A relative I hadn't seen in a while pulled me aside at a funeral and began interrogating me about my family's goings on.

Before finishing, she apologized for her abrupt questioning but said that since my mother died, she didn't have any way to stay in touch with cousins, nieces, and nephews.

I suppose a Facebook page might have solved that problem.

"It''s OK if your audience is quiet," proclaimed social media blogger Maggie McGary.

"Just because someone doesn't retweet your message doesn't mean it didn't have an impact on them, or that they didn't share or pay it forward or be moved to some type of action. Just because we can't include it on our dashboard or spreadsheet doesn't mean it didn't happen or isn't important."

I couldn't have said it any better.

Jamie Notter wondered what's next for social media.

He and his techno buddies may be ready to move on to more creation tasks, but many, many association folks are just now dipping their toes into the social media pool and care more about how to use what currently exists.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Help people learn how to use social media venues appropriately.

2. Devise ways of causing social media use to be as ingrained in people's behavior as watching television shows, listening to music, reading newspapers or magazines, and working (or playing) on computers.

3. Expend greater effort explaining the advantages of social media - for member recruitment, retention, and communication - and the benefits of creating social organizations (and don't be snooty about it).

4. Spend less time lecturing about the superiority of, or absolute necessity of, participation in social media and the need to create social organizations.

5. Continue instruction about how to effectively use social media - don't ignore or belittle beginners.

6. Remind everyone that social media does not replace existing modes of communication - it adds to them.

7. Assist people in identifying the proper social media tools for each situation.

Techies may itch to invent new gizmos for everybody to use, and that can be very helpful. But not everyone knows how to use current social media technology and not everybody has yet been persuaded of its usefulness.

P.S. Always let people post comments on your blog without having to become subscribers or register for social media accounts. Allow people to post with "Name/URL" or "Anonymous." Otherwise, you are limiting the conversation.

Check out Leslie White's advice about insurance for social media content. Tweets, posts, and other social media commentary is public, and associations should be aware of the implicaitons of their utterances.

Kristin Smith, CAE, Executive Director of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), delivered a fanstastic presentation about social media at today's meeting of the Communications SIG of Association Forum of Chicagoland.

Her background as an association executive, rather than a techie, made her comments and observations even more understandable and well-received. Here are some tidbits:

1. Social media must be part of the entire marketing package. It does not exist by itself.

2. Word-of-mouth does not just exist online - it is prompted by offline activity.

3. 92% of consumer purchases are influenced by personal referrals.

4. All audiences do not utilize the same social media devices.

5. Before implementing social media strategies, identify your audiences, select the most appropriate ways to communicate with each of them, and plan on how you want them to act and interact with you.

6. Expect to share your information. If you try to prevent people from getting it, they'll just get it somewhere else.

7. Always be honest and don't misrepresent yourself or your association.

She related how Twitter dramatically increased participation in WOMMA's annual meeting, but cautioned attendees not to assume that every social media venue will work for every association in every situation.

While Twitter may have closed the sale for her annual meeting registrations, direct mail, e-mail, and information related through other venues may have set up the deal. She advised execs to make use of all techniques, and not rely on just one.

She also felt that blogging was losing its luster as a lone social media tool, and that it must be bolstered by other forms of communication. Uh-oh.

What's the point of being with people if you're not talking to them?

Here's a recent example, and another one in a professional setting.

While explaining social media use to event managers at a meeting of the Association of Running Event Directors, the presenter said that some people check their Facebook accounts 20-30 times per day.

One of the attendees couldn't believe that anybody would have time to do that. Another person in the group then admitted to having already visited her Facebook page four times that morning (as far as I could tell, everybody was watching the speakers, so the Facebook user apparently was able to divide attention between the speakers and her blackberry with ease).

What some people may not realize is that they are online all day and probably check email as frequently as people check Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media sites.

Here's an article that recommends entrepreneurs devote 10-20 hours per week to social media activities.

When used properly, it's not a distraction. It's part of the work environment.

If your online post or your voicemail announce your travel or recreation plans, you might as well have invited burglars to your home.

You don't have to share that information with everybody.

Tweets, texts, emails, blogs, and other electronic forms of communication help keep people connected when face-to-face contact is not possible. But these venues are meant to supplement human conversation, not replace it.

People dining "together" fail to speak to one another, as they are too busy texting those not present. Employees e-mail colleagues in adjoining offices rather than talk to them. Beaus chat on cell phones with folks miles away but say nothing to each other, as they stroll hand-in-hand to wherever they are wandering.

Most people - even technology mavens - enjoy personal contact with others (including at face-to-face meetings). I think we need to talk more.

So does David Dudley.

At a recent meeting of the Association of Running Event Directors, in Park Ridge IL, attendees were asked about their experiences with social media.

The group spanned several decades with the majority in their 30s and 40s.

More than half visited Facebook on a regular basis, a few posted reviews on Yelp, and several claimed familiarity with other sites mentioned by the speaker from Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Nobody used Twitter.