The Memphis News used me as one of the subjects  for this week’s  feature article, Social Media Icons, along with city councilman Shea Flinn, Margot McNeely of Project Green Fork, Chris Vernon, sports radio host, and Richard Thompson of  MLGW.  It’ always interesting to see the perspective reporters and editors take on social media.    The article, minus the sidebars featuring the subjects’ comments, will be in tomorrow’s issue of Daily News, the parent of The Memphis News, and is online now.  The full article from The Memphis News is available in .pdf format.

All the subjects were sent questions by email.   I got 2 blurbs in the side bar, but here is the full transcript of my email “interview”:

[Reporter]What have you found the limits of social media to be?

[Joe] Social media is all about two-way conversation and engagement.  There really are no limits or rules, but there are a lot of things that are “understood” about social media that take new users a while to comprehend.  Social media is not a one-way, push marketing medium.  Using it that way is the quickest way to turn off your audience.  But it seems that most new users who want to use it in some way for marketing try to use it as a  one-way, broadcast medium.  They put lots of stock and credibility in gaining friends and followers – working the numbers, but don’t seem sincerely interested in the 2-way part of the equation – providing useful content and joining the “conversation”.  Social Media is all about engagement.

[Reporter] What are the things it cannot do in terms of communication?

[Joe] Maybe I answered that in the last question, but the word “communication” implies 2-way interaction.  If you keep that in mind you can more easily understand the new media.  Call it what you will: connection, engagement, conversation, communication.  That being said, the communications possibilities of SM are limitless.

[Reporter]What are the possibilities for social media? What’s the next step for this form of communication?

[Joe] There is a core of people who truly understand the potential and possibilities of social media.  The possibilities are limitless and shown by the growth of platforms like Facebook and Twitter and the applications that have been designed around them.  However, there is great potential for abuse: interruption marketing, spam, propaganda, all directed from the one-way communication point of view or in trying to dominate the  “conversation”.

I think the future holds more micro-level, geo-based communications and marketing.  The technology is there and new applications are being developed all the time.   “Foursquare” is just considered a game now, but what if you checked in and were offered a menu from a nearby restaurant?  There is a dark side of privacy issues to the evolving social web….Too much to type here.

Please read the full article and share your comments here.