Yesterday I posted this in a bit of a rush. My friend Alec Saunders had left me a message, and somehow I got off base and wandered off on a tangent that today doesn't make sense even to me. Thanks and my apologies to another friend, Stuart Henshall, for catching me in the act of babbling nonsense in large part.

Somehow I managed to infer that these two friends in some disagreement, but I don't think they are really. I was rushing and thoughtless, a state I find myself in too often. What Alec and Stuart are both doing is watching Facebook, the apps therein, and voice-related services with a keen eye.

Thanks Stuart for commenting on the first post and making me revisit this. It's the end of a pertty hectic few weeks of work. I'm gearing up for a weekend away to unwind. A quiet Thanksgiving time. My batteries need a bit of a recharge, and this weekend will be good for that.

Like Stuart and Alec, I watch Facebook, although not with the intensity either of them bring to the industry. I had a conversation this morning about what we call socia media or social networking and described how I think that's a flawed term. In business, we use what we call a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. In life, I use my own, homegrown, constantly changing "Ken's Relationship Management" (KRM I suppose) system.

Relationship management is something each of us handles differently. Those of us who are hyper-connected (like Alec, Stuart and I) tend to have a wide variety of tools. For me the tools include - blogs (several), Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook, email, and the phone/Blackberry.

The facets of managing my personal and professional relationships that I'm most attuned to show me that the integration of the phone, especially voice conversations, is growing more important. I've worked in the telecommunications industry for thirty yeras, yet voice conversation went through a period of being minimalized. Email was efficient. IM was quick. Voice led to voice mail, which was inefficient and a time waster. Today, voice conversations are becoming more important. The other online tools are important, but real voice services are becoming more important.

That isn't just me. I've talked to a few colleagues this morning who note the same thing. I think that speaks to the importance that the potential of voice apps of substance on Facebook, and in other social media circles, carries. I think, at a minimum, it says that Facebook and the like are trends to watch. Not just in our personal lives, but as part of our professional lives.

Even those of us who work in large enterprises find a huge overlap in our personal and professional circles that make it important to have tools we like and are comfortable with to manage our circle of relationships.


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