to it, you are your personal brand. Not your Twitter updates or your blog posts. Your person has to back it up when you meet people face to face.

I don't think that social media is completely useless by any means or even a bad thing. There are a lot of good things coming from social media. But I agree that it is just a tool. There is nothing that can replace sitting down with someone in person and sharing conversation over a cup of coffee or a good meal. But we can use tools to do bigger and better things, to find people to have that cup of coffee with who also share similar interests, and to educate ourselves on how to save the world.

Just like anything there is always a search for balance. So what are you going to do?

Cheers!