Cement messages and social media

Hi again, everyone. It's fascinating to watch the world wake up to the potential of Twitter and begin to experiment with ways to share individual and corporate messaging around the globe. Although I've been using Twitter for some time, it's not been with any real focused, professional intent--I simply note what captures my attention, what I'm seeing, haikus I'm composing in my head. :)

But the Society for Environmental Journalists recently created a collective Twitter feed of environmental journalists and offered a way to subscribe collectively or individually here. And since that time Twitter has taken on a completely different energy for me. Fascinating ideas, links, resources, opinions are flying all over and surfacing in tweets I can read. The conversation is much more like waves at high tide--bits of information crossing each other, touching each over, flowing over the top of one another. Much messier and more alive than simple one-way messaging that you put on a four-color brochure or post on your Web page.

Are you ready for the fray? Are you willing to let your ideas, message, and maybe even to some extent your mission be shaped by those who are in conversation with you? It's a big question, yes, and probably one that strikes fear in the heart of large corporate enterprises. But the days of interactional media are here, and this generation--and the ones to follow--will expect and own their own shaping influence on the culture and what it produces. What a fascinating time to be awake and aware and communicating!

Good luck as you begin to loosen your grasp on your carved-in-stone messaging. Somewhere between your brand and your mission is the idea people will want to talk about with you. Just keep listening and dip a toe in the water when you can. It's full of life and possibility--and who knows what kind of opportunity awaits?