Social networking: back to basics?

I stumbled across an interesting debate on a social networking site called Ecademy (if anyone wants to check it out). It's a bit like LinkedIn, but a lot more interactive.

The debate came about following an email from Penny Power (a business guru, from what I can gather) who wanted to tell me and a lot of other people about an 'excellent' event that she'd attended the night before. I didn't know who Penny was, but being naturally a little curious I followed the link to find out more. I have to admit that I did raise an eyebrow when I discovered that Penny was the speaker at this event, promoting her new book.

Reading on, it materialised that Power was extolling the virtues of social networking and their role in helping us to 're-boot' following the economic downturn. Penny's thinking is that times of hardship have made many of us realise the need for better, more humane values and that social networking is helping us achieve this.

Now I do appreciate these sentiments: there's nothing wrong with promoting a 'back-to-basics' approach to business and I agree wholeheartedly that it's missing from a lot of businesses. However, I couldn't help but notice the irony of expressing these sentiments through the use of social media in an act of blatant self-promotion. Particularly when you consider that the email I received appeared to be a personal message and then transpired to be a bit of PR.

I don't want to do Penny a disservice: in all fairness she was only doing what a lot of business people do - making the most of her available tools to promote herself and thereby keep the money rolling in. But I do think a more honest approach to the real value of social media would have prevented these sentiments sounding so hollow.

There is a triviality to social media that means when not handled carefully, it can be very much an inhumane (for want of a better word) form of communication. As I commented on Penny's blog , there is often a level of disconnect as a result of glib, frequent communication. There is most certainly, on both an organisational and personal level, a sense of brand building. Anyone remember Tom Peter's Brand You? (I think this is the only thing I remember from my university days...).

I am a frequent user of social media, for my sins. I like to dabble in a little Twitter, facebook and LinkedIn. But I'm not convinced just yet, that it has made I or anyone else more humane. Let's call a spade a spade and see it for what it is.