Take a moment and imagine your life without interacting with anyone or anything.

Life would be pretty boring, right? You’d probably be feeling deserted, trapped in a bubble, a stranger to society – very unfulfilling to say the least.

Without interacting with family, friends or co-workers you’d probably feel lost, lonely and have a daunting fear of the unknown.

Come back to reality now.

Granted, we all don’t have the perfect lives filled with the most perfect relationships. So yes, we can still feel these unwanted feelings at times even with human interaction. In times like these, we need someone to talk to, to make us laugh, to understand us for who are, and to give us a sense of belonging.

In today’s day in age, there is something that can help us that just a few decades ago was non-existent and that is the emergence of technology.  Sure, we find that technology is evolving faster than we could have ever imagined and we need to grasp its presence and utilize it to the best of our abilities right now. Social media is the prime example. It is a major way that people stay in touch today and it is in no way disappearing any time soon.

When developing the concept for The HR Social, four simple words resonated in my mind. These words became the cornerstones of what The HR Social is based on and how it will grow and succeed in the future.

The four cornerstones: Connect. Engage. Discuss. Educate.

Connect

At the forefront of being social is connecting with others. We believe that having a blog community such as The HR Social will provide a unique experience for visitors that will allow them to take the first step into forming relationships with likeminded individuals.

No matter how many people we are connected to already in our lives, we have to realize that the best connections we make stem from the interactions we have with others when we least expect them to happen.

Engage

In order to build and sustain a community, we must engage fellow members and make an effort to stay involved. An easy way to engage others and to become engaged it to share something unique about yourself. Some items you can share include fun facts about your life, your hobbies or your career.

You don’t need to share your entire life story up front but just enough to have someone else in the community comment on what makes you who you are. The stronger the engagement, the better the chance for a more rewarding community experience.

Discuss

Once you have connected and engaged with members of the community, there will be unlimited opportunities for discussion. Given that The HR Social is an HR and Social Media themed blog community, most of the topics will be focused on Human Resources and Social Media. The HR Social is not going to stop there. We want to make sure that, as with any other social event that you attend, that we allow for interesting off topic discussions. These topics could include anything from where you are from, your favorite foods to your unique, special talent or favorite TV show.

We must not underestimate the power of discussing what matters most to us. In order to make the most of our experience, we should not ignore opportunities to chime in to someone’s post. The more you invest into the community and in conversation with others, the more you will be able to take away from The HR Social experience.

Educate

After starting a discussion or merely giving input into another member’s discussion, we believe that you will be able to share that information and educate others. One of the most rewarding experiences in life is teaching someone something and seeing the effect that you had on that person when he or she succeeds. Our goal with The HR Social is to provide the community where its members can go forth and educate family, friends, co-workers or perfect strangers in areas where they need answers, tips, or best practices on certain topics where they may lack the knowledge, skills and experience.

When trying to measure our return on investment for our membership in The HR Social community, we can reflect on the personal and business relationships that will be made. Once members have the opportunity to connect, engage, discuss and educate others, we feel that they will come back on a regular basis and become valuable assets to the foundation of a strong social community and with that attract more and more members with whom they can connect and with that, the cycle starts over.

Join The HR Social Community

Being a member of a community where we can feel a sense of belonging helps us become more confident in ourselves and in our pursuit to succeed in our personal and professional lives. I don’t think anyone out there would want to feel lonely and deserted if they were not able to connect with others in some way, shape or form each day.

We are urging you to register in The HR Social community and contribute when you can to our community discussions. Make the connections that will lead to engaging your peers and discussing the topics that matter most to you and go forth and educate your network.

Outside of The HR Social, connect with us and the members in our community through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to take the first step now. It will one day be the one step that you look back on and realize that in that particular moment, that connection was meant to be.

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