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0 CommentsThursday • June 30, 2011 • by Imei

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Today, I was a very good girl. It’s Social Media Day, and New Media being so – well, new – it is completely understandable if you did not know it was Social Media Day, or that the hashtag for it is #SMday. Or if you did not wear any identifiying swag T-shirt from some company or other. But to honor this special day, I’ll share with you THE most valuable element of Social Media, IMHO. And I hope you value it enough to share this with someone else. Maybe next year on June 30, you’ll be celebrating Social Media Day too.

The Most Valuable Element of Social Media
The most valuable element of Social Media is people. People are the reward for using Social Media. Measuring value and success can never be only about dollars and cents, ROI’s, and analytics counting the number of unique hits to your website. Here’s one reason why I know this. My intention this morning on Social Media Day was to have this fantastic blogpost all ready for my readers and followers on various platforms to enjoy. But when the time came to write that post last night, the man I am dating (we met indirectly through the use of Social Media) was on the phone with me after midnight. So the blog post got shifted to first thing in the morning after exercise. Plenty of time, right?

Morning comes, but the time I allotted to write the blogpost about Social Media Day was directed to the very people I met through Social Media, who are now on my Twitter and Facebook. Yes, I could have shut them out temporarily, but wouldn’t that be strange to do? I’d be writing about what Social Media has meant to me in the past 1.5 years since I started this project, while ignoring the friends I’ve made through it.

No worries. I had time in the afternoon. [Next].

The afternoon got spent between my man, my colleague at work over lunch discussing how we can leverage Social Media marketing to build our businesses and bring in more clients, and a visit to an empty office in my building I may rent. One of the reasons my day job business is growing is because of the people I have met through Social Media, and the referrals I’ve received. It’s made me aware that I may be ready to bump up to a larger office with windows and a proper waiting room [yay]. I wouldn’t even be making that decision to move if I didn’t see the direct connection between my Social Media connections and the steady growth of my business.

So, the blogpost didn’t happen until now. And every good intention, including the picture of me at the light link rail this morning, waiting to commute into town while sporting my Facebook Seattle T-shirt, faded into this post.

I have understood what Social Media is: connection. It is more than Facebook, more than LinkedIn and Flickr and Twitter and Digg and StumbleUpon and Tumblr and Posterous and a WP “Sharing is caring” bar. It is you, and me. The fact that you are reading this is a testament to the existence and value of Social Media. My project here has grown primarily through the relationships I’ve formed, either directly or indirectly, through Social Media and my acquired knowledge of how to use it.

The funny thing is that my current dance projects are so closely aligned in time, I can’t even step out tonite to join a Tweetup of revelers. But that’s OK, because if you’ve understood what I’ve been trying to say, I’ve been celebrating it all day, just not with champagne. But if you like what you’ve read, and you agree with what I’ve shared, you know what to do.

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Posted in: Art, blogs, Business, Social Media

Tagged with: Facebook, Seattle, Social Media, Social Media Day