Sometimes you hear or read something, and just think yes exactly that is what I would have said if  I was more articulate.

Watching Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter talk about how Twitter has changed the way she gets news and interacts with different interests groups, made me think that.

On the video Professor Slaughter says:

Twitter has changed the way I consume news … Social media allows you to construct different communities … On twitter you can be part of all of those. … Create customised information communities. Getting real time links to articles you would never otherwise see … Having your private CNN, you know who to follow and then you are immediately there.

Actually my first though was “Yes, she really does get it!”

So many people even those admired for “doing social” do not understand that to get full value of the possibilities that the internet opens up for us, we need to interact with others.

We should not be afraid to follow more than xxx people. We should not think my public profile is xxx , so I should only follow people who work in this area. Thinking of social media as just another communication tool is closing yourself off.

I have followed Professor Slaughter on Twitter for a good while now (and am proud that she follows me back). So I knew she understood, but was not quite aware just how much she “gets” the impact of social media.

Here is the video:

If you are interested in Professor Slaughter’s work as part of the Obama I administration you may want to have a look at this event which was held in London last year:

‘Delivering Change Effectively: The Obama Administration and 21st Century Diplomacy’

Jonathan D. Algar has posted part of the event here on Soundcloud.