The Bridge that Connects Europe and Asia! The Social Bridge! #ls12 #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz

I was recently in Istanbul at the WebIt 2012 conference and was thrilled with my crossing of the Bosporus Bridge.  Interestingly, as the Bosporus strait is the boundary between Europe and Asia, the bridge actually connects two continents.  How cool is this !!!

This bridges takes and connects Asia to Europe.   I immediately thought of social bridging. (Of course, everything reminds me of social !!!!)

Social bridges several different attitudes and positions.

• According to the University of Chicago survey social media bridges race, and ethnic divides
• According to the Social Media Club, Social Media helps to  connect people outside of one’s age group and generation.  A  research project by the Pew Research Centre, U.S., indicated that more senior citizens in the U.S. were logging on to social media sites. Social network usage for Internet users of 74 and older quadrupled between 2008 and 2010, from 4 per cent to 16 per cent, making this age group the fastest growing social media users.
• According to the Leadership Blog, Social is bridging the leadership-development discussion between manager and employee.  It fact is the most transformation change in leadership some say in history!
• With LinkedIn, the bridges between social interaction in companies is greater than ever before.
• Throughout social tools, social is bridging the customer interaction is an amount unheard of in past times.   This is bringing about high client empowerment and innovation from client to company.

Just like that bridge I crossed in Turkey, Social forms a significant social bridge.  What are your thoughts on the Bridging that Social has made on your life or professional career?