While I am not the ideal participant, I continue to learn an incredible amount from my involvement in these sites. It's not so much what people talk about, but the entire process of communicating online.
It is not unlike the simple rules we discovered when we first left our family and joined the larger world in reception (kindergarten). To paraphrase Robert Fulghum's "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten", we learned how to share, play fair, take responsibility, apologize when you need to, work with others, embrace new ideas, and pay attention.
This simple socialization we received, in a safe, non-threatening environment, helped us deal with the more formal structure of our future education.
I believe using public communities like Facebook provide a similar "socialization" to online communications and communities. Maintaining relationships with friends and family online provides a safe, non-threatening environment and allows you to see what types of interactions work for you.
Suggestions:
- Try to find a long lost friend, and determine what they are doing now
- Post a comment on someone's wall or against someone's status
- Propose and coordinate an event with your friends (dinner, pub)
Clarity of language and intent are important in an open environment, these are skills we may not exercise with the more known audiences we face in emails and meetings. Finding subtext and clues in others public persona is another social skill which will help you choose allies in your corporate Facebook.
I do believe everything you learn using social sites like Facebook or Twitter will help you be a better communicator, mentor, and organiser. You may also connect with an old friend or do something new or something you loved doing in the past and enrich your social life.
So spend some time in reception, meet some old friends, play with your favorite toys and learn what you need to learn.
