About Connie Reece

Let me present Connie Reece. I learned about Connie's work on Twitter. She is very active on the net. We've exchanged comments on Twitter which is a great way to get connected with 140 characters. I've decided a long time ago to present and / or interview important interactive people on the web but I didn't get down to doing it. Twitter has added a new dimension to my understanding of Web 2.0 Interactivity. It's the dialogs that are important. People to people.

This weekend I got some spare time to comment and profile people I've met on Twitter, Jaiku or Facebook and like to continue with this work. Web 2.0 doesn't mean much to a majority of the people on the globe. Europe is lacking behind US in the evolution. We've a lot to learn from the informal small-talk style.

It's people to people, the dialogs and interaction that are important. There is enough information about the platforms, tools, gadgets, iPhones, Macs, PCs, Googles and web 2.0 brand names but what do we know about those who actually build and maintain the communities?

• Co-creators
• Bloggers
• Twitters
• Commentators
• Content creators
• Wikipedians
  

It's people and their efforts that count. I twittered yesterday, "It's a huge effort to build a community... It takes millions of people to maintain a Twitter or Jaiku". Connie Reece is one of those who makes Twitters and Social Medias work. There are 70 million more in the blogosphere. It will take at least my second life to profile them all. But let me introduce a few.

Here is Connie's statement of her "Every Dot Connects".

Connie Reece, Founder, Every Dot Connects

» About: "connection through conversation: At gut level, most people in advertising, marketing and public relations know that people are tired of being talked to. What people want—what they’re now demanding—is dialogue.

Helge: Good point and very true all over the globe.

Communications professionals should be at the leading edge of this transition to conversational marketing, but few practitioners have actually developed the social media skills to help their clients, customers and consumers join the global conversation.

Helge: Learned a long time ago, "Don't be a teller, be a seller!"

The folks who make up Every Dot Connects no longer simply direct messages at audiences. What we specialize in is making connections with people. We take a different approach—one that does not fall back on the stale “we’re excited to announce” press release or the glossy print ad featuring anorexic models or the art-as-entertainment TV commercial.

Helge: Connecting People is a Nokia slogan but this is what it's all about.

Oh, we still do public relations, but it’s the kind of PR that lives up to its name: building relationships with the public. And that’s impossible if the conversation is only one-way.

Helge: CRM is dead! someone wrote a while ago. The old-fashioned corporate centered idea of managing customer relationships is out and dead. It's the customer who is in the driving seat and companies and corporations have to adapt to the powershift.

Way back in the 20th century, we discovered a new model: markets are conversations. We took to heart that mantra, first expressed in the groundbreaking Cluetrain Manifesto."

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about “listening to customers.” They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

Traditional media—communications, information and entertainment—have not been replaced. But they are being augmented by what is referred to as social media, a participatory form of media in which the reader, listener or viewer becomes a co-creator and co-publisher of content.

Helge: I feel some traditional media has been brought back to my attention with blogs and twitters. The user-generated content has been criticized for being biased and not always accurate and to the point. But why do we go to a coffee shop or bar to have a chat over a cup of coffee or a drink? It isn't always rocket science we love to talk about. The gossip and small-talk about the daily small things have more value than we tend to think.

Some pundits see this as a media revolution. We see it as more of a reformation: media is being re-formed into new collaborations, ignited by technological innovations that make communication easier than ever before—and faster than was imaginable even a few years ago.

Helge: The Chat, IM, messaging. Someone told that traditionalists are still using more emails but the kids and teens are using less and less email and everything has to be instant messaging. Fast food, fast cars, fast interaction...

Every Dot Connects is a social media consortium, a group of independent media practitioners who are passionate about using new technologies to build bridges between people and ideas and causes. Whether working individually or as a team, we help clients navigate through the rapids of emerging media streams.

Helge: This is an extension...maybe taking us to the Second Life. Haven't tried 2nd life yet. How about you?