The consolidation of this digitally people-based environment has caused that human media brings closer the human component to the online, technologies, digital world and the social Web. Day after day, the relationship between people and the Internet is stronger and cohesive.

Here you’ll find 10 undeniable facts that show the emergence of such ties

10 Facts that Bridge the Online with People

1. Internet and the Web will always be there. Love it or hate it, but at some point someone will talk about you, whether you are there or not. Hint: better be there.

2. You will learn everyday. You are enrolled to the largest university in the world, the Internet, and hey, it’s free!

3. As human being you do not usually make mistakes, you only fail sometimes. Developing your knowledge about the Social Web is a process of trying, doing, experimenting launching and thus, experiencing failure. The damn “failed” thing it’s part of making something happen, just as the the experiments that may “work.”

4. Failures are repeated until you will learn them. The strategy or actions to be performed will be presented in various ways in different contexts, until you have learned to cope with different settings and also broaden your expertise in different situations. Then you can move to the next phase.

5. You’ll never stop learning. In a new environment where everything sill remains to be defined and is completely open to everything, there won’t be a single day that you don’t lear anything. If you belong to this human and technological era, where you truly are, you have a lot to lear yet.

6. There is no better placer to make a difference and make something happen. However, what has brought here, does not have to take us there, what works today, won’t do it tomorrow. When you get “there”, we will be here and there will be another “there” to be reached. This never ends, funny though.

7. People want to be connected and emotionally moved. Like you, simple, but significant and real.

8. You have all the platforms, tools and resources that you need to do something really fascinating. Now, it just depends on your attitude and the desire to step forward. It’s about taking risks and launch something that add value to the world and the people that live in.

9. Despite what most of the market and professionals say, the answer is within you. The real challenge, it’s not competing against any business or person, but against yourself. In order to connect and create resonance through the social Web using human business interactions, first you must to connect with yourself.

10. There’s no need that you follow this steps – which are not steps. If the rules are the only thing that separate you from making a difference, you don’t need these rules. Create your own game, a game where you and the people around you win.

There’s no human interactions and relations without the human factor, nor does social exists, without social there’s no interactivity, without interactivity the Social Web makes no sense at all.

Thoughts?

Photo credit: Dezeen.

Using Human Media means changing the “social” approach that you give to the Web, for another more human. It’s simple and effective.

Two Parallel Approaches

In the early times, companies developed a marketing campaign with a liv motiv and claim, and after that they studied whether it worked or not. They practically made a guess on that. The mantra was creating first and then we’ll see if the campaign fits, something like: “Let’s try something, perhaps we are lucky enough and we can create value to our clients” a very risky approach – not good.

Human Media makes use of the Web and Social Media, is a new approach towards the connection between business and audience and the consequent relationships. It transmits proximity and appreciation and also help businesses to place themselves next to the actual and future clients so we can understand their lifestyle and identify what really interests them. It’s a way of fitting first and then creating something that it truly creates value. “Let’s connect, meet, discover and then, only then, we will create something meaningful to our clients” a really smart approach – very good.

The Right Approach, the Human Approach

Using this more human and less social approach we will know immediately (platforms and tools allows us to do so) if clients enjoy and are enjoying of your business story, service o product, marketing campaign or even the interaction you created with them. This really makes possible that we are be able to keep drawing (marketing and business campaigns) in the right direction, introducing small changes or yes, even bigger moves, and all that with greater and better maneuverability, adaptability and reach.

Search, Connect, Meet, Consolidate and Traduce

We are mistaken every time we create and look for the audience and market them through Social Media. Search, connect, meet, consolidate and traduce. In other words, work on the people approach, the possibility of monitoring in real-time – react and even anticipate – respond and act accordingly to your audience needs and wants, so later on you can act on constant and small movement bursts, which respond to momentum and conversations of your community. The outcome will be transactions in form of long-lasting and profitable relationships.

Photo credit: ortzadar.

Build Experiences

Place your energy where it should be placed, in connecting and creating resonance with people. Save your passion, willingness and time for learning how these “utensils” urge and inspire creating human interactions and thus, how these could be used in order to build different types of customer experiences.

Make an effort for authentically connecting with people and then, technology and Social Media will make real sense.

