In my tweetstream the other day, I saw an interesting question about the difference between communication and conversation in social media. It was an interesting question to consider, because of the difference in engagement and intimacy that a conversation has as opposed to communication. Given that social media is a public domain phenomena this question becomes even more important.
I think of communication as formal, as marketing, and as a way to convey policies. Communication is about providing information and instilling guidelines.
Conversation, on the other hand, is intimate, sharing information, but also sharing a lot more. It’s a closer kind of relationship, about a wide variety of subjects, without an agenda.
This blog is about communication. I communicate with my readers. If my readers comment and I comment back it can start to move toward conversation, depending on the length of the engagement.
When I tweet out my status I’m communicating, but when I reply I’m possibly conversing…again I think its dependent on whether there’s a response as well as the context of the response.
And perhaps what also needs to be considered is just how personal a site such as twitter or Facebook can really be. Social media is a public forum, which ultimately can make it impersonal in terms of what people will share. How intimate can someone really be on a social media site? How intimate does a person want to be? Conversation can and still does occur, but how different is it really from communication?
I think you're right that people bring their warts and all and I agree it does bring authenticity to the conversation. Thanks for sharing.
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