I just read an article about how Ashton Kutcher and CNN had a friendly race to see who could get 1 million twitter followers first… you can bet that CNN thought they’d beat him by a landslide.  I’ll give you the link to the article in the P.P.S.

But guess what? Ashton won.

He gets that social media isn’t the same old CNN media — it’s, well, SOCIAL.  It’s about connecting with people on a more personal level, interacting, not just reporting the news.

This reinforced a conversation I had this morning with Rebecca Shapiro (on Twitter, @RebeccaShapiro) talking about how the world has gone flat again.

Until 1492, the general belief was that the world was flat.  Christopher Columbus bumped into America and blew that idea out of the water.  *Poof!* reality is turned on it’s head and the world is round.

2004 – the term “Web 2.0″ is coined and the social media emerges like a phoenix from the ashes of the dot-com collapse.  (I’m generalizing here, don’t quote this as gospel)  This is when Rebecca and I have decided the world flattened out again.

Before Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, people couldn’t connect as easily and instantly from all points on the globe.  I got an email from and artist in Australia today who has been enjoying my blog… I just started blogging in June and I’ve never been to Australia so I’m pretty sure social media is responsible for the connection.

With this change in the way we can access people, interact and relate — we need to change the way we do business. No longer can you just put something online and assume customers will come to you.  They have more choices than ever.  They want to know, like and trust the people they do business with.  Talk to.  Social Medialize with.

And that’s why I think Ashton won the race. He was live-streaming, talking, reading tweets and getting to know us.  CNN told us to follow them so they could win.  I turn to CNN for my news but I spend 100 times more time on Twitter I can assure you.

So why am I telling you all of this? To get you to think about how you are working your business.  How are you interacting with others, networking and getting connections?

Thankfully you don’t have to golf and belong to a country club to succeed anymore, you can sit in your pjs, online and tweet away!  I’d be sunk, like my golf ball in a deep lake, if I had to rely on the “good old boys” way of networking because I have interest in golf.  But give me a keyboard and I have some things to say!

But for now, that’s all I have to say about that!  Have a creative day!

~ Tara

P.S.  Rebecca is the founder of a very cool onlin community for women entrepreneurs.  (Not just artists, although she is one)  Check it out at: www.thesavvycollaborative.com

P.P.S.  (Click here to read the article)