Have You Reached a Social Media Tipping Point?

You may have read a mini-rant I had on a blog post several weeks ago regarding being too connected with people. I was starting to do more with Facebook and realized that there were people out there I just didn't want to reconnect with and that social media opened the door for those reconnections as well. I was wondering if I was becoming to connected.

The answer, of course, is no. I am not too connected and never will be. As I am doing more with social media, making it a habit even when I haven't established a community in that forum yet (ie Twitter), I begin to think in social media terms. What I post, what a tweet, what I put on my profile, etc all begin to take shape over time to reflect who I am (in 140 words or less). It has been hard for me to decide how all these social media outlets could really reflect "me". The key has been to practice, to use the forum again and again, and watch what others are doing. I had to experiment. I haven't fully cracked the code on conveying the person I am through these techno tools, but I am making progress. It has been fun.

As a result, I am approaching a "tipping point" as Malcolm Gladwell would say. The experimenting that I am doing and the effort I am putting in is starting to pay off. I am connecting with a broader group of people. My network is becoming larger and I can see patterns within the connections. Social media is becoming a routine part of the way I interact with people much like cell phone usage over the previous years. For me, it's all about communicating.

We don't all view social media the same way, nor do we all want the same things out of the experience. If you are not spending some active time on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, you should. Take a few months and give it a try. Over that time, you will understand what you want, what you like, and what you don't like. You will connect with the friends you see everyday and the ones you see at parties, then you will connect with friends from high school or college. You will find those with whom you had great talks or great times and remember what they meant to you. You will begin to approach your own "tipping point".

Find out how social media can fit into your life. It's worth it.