Comments?

I just added the comments feature to this blog. It was something I didn't originally include because I didn't like the way they formatted in the template I customized (based on one from the Woork blog). This had the unintentional effect of forcing my readers to comment via email, Facebook, and Twitter. I interact quite a bit that way.

But a debate I've been following (it's all over the place, not in any one online thread, so I can't really point you to it) says that no blogger worth his/her salt would have comments turned off. The harder-edged pro-comments advocates argue that social media is all about conversation (sound familiar?) and if you aren't holding your conversations in the open, you're just using your blog platform to publish the equivalent of an old-school newsletter.

Interesting. I'll bite. Let's open the comments and see what happens. I'll even publish comments I get on the other platforms.

That brings me to an important distinction in social media that I believe the harder-edged presenters of an argument like this miss. There is no such thing as a social media "expert". It's all being invented as we go along. There are definitely those who have found an element of success in one part of it or another, but the technology and its uses change constantly. People keep finding new ways to use the tools. (Think of it... Twitter's really only two years old.) Much as my Law of Simplexity attempts to capture, that's not going to change any time soon.

Just ask the owners and operators of newspapers that are crumbling around us. We're getting back to the roots of journalism. Guess what... it's not about the technology of ink printed on paper. It's about ferreting out the story, finding the right sources, getting the facts straight, and getting it to your audience. That... and the interaction with the audience and what happens as a result of the story. Sometimes it's just interesting. Sometimes it can ring loudly in the halls of power.

The ONLY element that remains common regardless of the technology is people. Writing. The printing press. The postal system. The telephone. Radio. Television. The Internet. Now social media. Each advancement in how we can reach others changes the flow of dynamics. Industries change. New players are created. Some old ones crumble. Others adapt and thrive.

Same for marketing, advertising, public relations, publishing, and similar industries.

But people... even with the new technology... remain people. Yes, there are some new tricks to learn. There always will be. But the real social media "experts" are those who can adapt them to embrace the way people want to use them. Technology is flattening hierarchies created by mass communication, getting us closer and closer to being a gargantuan village.

People = the real technology at the heart of it all.

Operate from that platform.

(Do it. Screw up. Adjust.)