People do ask me 'What do you do?' after pausing to consider which response to offer I currently go with "I'm a Social Media Practitioner". However I know that this actually gets interpreted as Facebook Facebook, Tweet tweet tweet!

I am sat writing this in Jack Craggs. One of my favourite coffee places in Nottingham city centre. "Am I not your favourite?" I hear Sara Heafford, owner, barista and barber of her palace of necessity respond in mock deep offence! I refrain from favouritism as a Social Media practitioner as each establishment is socially unique but equally awesome. It's this sociability and awesomeness that sets the tone of their audience engagement both on and off-line. Good online presence begins with a natural sociability off-line.

As a social media practitioner my job is to enable the people I encounter in the course of my own media practice and story telling with the world at large to realise their social potential to engage translating that in to an online extension of their off-line uniqueness, sociability and awesomeness! Once they see the potential and commit to taking that journey in to digital my job title changes. I become an Internet adventurer and explorer with them taking on the role of digital tourist, digital traveller and finally to take their own adventure in to the digital wild with the skills to navigate the landscape with confidence.

I never really go away merely let go maintaining a dialogue, that's the social bit for me and to further the journey as technology and platforms evolve and emerge keeping, up with the trends and stories they want to tell. For me I Building networks, engage audiences and look after customers.

Social Business, it's the way forward.

The best project embracing this ethos I see unfolding is Phil Campbell's The Pi Street. Practitioners lead the way.