Sunday, February 19, 2012

Who goes there! Friend or Foe?

The phrase the enemy of my enemy is my friend is a proverb that advances the concept that someone who is the enemy of your enemy is therefore your friend. It further means that because two parties have a common enemy, one can use the other to advance their goals. In foreign policy, it's a doctrine commonly used to interact with a significant enemy through an intermediary rather than through direct confrontation.

Examples throughout history are common, such as longtime enemies Britain and France uniting against Germany during World War I, the Western capitalist democracies aiding the Soviet Union following the Nazi invasion during World War II, or U.S. support for anti-Communist dictatorships during the Cold War. 


Social media includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue. The Communications and Information School of Rutgers University defines social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, allowing the creation and exchange of user-generated content."  

Social media is media for social interaction as a super-set beyond social communication. Enabled by ubiquitously accessible and scalable communication techniques, social media has substantially changed the way organizations, communities, and individuals communicateCool!


Do you use Twitter? Are you (or is your online business) on Facebook? How about the new Google+? What about Pinterest? Do you now have a deep and uncontrollable interest in Pinterest?

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.  From the Pinterest website: Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests. 




I have been in the telecom and technology business since 1983. I had one of the first active websites (for a non-publically traded company). Over the years, we have participated in the design, hosting and/or maintenance of over 40,000 websites. Today, a successful website must have all of the buttons and links for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and now it looks like you need Google+ as well. You must blog and have videos on your site, or your search engine optimization (SEO) will suffer. And now here comes Pinterest!  Yeah baby, I did not have enough to do this week. Job creation yes, as someone has to keep all of this stuff current and interesting, but is this me being "social"?  I write my own blog every Sunday; I'll leave the rest of "my" social media duties to my very capable digital media staff.


This blog is going to be viewed by my friends – and by the friends of my friends. Here is my question to all of my peeps on this "Blogger Sunday": If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, does that make the friend of my friend – my enemy? No. It makes them a stranger. But have no fear! You can friend me here https://www.facebook.com/thomas.a.capone
Was Will Rogers the first social media pioneer? Was good 'ol Will the Gary Vaynerchuk or Seth Godin of the day? Maybe what is old is simply new again. “A stranger is just a friend I haven’t met yet” ~Will Rogers

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