Several times in the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to have in-depth conversations with colleagues looking to deepen their knowledge of social media. These individuals had a sincere desire to learn how digital engagement could add value to their work and were willing to reach out beyond their own organization to find new insight.
In all honesty, the fact that these individuals were building relationships beyond their immediate organizational boundaries demonstrates that they already have a mindset conducive to success in social media. However our conversations undoubtedly created additional value through the different perspectives that were brought to the discussion. For me, these individual and small group interactions provide an unparallelled opportunity for everyone involved to deepen their knowledge – regardless of the level they are starting from.
Similar discussions occur online everyday though not everyone is comfortable having these conversations in a public space and the platforms themselves have limitations that can impact the sharing of information. However, unlike online interactions, finding people to talk to and initiating contact can frequently be the most difficult part of establishing deeper offline relationships.
Given my belief in the value of these interactions, I want to make explicit my willingness and availability to anyone, at any level of government, who would like have a conversation about how social media and digital engagement might be used. Ping me on Twitter or email at mamadouthiam (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll get back as soon as I can. No topic is off the table and everyone, from the skeptic looking to debate the value of Twitter to the expert trying to build behavior changing networks, is welcome. Feel free to share this offer far and wide as I know that I stand to gain as much from these conversations as I can possibly give.
So, anyone interested in a conversation?
I’m a big believer in that different forms of engagement fit different formats – sometimes online is perfect, sometimes phone or email is great, and other times you just need a true face-to-face.
Just think of some of the best online sites like match.com and meetup.com – both are online sites that whole goal is to get you offline and meet face-to-face.