Convenience vs. Being Relational

Yesterday my friend Emily posted something on Twitter that caught my eye.

Her tweet made me think about how we deal with other people on a daily basis…or not. Emily later told me that she went into a large grocery store, grabbed the item she wanted, went through the self-checkout line, and then left the store. All without even making eye-contact, let alone conversation, with another human being. (The item happened to be a box of donuts, which she didn’t share with me, but that’s a story for another time…)

We’re all about convenience.

We buy things online so that we don’t have to leave our homes.

We go to the ATM or do our banking online so that we don’t have to go inside the bank and deal with people.

We go through a lot of motions in the name of convenience, but I think sometimes we do it for the sake of avoiding human contact. And I’m not pointing fingers, because I know I’m just as guilty as anyone of this. Some days you just don’t want to deal with people.

And if we see people, we might actually have to…have a conversation! Horrors!

Far from isolating us from others, Social Media opens the door to more interaction. Even the interaction that takes place online via Social Media is very human and real. Real conversations CAN happen on Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms.

And even more importantly, the relationships we build in those arenas have the ability to become real. I love spending face to face time with my online friends.

And as a consumer, I enjoy the give and take I have with the businesses I engage with on social networks. I get the chance to be, as Emily says, relational.

Thanks to Social Media I have the ability to be relational on-line, and then carry those relationships over to what we sometimes refer to as “real life,” and then continue to maintain them both on- and off-line.

Deep down, most of us desire to be relational. We cherish great personal experiences, and the opportunity to engage with real human beings. The businesses that learn how to do this will have an edge.

Are you using your Social Media presence to be relational? Or are you merely “there”?

Tagged as: facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Social network, Twitter