At the recent SOBCon07 conference in Chicago, we met so many great Personal Publishers. We had all dropped our business cards into a big bowl. As we left the conference, we each picked a business card at random out of the bowl; that person is supposed to be our blogging buddy. And we picked Connie Reece from Texas, who actually has two blogs; Every Dot Connects and the humorous Blogabillies, Southern Writers Scribblin Stories and Livin Large!

Connie explains,"At gut level, most people in advertising, marketing and public relations know that people are tired of being talked to. What people want--what they're now demanding--is dialogue.

Communications professionals should be at the leading edge of this transition to conversational marketing, but few practitioners have actually developed the social media skills to help their clients, customers and consumers join the global conversation.

The folks who make up Every Dot Connects no longer simply direct messages at audiences. What we specialize in is making connections with people. We take a different approach--one that does not fall back on the stale "we're excited to announce" press release or the glossy print ad featuring anorexic models or the art-as-entertainment TV commercial.

Traditional media--communications, information and entertainment--have not been replaced. But they are being augmented by what is referred to as social media, a participatory form of media in which the reader, listener or viewer becomes a co-creator and co-publisher of content.

Every Dot Connects is a social media consortium, a group of independent media practitioners who are passionate about using new technologies to build bridges between people and ideas and causes. Whether working individually or as a team, we help clients navigate through the rapids of emerging media streams."

So we'll be checking in with Connie from time to time to see what she is talking about and encourage you to stop by her blogs also!