Any of these points would warrant a post of its own, but this has been a packed week so all I can provide here is a few bullet points:
1. It’s entirely possible to only network online, but networking offline makes the former much more effective.
2. Even the most staid business properties could benefit from using easily available online tools to create more understanding of, and inject personality into, their brands.
3. When you use online tools that make your business personal, and start networking offline, even your personal interactions will mean you’re representing your business, and become fair game for later online discussion.*
4. The only group of people who have an across-the-board understanding of the importance of the online world for business are the people who are just now graduating from college. Not because all those 24 year-olds are watching The Hills, but because it’s just now becoming a part of business and journo curricula.
5. Even the smartest geeks misunderstand – and fear – Twitter. (Some do because it makes it easier for non-geeks to work online.)
Reading back over this list, some of this strikes me as completely obvious, but I didn’t develop a true understanding of some of the points – or realize how much this isn’t commonly shared knowledge – until this week.
* There’s a corollary to this which, in the colloquial, is “Don’t get shitfaced at networking events.” And no, I didn’t violate that.**
** This week, anyway.
I think you’re correct on all points, with a small corollary on the Twitter one — Twitter is all about HOW you use it. Microblogging, text based conversation, or even something else.
I agree, Matt. And that’s what surprised me: Hearing two really smart media people say they hated Twitter. It seemed to be like hearing someone say they hated the telephone or e-mail because it made it easier for people to communicate.
Admittedly, if you ask someone “what’s Twitter?” you’ll get sort of mushy responses. “Well, it’s kind of a …” but, in my experience, once folks sign up, they just use it, no questions.To my knowledge, Twitter has no business model, which makes me feel bad for my friend who works there, and also made me squirm when signing up.