Recently I read some very good posts which discussed about how internet, search and social media have become a part of the DNA of how we execute our professional and personal interactions and activities.
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Vivek Wadhwa wrote on whether Social Media was the start or an end of a golden age http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2011/tc20110524_792362.htm
Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz discussed on whether a company needs “Social Media Experts” on http://www.seomoz.org/blog/everyone-should-hire-social-media-experts
I have written in one of my blog posts published in August 2010 http://blog.webpro.in/2010/08/is-social-media-new-marketing-mantra-or.html that the merging of the real world and the virtual world is a constant evolution happening right from the day people started using the internet. Some time back email management was a task which needed training and setups at the offices in the corporate world. Today majority of these corporate people who may not be tech savvy flash a smart phone with ease for receiving and sending emails.
Social interaction is nothing new, since ancient times humans have been interacting. Every one must have read the sentence which is usually the first sentence uttered in any lecture on Sociology, Psychology, History or Moral Science - ‘Man Is A Social Animal’.
So the urge to communicate, connect, interact, share is very basic, normal and at the core of human psychology only it is the medium which varies from time to time.
Hence online social media is the new way people want to connect personally or professionally.
The urge for searching (For Knowledge or in primitive times for food) and being social are the most intrinsic parts of human personality so that has not changed it is only the way we are executing these activities has changed as we have woven internet technologies with it which is making it look different.
Its high time we accept this technology in our lives rather than running away from it. The real world is getting reflected on the virtual world and whoever is breathing on earth today has an online presence and you can reach out to him/her . Search engines and social media have a reach with a multiplier effect which makes the world appear small but the basic things remain the same.
The goals and principles of traditional methods of marketing and online marketing methods are the same but the way we achieve them is different in a traditional marketing team we have sales people, advertising people, customer support, etc. and now we need SEOs, social media experts, web administrators,etc. The end is not different we still calculate profits with the same mathematical formula but the data sources are different.
Children are still getting education but have access to more reading material at the click of the mouse and can interact more with their friends and discuss to learn more with more speed and efficiency.
Hence internet and internet technologies are tools which increase efficiency and help us to reach out to more. Whether we use it for our benefit and convert it into a bane or boon for us depends on the user ‘s choice. The technology is not right or wrong the way we use it makes it right or wrong.
The internet, search engines, social media, etc. are surely a start of a golden age and we need more and more search and social media experts who with time are surely going to emerge as an offshoot of the massive usage of the net as they all are busy gaining experience as of know. As you can call yourself an expert only if your knowledge is backed by the valuable experience.
Yes, positive acceptance of this evolution in the way we execute tasks and achieve success is the only way to go ahead .
