In her post to the PRSA blog ComPRehension, Corinne Weisgerberger discusses those two statements in relation to social media. Weisgerberger has been teaching a Social Media class and made the discovery that students had a hard time connecting social media with the concept of anything other than creating community.
This is an interesting observation, and one that I've noticed not just among students, but among everyone--creating artificial barriers. I use Facebook to connect to community. I use MySpace to connect to community. I use LinkedIn to connect to community, and so on and so one. But I also use these social media TOOLS. And sometimes I don't use them in the way that most public relations people would use them.
In preparing for a presentation at the end of this week, I have made a discovery: We all need to change our way of thinking.
Book after book after book that I have read focuses on this concept--the innate desire from people to connect with other people. The creation of community or rather the desire to create community is something that we all have, which is why Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al have become so popular. You're able to create a virtual community. You're able to reach out and make that connection that we all long for.
How does this affect public relations? Well we have seemed to be stuck in the mode of this tool is for that purpose, and this tool is for that purpose, not bearing in mind that tools can be multipurposed. This requires a change in thinking--a lifting of the barriers.
If you think about social media as a tool that allows you to create community, the possibilities are endless on how that may occur. If you think about social media as one or the other, a tool or a place to create community, you've placed an artificial limit on the tool and the community.
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