The Evolution of Social to Professional Networking and Back

New media outlets allow anyone to cheaply and easily post their every thought for the world to see, getting exposure traditional industry experts could only dream about just a few years ago. Adding to this exposure is the fact that the people who used to make up your social circle are just a small subset of the audience who now has instant access to your announcements, general status, highlights and mundane goings on.

Your reach is long and your impact is deep these days. In the good ole days, circa 2005, a hot story could still be circulating a week later, but now they've seen the picture on Facebook and read the update on Twitter and it all just happened two minutes ago. This immediacy of social interaction is considered positive, but more and more exceptions are changing that perspective. Just ask the bride who posted that she was engaged on Facebook and was then upset that she wasn't able to personally break the news to family and friends since word spread online faster than she could dial the phone.

Perhaps the best use of social media immediacy is for business and community news. On the news front, you want and need to know about road closings, traffic alerts and water main breaks. You don't care that your co-worker is tired and on her fifth cup of coffee. Business-wise, the immediate push and pull of information is valuable, insightful, time-saving and increasingly expected. If your boss asks for information on whether people like your latest product, you can post a question and feel confident that you'll have a large enough response within 24 hours to craft an analysis. It's not a scientific poll, but when gauging the personal perspective of consumers, it's even better.

Of course, the access to real people feeling very comfortable sharing their real thoughts, and who will click on something you send them as fast as their fingers can fly, is a coup for the marketing industry. As a communications professional, other people are expanding your reach everyday as they build their own "personal" networks. Taking advantage of these networks takes little effort and grants a potentially large return. Instead of creating and distributing a formal survey or organizing a focus group to develop a report for next week, you'll have something to show by morning.

This emerging business and marketing medium will become less and less social as people realize the benefits and pitfalls and how to maximize the first and minimize the second. But the inherent personal aspect will still clarify the needs and wants of everyday people in today's world. Corporate blogs, feedback forums and business networking sites like LinkedIn will not lose their allure. Two-way and broadcast communication will thrive. But when privacy becomes a commodity and if sites like Facebook become no longer free, our friends and neighbors will start choosing more private, less invasive and more traditional forms of social interaction which will suddenly seem new again.