¿How would you use the online platforms and tools that the Social Web offers us to align people, empower business transactions and consolidate business relations?

Photo credit: Jerseyboy.

The real challenge of Social Media isn’t only:

• Create more benefits for companies
• Sell more products or services
• Generate more leads
• Increase your Facebook fans base, twitter following or blog subscriptions
• Divert more traffic to your Website or the conversions as result
• Create, share, exchange, participate, distribute o redistribute content
• Gain more visibility and exposure
• Find a job

[Bonus: you'll achieve all of this if your work properly, but let's get deep]

The real challenge of Social Media is creating change in the world we live now, a change that really change to the better, enhance the growth of present and future opportunities. A change that makes a more unified and committed world.

It’s Time

The challenge rests in using the platforms, tools and APPs that social media provides for gathering people with a desire to make something happen and creating movements that help people to overcome difficult situations. Hey! I’m talking about trying  to improve the life of people who live on our “particular worlds.” The purpose of Social Media is deeper and more powerful than the list I mentioned above. Egypt, “Pray for Japan“, Haiti, Iran elections, Libia, fighting against the VIH, cancer or even as an organization that uses social media resources for helping people (“Social Good”). This should be the real value of Social Media, to create meaning for people and the world we live in – and also the ones that will come after.

It’s the Opportunity

When you use the Social Web and Social Media you have the opportunity of making a difference, connecting people that want and need to be connected, guiding, leading and following people that want to succeed. It’s also part of the challenge staying human through the Internet, because technology changes, people don’t.

Make use of Social Media to change the world and don’t let Social Media make use of you. Welcome to the era of people, Social Media evolves from a technologically/digitally-driven concept to a more Human approach, focused on the right thing creating value to the world.

How would you use Social Media in order to change your “particular world”?

Photo credit: Ecopreneurist.

I still thinking in what I firmly believe is the way towards a new communication approach. Human Media, something tells me that I’m not mistaken. You.

The Beginning

The purpose of Human Media isn’t to treating people as machines that will obey to our actions check-in on Foursquare, doing a RT or tagging you on Facebook.

No, Human Media is born from human interactions that happen through the Social Web.

Human Interactions

Human interactions are part of Human Media because it allows us to create online bridges – call it engagement if you wish – among businesses and people. This is what really makes possible a more  human communication and starts the spark of light through resonance and attunement, it’s something that you should do slowly, in an authentic way and with transparency. Remember that we’re very good at recognizing honest signals, nut we’re even better on recognizing the ones that not. ¿Why is so delicate this process? It is easy, because there’re people at the other side of the spectrum.

Interactive Helping-Points

We’re not advocating that you should invent a complete new way to market, communicate and do business. No, it would be hard, heavy, painful aug inefficient, I suggest that you should benefit form the “interactive helping-points” that are already set up.

Guess what are the “interactive helping-points“:

• Practices: PPC, SEO, SEM, SMM, SMO, SM.
• Areas: Web development, design management, Community innovation, Community leadership, tech-hunting, entrepreneurship, New Media.
• Platforms: Twitter, Foursquare, SCVNGR, Pinterest, Instagram Path, Get glue, Yelp, Stumble upon.
• Tools: Twisprout, Timely, Scoop.it, Badgeville, Let’s luch, card munche, Skype, Flowtown, TrackUR.
• APPs: Boxcar, Evernote, Pulse, NetNews Wire, Live Share, Zite, G-Whizz, etc.
• Mediums: online – offline, extending the relationship-interaction communication to the real world and vice versa.

Human Media acts as an amplifier for all this aspects, it does so empowering human relations through interpersonal abilities and technological skills focused on how people is inspired and moved by human interactions, values, attitude and leadership.

Using Human Media

When you use Human Media, you’re talking with people instead of software or technological devices. In other words, you’re staying human. Something slightly different of what occurs on Social Media, usually focused on social platforms relevance and how it uses people, not the way round. It sounds weird, but it’s just like that. As an example you only have to keep an eye on Facebook and rapidly you’ll understand of what I’m talking about.

Everybody wants to be connected and emotionally “touched,” we look for way to connect with what we want and who, even on the Internet.

Photo credit: Patents 4 life.

