Is This Thing On and Other Encounters of the Digital Kind

Yesterday, I came across a post by Wil Oremus talking about ways to reimagine social networks and improve our experiences there. The story was based on a Twitter question from New York Times writer Charlie Warzel.

Oremus summarized and analyzed responses from the thread.

A number of the themes he discussed involved creating new social networks that are less commercial in nature and offer better privacy controls. And I'm in favor of that.

But it's going to be difficult for a new and more utopian platform to gain momentum until the network effect—as in having lots of users we either know or want to follow—kicks in.

And that's not easy to do when we already have our entrenched social (media) habits.

But there's no question social media needs a fix.

With so much disinformation swirling around, and all the vitriol and harassment, it often feels downright unsocial.

And that's too bad because there are many great things about it. For instance, we can connect to people and build relationships, discover and learn things or simply chat.

I Know You're There, Pick Up the Phone

These days, we're all communicating online more than ever before. Because we have to.

Whether it's a Zoom or Google Meet call with friends or family, a meeting or pitch, or synchronous or asynchronous university course, digital has become an even bigger part of our lives.

And while we're starting to move back to more in-person encounters, digital conversations are here to stay.

And we need to adapt to them the way people adapted to phonecalls and answering machines. And add more personality to our online encounters.

Human or Bot?

Case in point. I recently had a chat encounter with a customer service person at my local telco provider. I needed help improving my Wi-Fi connectivity to minimize the choppy audio and video on webinars I was leading.

And the replies from the 'person' at the other end were so stilted and frustrating, that at one point I angrily typed in: "Are you a person or a bot?"

"A person," he typed back.

His response stopped me in my tracks. Because I was sure I was conversing with a machine.

And it made me think that as digital voice assistants and chatbots become better at understanding and generating responses and anticipating our basic needs, the ante on in-person interactions will be upped even higher.

And similar to websites and apps, we should start considering them from the perspective of the person on the other end of the call.

And imbue them with some humanity.

Hello...Hello...Hello...

These days, it seems like pretty much everyone with a connection has got the hang of video calls.

The nuts and bolts of them, that is.

So now it's time to up the quality of the interaction by considering the user experience we're providing.

For instance, if you're on a smartphone, is your image all shaky? Is there a lot of background noise that's distracting from the flow of the call? Are you using a headset and mic? Is your lighting haphazard or helping you look your best?

And speaking of looking your best, believe it or not, a lot of people have what they call their "Zoom shirt", a piece of clothing they keep in their home office that they pull on to look more professional in a call. (I tend to wear a collared shirt for video calls, but think having one just for Zoom is a great idea.)

Getting the most out of video conferencing is the subject of this week's video and I offer some strategies and tips. Check it out and let me know if you have any to add.

Connect with Martin

And with that, I'm going to hang up the proverbial digital phone on issue number 9.

As always, thank you for reading and subscribing! I really appreciate you being here and look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Be sure to reach out if you have questions about any of the videos in Digital Marketing Trends, or my other LinkedIn Learning courses.

Feel free to follow me or connect on LinkedIn or Twitter. (And if you are connecting on LinkedIn, please add a short note so I know how you found me.)

And check out the #LiLDigTrends hashtag for quick updates between videos.

Happy 4th of July to my American friends. Belated Happy Canada Day to Canadians.

And now if you'll excuse me, I've got to jump on a call.