‘I’m at the mall with the family’. ‘Just had dinner at McDonalds’. 

How many times have you seen these kinds of tweets or facebook postings? While it can be interesting to see where friends are or what they are doing, it seems like there’s not always a lot of social in social media. Certainly there are some folks who really know how to start a conversation (and to keep it going). For everyone of the people who are good at getting the conversation going, it seems like there are ten more people who use social media to update friends on their location or their activities. 

When you tweet ‘I’m at Bob’s Diner’, why not tweet ‘I’m at Bob’s Diner on Main St, the meatloaf special is to die for!’. Or ‘Who’s been to Bob’s Diner – suggestions?’

When you are at the mall, how about ‘At the mall, HUGE sale at Sears  – get here now.’ 

Wouldn’t it be great to tweet or post something that starts a conversation or encourages feedback, or gets some kind of threads going amongst your followers? Hopefully social media is new to lots of people and it will take time to get the hang of it. I’m amazed at how many posts I see or tweets I get that are one-time-only affairs. What about tweets or posts that are the start of the conversation, rather than one and done posts. 

Social media gives us the tools to explore any number of topics in a way never imaginable just a few years ago. Imagine getting thoughts or opinions from hundreds or thousands of people. 

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy sharing a little bit of my friends lives and knowing what they are doing, but I would love to engage in a conversation about something and to know what they think or how they feel about a given topic. Perhaps it will just take time for people to get the hang of it.  Maybe people just need to keep posting stimulating thoughts and questions in the hopes that more people will join the conversation.