A few weeks ago I joined this group on Meetup.com called Third Tuesday Calgary. Last night I went to an event organized by this group. The event was a conversation with Shel Israel, the author of the Twitterville: Global Neighborhoods. Here’s a few takeaways from the event.
Global Village / Global Neighborhoods
Much like Marshal McLuhan with “global village” in the 1960s, Shel talks about the concept of “global neighborhoods” today. Twitter, he says, is a tool that allows us to have small conversations with people of common interest. It’s like talking to your neighbor over the fence. Twitter is simply a tool to create and maintain those short conversations online. As Shel mentions, Twitter is the closest to face-to-face communication.
The importance of telling stories
Much like Seth Godin in “All marketers are liars”, Shel is emphasizing the art of story telling. His book, Twitterville, is in essence a collection of stories about people talking on Twitter and telling stories; something others can relate to. The entertainment component is part of any successful story we read, hear and share with our friends and colleagues. As Dean mentioned in his You don’t know how to blog post last week, telling stories is super important, if it’s not a story, he won’t read it.
Broadcasting Era / Conversational Era
As we are moving from the broadcasting era into the era of conversations and small talks, the value of relationships and value transfer becomes the primary concern. We are no longer pushing the message as it was done for decades by advertising and traditional media. We are engaging in conversations, trying to help people solve their problems. As Shel mentions, the media as a social institution isn’t going anywhere. It’s valuable and will continue to evolve. There will, however, be a transition, and it’s happening already. The key for media outlets is to get through this transition and emerge into a new format of media; a combination of traditional and social journalism.
As a side note, I purchased the last copy of the book at this event. 12 hours later still excited to have it and plan to read it within next couple of weeks before Shel writes his next book 
