Again social media is about the people not the tools
This last Friday I met up with people at the Master of Business Online in Indianapolis. Several of the speakers were very engaging and had great stories to tell: Pat Coyle (Sports Marketing 2.0), Douglas (not Doug) Karr (The Marketing Technology Blog), and Ryan Hupfer (indymojo.com).
I chatted with Ryan during the sessions about various things. One of his key things was "It's about the people online and offline". He mentioned in starting indymojo.com that he and a few friends said "we need to meet people live so let's go to a place in Castleton and tell everyone we'll be there every week for the next 6 months." Ryan went on to tell that the first time there were only a few people. And same the next week. But they continuously said they would be there, told that story live, online, and in other media as much as possible. They told the indymojo.com story to everyone. And, slowly, the word spread, people showed up, more people heard of the social met up, and others at the location would say "Hey, what is that group over there doing?" and would wonder over to learn more.
This goes along with what my friend Chris Brogan talks about in his Social Media Starter Pack post about listening and another of his posts, Above All Else - People, where he asks "Have you had a good conversation lately?". Ryan is applying online technologies and live events to engage people in conversation and he gets pumped up about meeting those people and listening to what they have to say.
So get out there and listen and have great conversations. This will lead to building that social network you think about.
Labels: social intelligence, social networks, social science
