This visual was inspired by the observations of Jeff Arsenault, a colleague that was in attendance with me at a local business event recently. He noticed people meeting for the first time inquiring about each others Twitter handles as well as folks being introduced in conjunction with their Twitter name…I’d like you to meet Mark/Intersection 1.

When social media types gather, this type of behavior goes unnoticed.  We get so immersed in the culture we often don’t take the time to think about what we’re actually doing.

Has feeding our social media stream become an obsession? How might this impact our ability to be “present” and really connect with people online or face-to-face?

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This visual was inspired by some great tips I read in Sociable, a new book written by Vancouver entrepreneurs, Shane Gibson and Steve Jagger.

The book offers up some excellent examples of how to take online relationships to the next level by bridging the social media gap through face-to-face interaction.

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Findings from the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer have caused a bit of a stir across the social media community – the report states that peer to peer trust levels have dropped from 47% to 27%.

There has been some great dialogue and insight regarding these findings:

• Conversation Agent – Trust in Media Down, Good News for Experts
• Silicon Valley Watcher – Wow! Edelman Survey Finds Trust In Peers Plunges!!! Bad News For Social Media Mavens
• Logic and Emotion (David Armano) – We are the Media. Do We Trust Media?
• Advertising Age – In Age of Friending, Consumers Trust Their Friends Less

Personally, I still have a high level of trust when it comes to the opinions and recommendations of my friends and close colleagues. But I can see how trust might erode as our social networks stretch. For those that have huge 2nd and 3rd generation networks, trust probably would decline across higher degrees of separation.

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“Democratizing” social media allows organizations to leverage employees, customers, vendors and other brand influencers to stretch social capacity – expanding the content and communication base to help nurture awareness, influence, engagement and action.

This visual was inspired by an interview with Scott Monty, social media trailblazer at Ford. He brings up a great point about the challenges presented by time and scale – to be successful, social media needs to be channeled across the whole organization…not through just one person or department.

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