PR Buzz: Social Media – Bringing Us Closer Together?
I’m sure you are a lot like me in that you have “connected” with a vast array of people using social media. They tend to fall into the following categories:
- Blast-from-the-past friends you haven’t seen since high school or earlier
- Co-workers
- Clients/business associates
- Family
- People you would like to know or know better for a variety of reasons
What do these groups have in common? You are actively trying to know more about them. This is the minutia–what’s their favorite movie, what sports teams do they follow, what bar did they do embarrassing things at last weekend. We can learn from each other…see what we share and what we don’t.
At the end of the day, we aren’t sharing our core values as much as we are sharing our day-to-day lives. We allow people to see us in our “natural” habitat, filtered only by us ourselves. We are a brand and we are solely responsible for it’s content, design and delivery. It’s actually pretty cool when you take a step back.
And while all we may be discussing are the ordinary events in our day, or simply having the conversations we would have if we were sitting next to each other, there is a zest to it that makes it fun. Just on Twitter today, I:
- Debated the greatness of three different Star Trek captains with @phillyberg, @dcbadger and @bradbaumn (Picard wins, IMO)
- Gave a restaurant recommendation to @deanjonesjr (Have you tried Red Springs Cafe in Baltimore, yet?)
- Shared a fun walk down wrestling memory lane with @g_cast (did you know that @RealMachoMan is on Twitter now? OH YEAH!!)
- Read terrific PR blog entries from @davefleet and @PRNicoleV (check out the links on the right sidebar)
I know these folks in several ways, either meeting during college, mutual friends, reading their blogs, or through #FollowFriday. Some do live here in DC, but others are all over the country. But using social media has brought us that much closer together, enriching the day with information and a laugh.
Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll examine if we are ACTUALLY closer together now because of social media, but days like today definitely don’t hurt.
And that’s The Buzz.
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