When you work so closely in the world of blogs, social media apps, new media, etc., there is a
tendency to get lost in the echo chamber. We all spend so much time staying on top of what’s new both for our own sakes as well as to be able to provide reasoned and educated solutions for our clients. Yet so often, many of us are still met with the same kind of resistance, skepticism and just plain lack of understanding when we venture out into the real world. I wrote awhile back how we, as podcasters, had made the mistake of going a little ga-ga over all the tools available to us and taking our eye of the ball of “why is this new medium a game changer for our clients?” When you take your car to be fixed, you don’t really care what the mechanic had to do to get rid of that pinging sound. You just want it gone. That’s how your clients feel, too. They don’t want or need to see how the sausage is made.

There was a great post on Read/Write/Web last week about using social media for social change. Blogging for the victims of the Chinese earthquake, supporting social causes on Facebook and MySpace, using YouTube to promote charities and using your mobile phone to spread news and effect change were just some of the suggestions. The point is, the only limit to the uses for social media are your imagination.

The next time I get the eye roll, exhale and 1000-yard stare about how dumb blogging, Twitter and YouTube are, I plan on removing this arrow from my quiver.