I had an interesting conversation at a PRSA event last night with three older members. All in their 50s, they were expressing their reticence to become involved with social media on a personal level because it’s “just too much.” They saw things like Facebook and Twitter as platforms that would just require more and more of their time. They talked about how it was already hard for them to keep up with e-mail. They lamented how their kids don’t have “real” relationships anymore; they simply text their friends instead of talking to them. Quite simply, they were doubters.

Putting on my social media evangelist hat, but tempering it with the recollection that I had many of the same fears when I started to dip my toes into social media, here’s what I told them:

1. Boundaries

It’s what you make of it. You can set your own personal boudaries for social media participation. If you join Twitter, let it be a real-time communications tool. If you follow 200 people, don’t feel as though you need to go back through and read every single tweet that’s come across the stream since you last logged on. Catch what’s important and what’s happening now, and don’t worry about missing things. The important stuff will resurface. You’ll zero in on those who add the most value to you. Avoid the noise.

2. Connection

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn decreases the need for e-mail. I used to write multiple-paragraph e-mails to friends and family every couple of months. I recapped everything that had happened, and then waited for their response. With Facebook, we can now passively observe each other’s lives and know what’s going on without having to send those long e-mail missives. I can see that my cousin went on a trip to North Carolina and comment on a photo or two. I can post a quick message to my college friends’ pages and find out what they’re up to. On the professional side, I can see where my contacts are working and what they’re working on via LinkedIn. Social networking has actually decreased the time that I need to spend writing “catch-up” emails and increased the level of connectedness I feel with friends.

3. Control

You control what information you put out there. Facebook and Twitter don’t publish anything without you pushing that share button. You’re ultimately responsible for your own information. You can use privacy settings to control who sees it. But no one is forcing you to share any information that you don’t want to.

4. Relationships

It’s now possible to have real, meaningful relationships beyond geography. I explained to them how I’ve made real, honest-to-goodness friends solely via Twitter. Folks that I’ve now met in person and consider to be trusted mentors, like Allan Schoenberg, Arik Hanson or Shonali Burke. Social networking has also strengthened local relationships because it allows me to have more interactions with people. There may be only a handful of PRSA events I can make it to over the course of several months, but I interact with peers on Twitter nearly once a week, if not once a day, and each interaction reinforces those relationships.

I don’t know if I made any social media converts last night, but I feel I at least got them thinking. It’s easy to be skeptical of what’s unfamiliar. But being open to trying new methods of communication is what keeps us moving forward as a PR profession. The actual, specific social media platforms may come and go, but the fundamental concept of a more open, sharing and networked world is here to stay.

What would you have told them?

Cartoon via Intersection Consulting