That’s what this line from your post:
“It seems so simplistic but as powerful as social media has become, in many instances as strong or even stronger than traditional media, its use or misuse comes down to one thing: Responsibility. The message comes from the messenger and far too often, the person speaking or writing is living in a vacuum. You simply have to be aware that what you say and what you write is going to an audience well beyond your intended recipients.”
…means to me!

And Shannon, you raise very fair points as they illustrate another view of social media; one from someone directly dialed into it. I’ve done the same thing you mentioned, that being changing or shifting my position on something based upon a follow-up discussion after a post was published.

The thing is this: My primary point about responsibility is that often times, there isn’t the evolving discussion you referenced. An “issue” often begins with one statement. Whether it follows the “rules of engagement” in Twitter or elsewhere is relative to who knows, or follows, the rules.

Now, as long as someone is perfectly comfortable with anything that can result from his/her statement, game on…or, dialogue on, as it were.

I get what you’re saying about responsibility — I really do. However, I think it’s a mistake to be overly concerned with how people interpret your statements on Twitter or even on a blog. That’s the beauty of social media. The conversation doesn’t end with a tweet or even a blog post — the post is merely the starting point of an evolving discussion carried on through replies, comments and links. I’ve had exchanges with well-known bloggers who changed their minds on an issue through participating in the ensuing conversation *after* their post was published.

Certainly people should take care to note that their messages are put forth for all to see, but maintaining “professionalism” or even congruency is a mistake that traditional marketers — or even journalists make when crossing over into the realm of social media. To have any content truly resonate with a digital audience, the irony is that it should be as *human* as possible.

That means that not everyone likes me, but the ones who do like me a lot because they’ve had the chance to get to know the real me.

Thanks for the honorable mention, Christopher. It’s humbling to be placed in the same sentence as some of the other names.

Thanks, too, for sharing information about James Andrews and FedEx. I’d known of the FedEx Twitter account, but hadn’t known of this anecdote until I clicked over to David Henderson’s blog entry which I now see has 220+ comments. Wheee!

Ever wonder who visits your blog but doesn’t post a comment? No different on Twitter… and as you probably know, while blog posts *could be* blocked from search engines, tweets are fair game and enter the public domain immediately. By test, run a google search on twitter.com and your username and you’ll see it all.

Thanks again!