Last week I went to listen to Brian Solis speak about Social Media. I would like to call this event “An Evening with Brian Solis”.

Brian Solis entered from the left side of the stage and began setting up his Mac Book Pro for slide show mode. He began by entertaining the idea that relations instead of relationships are the way of the future. When one forms a thin bond with someone else on the web because of a common interest or “like” that they share, any sort of relationship has turned to a relation. The thing that is so interesting about this thin, almost stretched out bond is that we would never have associated with this other person if it was not for social media. We have crossed thresholds and passed over prejudices that we once held to share an interest (there for a bond)  with someone across the globe.

For over a decade Brian has been finding these bonds and then helping companies benefit from them. He takes what people are interested in, what they are searching for and compiles that information to help them find you (or your business). In turn, the business or person has created more bonds and it has given the people that are interested in that subject, product or whatever a bit of a surge because it is something new.

Something interesting that Brian brought up was, the feeling that you get from posting something on either Facebook, Twitter or a Blog is similar to the way a mother feels for her child. This is apparent when we repeatedly check on our media, to see what has happened since we last check on it.  When someone posts something they also want a reaction and from what ever type of reaction they get, they start to build a sort of confidence. This confidence is brought on by people paying attention to what they are posting, no matter if this attention is negative or positive (it is attention!). This is interesting because the introverts of the world that use social media seem to build a confidence online and when encountering people outside of the web browser they use that same confidence, pulling off the likes of an extrovert quite seamlessly (or so Brian says).

I am unsure if I understand this feeling of online confidence. It could be possible to go from feeling like an introvert to becoming an extrovert through your online discovery of friends but, I still think that I enjoy my bonds with people that have nothing to do with my online Social Media skills. I guess I could conclude that Social Media is the way in which the world is and the world will keep moving that in that direction. In fact, we will probably be going the way of not much human contact at all. I will say, that I am all for Social Media and Networking but, I will probably try building my confidence with people in other ways as well.

In the end, it was a splendid evening with Brian Solis, learning about social media.