Is it a bird, is it a plane, no, it's Social Media

I have a confession to make: ten years ago my introduction to the internet was in the form of an online community for history lovers. We each created our own avatars, took on Roman, Greek or Egyptian family names, and cavorted around the various special interest message boards and chatrooms all day and all night. I made pretend friends and real friends; some I even met IRL (as they say). I learned fluent emoticon-ese, took part in online arguments, role-played, formed some groups, joined others, attended virtual weddings and parties, created banners and avatars for fellow citizens and learnt basic HTML.

It wasn't called social networking back then, but it certainly wasn't Dungeons and Dragons.

Things have come full circle for me now, as this kind of online connection-building (funny how it's not called 'virtual' any more) has been re-invented as the Phenomenon That Is Social Media. This time around it has real commercial possibilities, which is why marketers are so excited about it.

At Eggbox, we don't claim to be at the cutting edge of social media marketing, but we learn new things every day. It's knowledge we're accruing on behalf of our small business clients who want to know about it and be a part of. Not only that, but given my own 'history' in the area of online community (I even used to write academic papers on the subject) it seems like a natural fit. So here we are, getting our feet wet but hopefully our noses not too dirty.

On the face of it there's a lot to learn (not least of all the language of tagging, pinging, digging and pimping...) but I agree with Geoff Livingston when he talks about a social media strategy requiring a blend of PR, traditional marketing and old-fashioned relationship-building networking skills ... in particular, word-of-mouth. Bring it on!

Comments

[Geoff Livingston]

Just remember, the new rules are the old, old rules before mass communications. These are just new tools to build your own Main Street community.

[robin houghton]

Thanks Geoff. You're right of course, and the tools available now are fantastic. I've always felt the internet is about people, not computers.