My friend Adam Hann and I have had a number of conversations about Social Media. About two weeks ago he and I engaged in a conversation about Twitter and how various people use it. The conversation really encouraged me as Adam described to me how his thinking on Twitter had been shifting. So I asked him to write a guest blog post for me to describe what we had discussed, and what he wrote not only encouraged me further, but blew me away. I love the way he thinks and how he articulates those thoughts.

Recently, I’ve been undergoing some sort of a revelation in regards to Twitter. I’ve been on Twitter for almost 2 years now. I remember the first day I joined and had a couple of friends join with me (@mattparks and @pearlparks; you should follow them if you are not already, great people.) I had two big goals: I was going to get tons of people using Twitter, and I was going to be their friend. That was an unrealistic goal, and a naive one at that. Also, I did not know that there was already a flourishing Twitter community here in Lancaster County.

As I started out into the Twitterverse, I would tend to only follow people who I knew or whom I had met, usually in person. I had approached it with a backwards trust: If you can prove to me that you are worth following and are trust worthy, then I’ll follow you.

Honestly, I never thought through it enough to even realize the message I was sending, but it could have been interpreted that way.

At it’s core, Twitter (and social media at that) is all about connecting. Even more, it’s about the relationships that come from that connecting.

When thinking about this over the past few weeks and learning some new things in regards to technology, I’ve realized that I’ve approached this all wrong. Technology is an extension of you as a person. The technology you use extends your human capabilities. Whether it’s driving (helping you move from one place to another faster) or video chatting (letting you communicate with someone hours and miles away), it’s extending what you can do as a person.

Essentially, Twitter is an extension of the community in which I am a member. I am developing an understand that a healthy community is a two way street. If you don’t think Twitter is a community, stop and read this and then read this.  I’ now realize that I need to be more engaging in my community, both offline and online. For me, doing that online means I need to be following the people who are following me and engaging in the conversation that is happening.

This is a big shift in my thinking. First, it gets me out of my comfort zone. Second, it introduces me to a lot more people and gives me a lot more content to take in on a daily basis. These are the two reasons that kept me from doing this before. While I’m still figuring out how this will work for me, I’m excited to be a part of what’s going on and stepping out into new territory.

As I begin to understand my role in this interactive community, I’m slowly learning what implications this has on leadership in regards to transparency and approachability or the tools to use to even pull this off well.  But that is a whole other post.

I guess, for now, I’m just here to say, “Hello, my name is @adamhann, and I look forward to getting to know you!” I’ll see you out in the community.

Adam Hann and his wife Amanda live in Elizabethtown, PA.  Adam loves engaging in conversations about social media and music.

He currently works for LCBC Church as the Saturate Experience Architect and helps craft environments for young adults. You can find him over at the Saturate Blog or at adamhann.com/blog.

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