We’re All Creeps Now

Someone I met briefly last night tweeted at me this morning. And just like that I have a blog post.

It’s Social Media Week around the world this week and the conferences, panels, parties and of course, the after parties have been rocking. There is a new level of familiarity that is taking place within the social media community, and it is encouraging to see the coalescence. I am more hopeful than ever that this community will continue to grow and mature together, that important relationships are being formed and that 1001 new opportunities in the form of jobs, business ideas, creativity and friendships are but moments away from fruition.

A clear harbinger of the community becoming more comfortable together is the increased willingness by people to simply introduce themselves. It’s silly to think that this is actually something worth reporting, but it seems like we are reintroducing the human element. Especially in a city like New York, it can often be intimidating to meet people, to simply walk up and say Hi. I feel that fear all the time. We’ve all become so good at projecting that aura of intensity that says “”Stay Away,” usually as a mask for shyness or insecurity.

But the tools of social media have alleviated these fears and they are starting to mature and bring us together. At least 15 times this week I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the nicest, sweetest people because they knew me from either my blog or twitter account. Of course this is on top of the hundreds of people I’ve been pleased to meet who have no idea who or what I am. This is what Dennis Crowley said in the tweet I mentioned at the beginning of this article. We are recognizing each other again; powerful stuff.

It’s funny that Dennis’ first reaction was to find it creepy that the only reason he recognized me was because of my Twitter profile picture. Now of course as someone who tweets a lot I recognize that I am “in front” of people pretty often. That little golden avatar with my head cocked to the side, snide little smile, fedora.

But for people who spend a good portion of their time on either Facebook or especially Twitter, there is a level of intimacy that develops. We keep seeing the same people pop up into our stream. We may not technically know people, but that doesn’t mean they are strangers. The most common reason people have told me they wanted to introduce themselves is that they feel they know me, through my tweets, my foursquare check-ins, my blog posts. Meeting me in person simply squares that circle between their online familiarity with me and their offline perception. It’s led to great conversations, new friendships and more than a few business contacts.

I think to date, this might be my greatest success. And you know what? It’s not creepy. It’s beautiful. But if in the meantime, if we have to call it creepy then I’ll be happy to say, We Are All Creeps Now

Image Source: Nick McGlynn on Random Night Out, That is Mike Margolis of GetStoried.com and I. Mike is NOT a creep, but the jury is still out on me

Tagged as: Social Media Community, Social Media Week New York City