Have you hugged a blogger today?

I haven't yet had a chance to blog this week, but I did want to give you something to read.  So this post presents my chapter from the original Age of Conversation.  A lot has changed in my life, our country and our industries since I wrote it close to a year-and-a-half ago, and in some ways it comes across as naive and a bit starry-eyed, but I hope you'll still find something of value in it. 

If you like this, you might want to pick up a copy of the book.  Even better, why not buy a copy (or a dozen - the holidays are coming after all and the proceeds benefit charity) of the new Age of Conversation 2: Why Don't They Get It?

Have you hugged a blogger today?

I have.

OK, maybe not today exactly, but certainly on a few occasions over the past six months. I’ve also broken bread with bloggers, shaken hands with podcasters, grabbed a cup of coffee with a Detroit high school student who follows me on Twitter. I’ve spent more than a few hours speaking (speaking!) with social media creators, sharing thoughts about business, marketing and life in general.

By my count, I’ve met or spoken with more than two dozen people that I would never have had the chance to know if it weren’t for our respective contributions to the social media community. And each time this happens, I’m floored by the way simple text — just one guy’s thoughts about media, marketing, business and life — pecked out on my laptop keyboard in a few spare moments at the end of each day has led to new real world connections with actual flesh-and-blood people.

Having had the opportunity to meet so many social media mavens in the flesh, it’s clear to me that our online relationships and digital dialogues might be the most revolutionary aspects of the Age of Conversation, but they are probably not the most important, or even the most interesting.  Sure, online social media is powerful for its ability to amplify the human voice and spur dialog among a widely distributed community of likeminded people. But the Internet didn’t invent people talking to people, and connections don’t always require Cat-5 cables.

In fact, if you place too much emphasis on the technologies of the social media revolution, you’ll miss the point entirely. Online social networks, photo and video sharing sites, blogs, podcasts and virtual worlds may fuel the conversation, but it’s the people that use these tools to connect with other people that really matter.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not urging you to step away from your computer and into the local coffee shop. I’m simply reminding you (and maybe even myself) that digital and analogue conversations are two parts of the same whole. Our newest forms of social media get especially interesting when they provide those of us who have gotten to know one another online with a good excuse to log off for a few moments and make use of our oldest forms of social media — the hug, the handshake, the art of the conversation between two people without the intervention of the latest technology.