I’ve always thought social networking—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even e-mail—was just a good excuse not to interact personally.  Frankly, it scared me thinking that someday it would be the only way we’d communicate.  But, I think I’ve changed my mind.

Tuesday I went to The Big Conference, a full day of hearing all about the new social media.  I was surprised at what I learned.  Great speakers filled the gaps in my knowledge and convinced me that social media is all about relationship building—just like life has always been—only now these relationships span and develop across the world in just a blink of an eye.

At Honeck-O’Toole we’ve always thought our best marketing strategy was word of mouth.  All the advertising in the world couldn’t promote us better than a recommendation from satisfied clients or business colleagues.  We only have to what we do best and our name spreads.  It’s an understated, not-in-your-face approach.

So now I get it.  Social media is about word of mouth (well, maybe word of keyboard) relationship building.  It’s today’s version of old-fashioned marketing.  Like it or not, our fast paced world is here to stay and social media gives us the tools to keep up with it.  So, I’m going to join the new wave and figure it all out.  It’s a lot like learning a foreign language but I did Spanish before, surely I can do this.

I know it should be tweet.  I just couldn’t resist.

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