Isn't it Ironic?

So last evening, I posted about how I don't like how sometimes people use technology just to use it. I know, I sounded a little jaded talking about technology and social media...

It's funny, because as I was typing that post (on a blog which is a social media tool), I was also using Facebook (another social media tool) to see what my friends were saying about the election in their status updates, and Twitter (another social media tool) to get the results of races involving our members for the US House and Senate out to our organization's followers.

Does that make me a hypocrite for railing against technology and social media while also using three social media tools at the same time?? To steal a phrase from Alanis Morrisette - "Isn't it ironic?"

As much as I sometimes don't get the fascination surrounding social media, I find myself using it more and more... I am blogging in numerous places on numerous topics, Twittering, Facebooking, Flickring, etc. I am using it in my personal life more and more, and I didn't even really realize it because the culture of society these days is just expecting you to be using social media apps.

While I am using it personally more and more, I still think that we as association executives need to be thinking about how we're using the different tools and all of the technology out there. As I said in yesterday's post, using technology just to use it makes no sense. We need to be thinking about developing plans for how each tool can enhance our messages, our overarching communications strategies, and our organizational mission.

I was amazed at the ASAE & The Center Annual Meeting how many people came to the BloggerCon saying they were thinking about starting a blog for their organization, but didn't know what a blog was or how to set one up. That's an example of what I was talking about yesterday - using technology just to use it... I don't get it...

So to close up this post, I'd just say that I'm starting to see the prevalence of social media in today's culture, and am understanding how much effort is going to need to be placed in developing a strategy for how we can effectively use these tools in our organization.

Last night, I think I used one social media tool effectively to bring news to our membership in real-time, enhancing the overall mission of the organization. It was a good first step, but we need to go farther if we're to be successful in using it long-term.