Here you have some practices that help to explain the phenomenon of Human Media and how it leverages the Social Web through Human Business Interactions.

Human Media Works

- Human relationships are the core: When I started in New Media, it was early 2008. At the beginning, I didn’t care about making a sale or doing business. What mattered to me was becoming known by a lot of people and it doesn’t mean just introducing myself, if that is all, how many people can you meet on the Social Web on a daily basis?

I started building relationships with people I have things in common, sharing information and thoughts, reading contributions from other people and commenting on them, highlighting people who were doing work that I thought mattered. All of this brought me closer to them, then from time to time I was reaching out to these people to see how things were going. Suddenly, among other things I found myself working on a New York Healthcare company’s social media project, being appointed social media adviser, for a London-based agency, blogging for the number one social media resources site and being hired to speak in countries such as Mexico, Australia or the US. It was simple, I just did one thing, being and remaining human on the Internet.

- The new thing It’s about people: When we launch an online strategy we must look at people, feelings and behaviors and not figures, numbers or stats. Everybody wants to make a quick sale and leave, that’s not how it’s working today. First we must connect creating resonance and then building a relationship based on trust, care, credibility and commitment, then people will not only buy from you, but they will also tell their friends that they should buy from you.

- Human Business rather than Social Business: Businesses are not people and people are not businesses. When we work in projects as for example we worked on Amnesia Ibiza, we don’t focus on the transactions – they happen eventually – we focus in how people interact with the people who is making the engagement and most importantly we focus on how people react when is in the club, then then only thing we do is connecting with them in persona and using the social platforms to take them where they want.

- Electrify the interaction: When you interact with people, connectiveness should arise. The best way to make this happen is giving total freedom to your staff to connect. Guidelines are ok, but are ok just for platforms and tools procedures, no human interactions, don’t be a robot.

- Human simplicity: Look at IBM, Apple, Google, Zappos or Starbucks, they keep connection and interaction simple, accessible and authentic because they know that this is the key.

- Human Branding: Brands such as Coca-Cola show and demonstrate how a brand can be humanized. The emphasis on values and feelings such as happiness, nostalgia, joy…not only this, but they share their successes as well as their failures, which undoubtedly fosters community and makes them more human and appealing.

- Human Leader: I spend more than 60% of my time interacting with people, answering emails, responding tweets, connecting and expanding relations on linkedin, commenting on other blogs, also answering comments on my blog, through Google + and of course, taking the relationship to the real world. The more I interact and connect with people, the more “lucky” I am. I confident for going throughout the 70%.

Thoughts? Do you have more Human Media practices to add?

Photo credit: ChristIAM blog.

Human media wouldn’t be possible without New Media, which has revolutionized the way we market, communicate and do business. As an example, we are still using the telephone, post and TV but it is not working as effectively as it did before. Instead, we use Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Google Plus, Foursquare, Youtube, Spotify, LinkedIn, in different ways for different reasons, with different people from different places, cultures and backgrounds.

We Are New Media

New Media converts us into authors, publishers, protagonists, leaders, role models, lobbyists, affiliates, middlemen and information exchange points. New Media offers us a blank sheet where we can draw the lines of our personal brand, the way we want to communicate and market our company, the business strategy of our Startup or the actions that will take our small business over into the next year. New Media is only showing us that everything we do to create change depends solely on us.

User generated content is widespread on the Web, there are posts from people that get more visits than the most important current affairs sites.

So What?

So what’s happening here and now? Due to the disruption of Social Media and the opportunity New Media affords us, we need a redesigned model that focuses on the right thing, the most powerful tool on earth, people. The need for a more humanized media, the need for Human Media.

Photo credit: Kexino

Allow me to point out that when you listen, understand, respond, build relationships and connect emotionally, you are being human, not social. The social media challenge is to get back to human nature.

It seems that Social Media is about technology, APPs, platforms and Tools. Let’s be clear, all of this is brilliant when it humanizes processes and creates connectivity in the real world; when it supports the backwards transfer from 2.0 to 1.0 and vice versa. What I mean is that Social Media, as it is, won’t change the history of humanity, but it’s very probable that what’s happening with the help of Social Media, could actually bring about change through human interactions.

What say you? Photo credit: Mothetrip.

