As I watched the news this week the “fun” reports included a piece on graduation ceremonies and the commencement speeches for Spring 2011. Two of the sound bites stuck with me and one I will share with you. One of the speakers (I cannot remember his name) told graduates to “get off of Facebook and get into someone’s face!”
While this may make you smile, the truth of his statement resounded with me. While there are a “gazillion” benefits of social media and virtual networking, some of the millennium generation is losing the art of basic face-to-face communication. They do not have the strongest skills in actually shaking someone’s hand, looking a person in the eye, and communicating with words beyond “LOL”, “BRB” and “TTYL.” There are subtleties in body language, voice intonation and eye contact (or lack thereof) that you cannot read between the lines and convey or receive in the same way while emailing, texting, IM’ing, chatting, tweeting and “Face booking.”
In today’s economy with 75% of jobs being found via networking, it may be good to make the first contact online, but at some point, you have to talk to someone, and it is that conversation that may make the difference between getting the job or referral or not. We have to know how to talk about the weather, the world and our value-add to the company or institution. We must remember how to give our elevator speech.
You know, it’s the 1 minute (ok maybe a little longer, but very short) spiel about ourselves that we should be able to give to anyone on the spot (or perhaps in an elevator!). It should entail who we are, what we can do, what we add, and what we want or are looking for. This is something that is ideally done live, in person (cara a cara) or on the phone or video conferencing only if absolutely necessary. It’s something that you can type, but it really isn’t the same as the passion that would be coming out of your mouth when you talk about yourself to a person - not a computer screen.
You know, it’s the 1 minute (ok maybe a little longer, but very short) spiel about ourselves that we should be able to give to anyone on the spot (or perhaps in an elevator!). It should entail who we are, what we can do, what we add, and what we want or are looking for. This is something that is ideally done live, in person (cara a cara) or on the phone or video conferencing only if absolutely necessary. It’s something that you can type, but it really isn’t the same as the passion that would be coming out of your mouth when you talk about yourself to a person - not a computer screen.
You can’t do that on Facebook! I concur with the commencement speaker. Get off of Facebook! Get in someone’s face and make LIVE connections with the real world. There are people behind the computers and phones who are just waiting to meet you! .. Facebook them later! :^)
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