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I hear from a lot of business people who ask me if spending time on social media is worth the time. The people who say, “I don’t care if someone I know just took a shower or what they ate for breakfast,” are the folks who haven’t spent much time trying to figure out what the buzz about social media is all about, and deep down it is much deeper than understanding what your office mate had for breakfast. Others indicate that they have too little time to be screwing around with social media. Their day is as busy as it can be without adding something else to it. Too busy with email perhaps? that ubiquitous looming monster that resides in your desktop or laptop computer that you had not time for until you had time for it and now it makes up the greater part of your day?

Social Media is an expansive term that has many parts. What you do with social media largely has to do with your view of how the world works. There are still people who communicate using the postal system. For some types of communication this method works very well. My mother still sends letters and cards. I have to admit that a card or letter does have some function for certain types of communication, even for me…like sending a letter to my mother.

But social media, to me is merely a progression in the evolutionary life of communication. I think at some point we will be communicating through these trusted networks of people. my networks will talk to your network and we will spread news far and wide. If I am interested in College Football, I will follow, network or socialize with people who like the same thing I do. We either do it in person or via a network. Critics will say how terrible it is that you loose face-to-face time by networking only on the computer. But it is the only way to communicate and develop a relationship (albeit a cyber one) with someone that perhaps you didn’t previously know.

So if you are the person who says you don’t have time, it’s not for you, or it’s just a trend, I invite you to open your mind. Here is your assignment:

1. Ask someone you know that is in the business world how they are using social media. Have them show you your Facebook page or Twitter profile or other social media tool.

2. Sign up for Facebook, develop a profile and “friend” a few people. Scare the crap out of your teenage kids and “friend” them on Facebook. You will be entertained by how they act when they know you can eavesdrop on their world. If you don’t do anything else with social media, this will create new dynamics in the household.

3. Find someone you know who twitters effectively. Sign up for twitter, and then check out what they are doing. You will be amazed. Signing up only takes a few minutes. Also check out twitters new guide for business. This 101 site will help you an it just launched yesterday.

Good Luck. You can follow me on Twitter at @bnedguy