This is a guest post from my wife Jacki. I thought it’d be interesting to get the views of someone who has no real interest in social media and let them explain why. And one thing I love about Jacki is her no-nonsense approach to everything. To learn more or connect with Jacki, please visit her blog Just Kickin’ It.

I was recently asked my views on social media and all the glorious tools therein. Truthfully, my mind went blank. I couldn’t tell you the difference between Twitter and Stumbleupon.

I understand Google as a search engine, so when someone says “She found me on Google” – well, that makes sense. But what the heck does “She sent me a tweet” mean?

This is a hypothetical question, don’t answer it – I don’t care and will likely forget what it means anyways. If I need to find something I Google it. If I’ve read something I liked and am able to comment I will, if not, well my opinion doesn’t mean a whole lot anyways. I’m not overly devastated if I don’t get to share it.

I recently started a new blog. I still don’t fully understand what that even means. What I do is I write a virtual journal, I rant about the latest current affairs, I discuss in great detail all of the things that irritate me and what the world could do to improve. Mostly it’s social etiquette and common sense.

When I’m bored and feeling creative, I might tell a story or two, involving a little bit of research on my part. I assume since it’s on the Web, anyone can read it. Great, go for it. I just learned what it meant to “tag”, something which makes sense, but I still don’t know how to do it. So if you can’t find me, well I guess that’s my fault too.

For this I use Blogger. I tried to post a couple of pictures on my recent blog and what a pain that was. I think I’ll stick to journal format from now on in. It’s a personal blog, not professional. It doesn’t have any business purpose, so I’m not trying to draw in any clientele.

My other blog, I run with a couple of other ladies. This is a virtual book club. It’s a bit different than the regular book clubs but it suits its purpose. We use WordPress for this. I can honestly say that after playing with it a bit, it’s far more user-friendly than Blogger. And I’ve mastered the art of adding pictures. I think that deserves a pat on the back right there.

Facebook is a given. But someone listed a bunch of other nonsense:

• Twitter
• Stumbleupon
• Digg
• Friendfeed
• LinkedIn
• Delicious
• Reddit
• Google Alerts
• Google Reader
• Monitter
• Technorati

What is all of this? It’s a foreign language to me. If you want me to read something, send me a link. I really couldn’t care less what you use to spread the word, or what format you put things in. I’m glad it works for you, really I am. But are all these things really necessary?

Take Stumbleupon for example. There was probably about a month where my husband went nuts with sending me a bunch of things he stumbled upon. One day I watched him send out an email. He had to cut here, paste there, click a few buttons and voila! Seems simple, right? Why the heck couldn’t he just paste the link in a normal email and send that out? Why go through Stumbleupon at all?

And Twitter? This one I can’t get over because it’s all the new rage amongst Social Media Experts and PR Gurus. I guess I don’t understand the Internet world, and what is the point of learning it when it changes on a daily basis?

I use Blogger, WordPress and Facebook. But really, if I want to write something and share it, is there any difference if I use Microsoft Word or Notepad? Couldn’t I just use that and send it off to whomever I want to read it?

If I want it to go public, then using some domain might be an idea, but does it really matter one way or the other what the heck I put it in? Can you tell the difference between Blogger and WordPress, as a reader? Maybe one is more appealing to the eye than the other but it’s more of the same.

So go on and speak your language. But in plain English, you could just tell me, “Here… read”.

Thanks for listening.

Social Media is a Language of Its Own originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

But apart from my lame attempt at humor, there’s another reason for the title of this post. For anyone that’s ever listened to corporate team-building speak, they’ll have heard a similar phrase before. It may even have been something as simple as, “There is no I in team.” While we all may have rolled our eyes and groaned at the time, it turns out it’s actually a pretty smart phrase – especially in social media.

Look around you on the web – if you’re part of a social media website or network, I’d be fairly confident on laying a bet that it feels like you’re on the world’s best team.

Take a look at Twitter, for example. You have a problem, you send out a Tweet and immediately you have the ears and eyes of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Each and every one of them will look at your problem and if they can help, they will.

Or how about BackType, or Disqus? Two similar methods of tracking blog comments that are helping to pave the way at improving the quality of comments left on blogs. Encouraging ways to make people think and comment respectably, as opposed to leaving the “WaReZ RuLeZ” type of gibberish. Building a better community.

This is where social media is leading the way at changing the way we look at the people and world around us. We’re no longer saying we’re only in it for what we can get out of it – now we’re saying to people we’re here for you. If you have a problem, one of us will have the answer and we’ll help you – because we want to help you be the best you can. And in doing so, making ourselves better people.

It’s strange. I look at Barack Obama and I see him as the true social media guru. Not for the way his team used social media to get the word out about his campaign, and not for the way he embraced the medium when millions of others still see it as immaterial.

No, where I see Obama standing as a focal point for social media is that he wants everyone to believe we can.

We can achieve our dreams.

We can overcome obstacles.

We can become one voice reaching for a better world.

We can do all this and more if we simply listen to each other. And respond. And help.

Sound familiar?

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There’s No I in Social Media originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.