When Nothing Else Matters

On Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Digg or Reddit – more and more brands and marketing professionals dedicate their time to publishing, without a response (or chance to give one), without feelings or coherence, without worrying about the people beyond an artificial platform. They are not here to generate change, to make something happen, to mark the difference or add value to what you are doing. Not to mention helping you to achieve what you are aiming for…no, oh no. The only thing they are looking for is interrupting your smooth trajectory, your communication, your human interactions, your way of seeing and achieving things.

Artificial Is Not Cool

What matters is not your Facebook or Twitter account, your LinkedIn Profile or your Foursquare check-ins. These won’t come to you and buy your products, they won’t tell it to their friends, nor will they become your loyal clients. I really doubt that they would reserve a table for you at your favorite restaurant or buy a flight ticket for your next trip. I have a hard time believing that they will make you laugh, cry or fall in love at first sight, or at second.

Don’t Just Be Pure Substance

The difference between interrupting and communicating lies in the lack of response from brands, as they are not willing to reply to any comments. BAD! A conversation can’t happen without any interlocutor, without knowing that there’s a voice at the other end, someone who listens and allows you to connect and build long-lasting relationships that go beyond technology. By not taking this into consideration, you lock yourself in a room full of people, which in fact looks empty to you as there’s no way to chat or create resonance. It’s like a one-way street with no communication. Just a sender and a receiver. Purely insubstantial.

Welcome to the disruption era – this gives us the opportunity to make use of the new media to transmit our values, abilities, emotions and knowledge through the Internet. And this opportunity is Human Media.

Photo credit: tusharthinks.com

Human Media goes deeper than 3.0 and makes it possible for a company to offer products or services that meet the clients’ expectations. How? Simply because the clients realize that they have someone to connect with at the other end of the channel, they find common means to communicate and be listened to.

This is your opportunity to connect people and communities, build relationships, generate loyalty and be involved in human interactions, all this on the base of gaining great relevance and reach. Doesn’t that sound brilliant?

First of all, let’s define the fundamentals of Human Media. There are 10 fundamentals, which most of the times are interrelated, complement or support each other. They are presented in a chronological order, so as for you to easily identify the relationships between them.

The Human Media Fundamentals

Social Media…

…is the root of Human Media. This might look like a reversed process, a paradox, as it is generally known that social communications should derive from human interactions. Maybe this has been the mistake: using technology and social media means of communication to select, categorize and label communities. The connection should be made based on human values.

Allow me to point out that when you listen, understand, respond, build relationships and connect emotionally, you are being human, not social. The social media challenge is take back to the human nature.

Disrupt Media

The interaction between Social Media and Human Media has started here and now. We live in an world of information overload and this saturation is already reaching the Social Media environment; not because there are too many people using it, but due to the way they are using it. The hype, the “social media experts”, “Community Manager Seniors” and other products saying “we-are-the-solution-to-all-your-problems” have transformed the opportunity to create connectivity into a “bla, bla” movement.  Noise, many messages sent in the same direction, intrusive messages, “non sexy” robots and predetermined users is what I call disruption media. The eruption of social media as sales pitches, with the wrong goals, which are artificial and strictly commercial have generated a new Social Media breach, which is what once happened to conventional marketing, only with this there is more awareness regarding the matter.

Welcome to the disruption era – this gives us the opportunity to make use of the new media to transmit our values, abilities, emotions and knowledge through the Internet. And this opportunity is Human Media.

The good news is that we’re no longer accepting these agents…what has taken them there won’t get them here, that I know for sure.

New Media

Human media wouldn’t be possible without New Media, which is revolving our everyday lives. As an example, we are almost not using the telephone anymore. Instead, we use Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Google Plus, Foursquare, LinkedIn, in different ways for different reasons.

The New Media is more than an evolved type of communication, as it’s located at the connection point between people and information/innovation technologies. I can’t call it the revolution of communication either, even though it has broken most of the traditional broadcast models – can’t even mention the TV, newspapers or radio here, as they are not a means of communication. How could they be, given that they never facilitate an interaction, feedback or any type of expression rights from the message recipient? New Media is the re-evolution, as it is an evolution that has revolutionized the ways of communicating both between people and businesses.

