Comments on: Social Media and Networking: Rules of engagement

By: GuyMcLaren

GuyMcLaren — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:08:32 +0000

Carla “Ignoring a @ reply or DM on Twitter is as good as ignoring someone when they ask you a question in a face-to-face”

Is that how anybody would actually network?

By: Carla Fourie

Carla Fourie — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:57:24 +0000

I agree, we don’t have social media figured out yet, but isn’t that what keeps it interesting? In terms of what we expect from social media, I think we all want conversations and interactions with people we never otherwise would have met or interacted with. Therefore yes, if either a brand or an individual offer content of value it will win them friends and followers, but don’t forget about the interaction / conversation aspect of social media. Ignoring a @ reply or DM on Twitter is as good as ignoring someone when they ask you a question in a face-to-face conversation – plain rude. Thus I would say contribute, interact and win

Carla Fouries last blog post..carla_fourie: @melattree And on that note, happy Friday!

By: GuyMcLaren

GuyMcLaren — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:38:57 +0000

Andre Thanks for your inputs, I believe we are not really disagreeing, The media is the publication the way I see it. This page and article is the media. Our interaction is networking.

The realisation of the people that they can be heard is not media. The communication and interaction is not media, the messages may be but the interaction is networking.

Readers are readers, They are the audience, Bloggers such as you and I are the drama queens, We supply what our audience desires, They are not media. What our audience digests is media.

But mostly you are correct when you say we don’t have it all figured out yet. I think long after we are gone this form of social interaction will be refining and redefining itself. If you had 20 years ago told me that one social network would have 20 million participants, I would have thought you insane.

In fact 20 years ago would you have believed that a Terrabyte of storage would be neccessary for the average photography business after only 3 years.

We are practitioners of the dark arts in the opinion of many businessmen of my generation, The generation that follows are more enlightened.

By: André

André — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:13:47 +0000

Really not sure that you’ve hit the mark on SM in this clearly intended distillation of what *you* think it is.

The fall to almost insignificant, and not only in currency terms, but also effort, of the cost of publishing, is certainly *one* of the drivers.

But I’m not buying your “just 0’s and 1’s” argument. That’s like saying the works of Shakespeare are just stains on fabric. You’ve confused the message with the medium.

The biggest driver, and the one you’ve chosen to ignore, is the large-scale realisation amongst an ever-deepening pool of society, that they are/can be part of MUCH larger communities, who have an interest, however shallow, in what they say. Communities that don’t care about the well-worn rating system employed in face-to-face social interactions. Communities that only care about the quality of what you produce, words, images, music, your thoughts, opinions.

I’ve written enough for a guest post on your blog, so I’ll be quiet now, but think more about this, k? We don’t have it all figured out yet.