Social Media Conversations

This post is just a quick reminder of the beauty of interesting new social media conversations and social media relationships. 

Ken Allan and I have had several interesting exchanges via our blogs and around the eLearning Learning site.  I'm not even sure what I would call Ken – it's somewhere in the peer, colleague, friend space.  I've never met Ken and I don't think we've had a real-time conversation (apologies to Ken if that's not true).  And the list of these kinds of relationships that I have is fairly long.

But it's a beautiful relationship with wonderful conversations.  As an example, during a recent email exchange, I threw in a question that I had been pondering:

Any thoughts on how deliberative practice relates to becoming something less than an expert. It seems like it should be applicable to all levels of achievement, but everything I'm reading is the study of becoming an expert. Is that just aspirational, or is deliberative practice also studied for quick attainment of proficiency?

This morning I wake up to find his post: Proficiency and Deliberative Practice.  I'm about to go post about that particular topic so I can collect my thoughts on it. 

But I had to also comment on the beauty of that kind of exchange.

And there's this interesting element that it's a public conversation.  It's part of the appeal of Twitter – you get to peer into a little snippet of public conversation.  Of course, blog conversations can go deeper.  And I'm not saying it's an either or.

I still like to use the analogy of a huge cocktail party when describing social media.  Everyone is standing around and you likely can engage them in really great conversations.  But, there are some patterns and norms at cocktail parties and in social media conversations.

• 95%+ of vendors don't get social media conversations.  They believe that sending a press release to a blogger works.  Good luck with that.  Go ahead and send it, but don't expect results.  Think about walking around a cocktail party passing out flyers.  Well received?
• You do need to Spend Time in social media to be able to engage in these conversations.
• My experience with Browse My Stuff has shown me that most bloggers are quite open and willing to engage. 
• I am quite willing to engage in social media conversations - see Conversation Topics

Okay, now onto Ken's post.  Thanks Ken!

Oh, and it goes without saying that I welcome comments, posts and other social media conversations.