New Media converts us into authors, publishers, protagonists, leaders, affiliates, connectors and information exchange points. New Media offers us a blank sheet where we can draw the lines of our personal brand, the way we want to communicate and market our company, the business strategy of our Startup or the actions that will take our small business over to the next year. New Media is only showing us that everything we do depends on us.

Human Conceptualization

We are now thriving to make every interaction as human as possible. The key now is to stay human while still making use of the Internet. The human conceptualization of the processes helps us better understand the online platforms and tools in order to generate the WOW! effect. This is part of the Human Media strategy: create credibility, trust and resonance. By simply understanding the key concept – stay human – we will be able to create a fundamental change in the way we relate to other people within interactive environments.

Human Integration

This is the tactical part of Human Media, how to stop being a robot, advice, recommendations and experiences that will help you to emotionally connect.

Human Branding

The brands’ focus is radically changing, now brands are like us, act like us, dress-up, eat, criticize, complain, have fun and connect like we do. Nowadays, brands are more human than ever, they undertake a process called Human Branding. This is translated into a new type of communication: Human Media.

The human side of brands will be soon reaching a tipping point: we’ll stop talking about brands, but people, feelings, emotions, histories and abilities.

Businesses have finally understood who are their most valuable assets: the people. This is why their efforts are concentrated towards generating positive emotions, both internally and externally.

In the case of companies, the way to integrate this change into their business model is called Human Business. In order to be able to interact through Human Media, the way of connecting/thinking/functioning must suffer a great change. It’s something imminent, though you are welcome to simply stick to your Social Media strategy and only change when you have no remedy left; though it will then cost you more time, money and effort.

Human Leader

This concept refers to all the people who use the web in order to add a human touch to their business and lead communities with transparency, honesty, resonance, charisma and authentic relationships. Human Leaders (HL) understand the importance of this change and use it to build a sustainable future.

The HL inspires and leads through the web. He’s not a robot, he’s a vivid human being.

We’re basing this idea on years of experience as hybrids made of analogic and digital components, combined with the understanding of the people and the business. We can tell you how and what to do, but you would still need to make an effort to apply the formula to your business.

We’ve discovered that people who understand how to build relationships through the Social Web, know how to make businesses work by using the same knowledge.

The Human Ecosystem

This is where the inertia comes into action. The Human Ecosystem is aiming to create an area of relationships and human interactions on the web, taking advantage of the resources, benefits, peculiarities and profiles of each participant.

- Channels: PPC, SEO, SEM, SMM, SMO, SM, Web Development, Design, Innovation, Community, Tech, Entrepreneurship, New Media…

- Platforms: Twitter, Soundcloud, Foursquare, SCVNGR, LinkedIn, WordPress, Google +, GetGlue, Yelp, Stumble Upon, Slideshare, Ustream, Flickr…

- Tools: Workflowy, Timely, Scoop It!, Storify, Badgeville, Let’s Lunch, Prezi, Skype, Flowtown, TrackUR, Posterous, claim.io, Social sharing, Radian 6…

- APPs: Boxcar, Evernote, Instagram, Bump, Whatsapp, Latitude, LiveShare, Notepad, Pulse, Google APPs…

- Media: Online and Offline. Precisely, this is the way: interconnecting both realities.

Human Business Interactions

The process of creating interactive bridges between people and brands as a result of taking the online warmth to the offline relationships also works the other way round: the business model based on emotional touch points. The Human Business interactions make use of all the Social Media resources (Human Ecosystem: channels, media, platforms and tools) in order to apply the emotional side of relationships on to the business framework.

This is one of the most important Human Media fundamentals, the way that Internet is backing-up the human relationships in order to generate business opportunities.

Your mileage could be different

These are the Human Media fundamentals, where human interactions, people, Internet and businesses start to make sense. I am confident that the concept will build-up, expand, generate ne concepts, but still, this is where it starts from. Some of the fundamentals might be useful to you, some not. Don’t worry, we are in a permanently reinventing state, take advantage of it.

Human Media is the way to understand how people make use of the information technology and interact on the Social Web.

Why wait for someone to award you permission? Implement Human Media into your strategy today, simply do it.

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Thank you Odosdesign for helping me draw this map and Oana Damian for her always valuable contributions.