I've written about my online friend Suzy Miller with whom I've been sharing ideas about community and connecting. She's pulled some of her own thoughts into an article that was published by a major UK parenting magazine.
Who out there doesn't identify when she writes
"I am a grown-up with young children and a business. I can’t possibly have time to ‘socialise’ or network online. So why is it I find myself interacting with people I have never met from all round the world, into the early hours, ‘poking’ on Facebook and ‘nudging’ on Twitter? "
Invasion of the Blogger Mums here and the rest of her blog but don't dare miss my favorite part. . . in which she points to me!
"My favourite recent example of social networking being used creatively is by the artist Susan Reynolds, who blogged in Case-Notes from the Artsy Asylum about her recent mild stroke. I had ‘followed’ her messages via Twitter during her hospital stay"
Aw shucks, Suzy. It was nothing.
But on the other hand social media IS something special.
How else would I actually feel I know a mum of three from the UK, University professors, mommies, marines, venture capitalists, cops, nurses, writers, techies, musicians and geologists?
What Yahoo and Google groups - and even usenet before that - gave us were people who shared a common interest in knitting or RVs or scrapbooks. That tended to sift people out. And not many had the stamina to sift through hundreds of messages sent to groups each day to really know the people in the groups.
Opening the door instead of sifting those who enter
Social Media (twitter, facebook, utterz, seesmic for example) on the other hand make possible for us to share tidbits of our lives in short format so that we can make those connections, and expand, not narrow, the people that we're exposed to.
Thus opening the doors to me knowing Suzy. And now I hope you know her too.
Who would you never have met if it weren't for Social Media?
Listing just some of them and understanding why you'd never have met them otherwise is as good an exercise as you could do to "get" the power of Social / Relationship Media.
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If you missed the stroke story, some of it is here
