A little too ironic-don't you think?

In her song “Ironic” Alanis Morissette listed several situations, ending each with the phrase “It’s a little too ironic, don’t you think?” That is what came to mind when I read a recent LinkedIn posting. The author was soliciting the “top 100 reasons why face to face communication is better than social media”. Ironic because he was making his request on arguably one of the most important social networking sites there is.

Once you get passed the irony, the quest for the answer begins. While one could spend hours listing 100 reason why both face to face and social networking are important, in the world we live in, simply relying on one or the other is not recommended. For nonprofits or businesses of any size, utilizing both, often in a collaborative way is important for your success.

In December Encompass Marketing had the opportunity to host a U-Maine student for a day. He shadowed with us, attended meetings, we hope he got a feel for what a day in our work life might look, feel and taste like (we took him out to lunch). We spoke with him a great deal about the importance of networking, both through social networking sites and face to face.

For a part of the afternoon a videographer was in our office producing a piece on us for an upcoming chamber dinner. We were being honored for the Chamber’s “Business Leadership of the Year” award for a small company. The videographer turned out to be a college buddy of mine, but in the last 10-15 years we hadn’t seen each other more than a dozen times. However, we had both referred potential clients to each other. It was great catching up and updating each other what we have been doing professionally and in our personal life. I don’t believe we have ever exchanged a Facebook or LinkedIn message.

During the time the student was with us, another friend and occasional partner of Encompass Marketing stopped by the office. When she walked in she said something like, “I was in the neighborhood and instead of emailing I thought I would come by.” This person is a great “social networker” - very active with regular updates about her businesses and endeavors. Due to the nature of her visit, she did recognize it was good to drop in and do a face to face.

Towards the end of the day I updated our Encompass Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages with some of the day’s happenings and our excitement about both the student and the videographer being with us.

Last night (1/28) was the Chamber dinner. Our video piece was shown along with other community businesses and individuals who were receiving awards. Throughout the evening, dozens of folks we are connected with through our social networking sites stopped by to congratulate us on the award. In some cases, people whom we had few, if any, face to face meetings with commented on learning about the award through our various postings. Though we will continue to interact with some of them primarily through social networking sites, there is no replacing the face to face. Looking someone straight in the eye, seeing their smile, and exchanging a firm handshake provides a level of comfort and confidence that just can’t be duplicated by following someone on Twitter.

For me, it brought to mind that in today’s world, people who rely on one way of communicating at the expense of the other miss opportunities and perhaps a richness that comes from nurturing relationships in a variety of ways. Speaking of nurturing relationships, I would be remiss if I did not provide website addresses for the folks mentioned above. I hope if you ever have the need you will call on their services and remember you learned about them thanks to social networking. www.nomadpictures.net www.mainelykids.us.