I was thinking today about how we used to communicate before computers and email and blogs and cell phones and text messages and social networks.  In general, we had 3 big options:

Option 1: Walk up to a person and open our traps.  That person would then open theirs and so on, and so on. Presto. An in-person conversation. If you were lucky, you would avoid an argument and end with a nice hand shake or a warm hug.

Option 2: Write a letter on a piece of paper – most appropriate when traveling or after receiving that “great” gift from Grandma (Dear Nana – Thank you so much for the peach polyester sweater with the pink elephants on it.  I will wear it to high school every day.  Love you!).  You actually had to sit down, think about your thoughts and either write them exactly as they appeared in your head or utilize a pencil with an eraser to correct bad spelling and grammar on the fly.  Address the envelope, stamp it, fold your letter, insert, seal and drop it in the mailbox.

Option 3: That  involved the telephone – not the one that travels with us no matter where we go. This one might have had a rotary dial and could have been the Princess model, with hopefully a nice long twisted cord so you could stretch it across the room and behind the door to the basement in order to chat with the boy that drove you absolutely crazy at school.  You couldn’t even leave a message on a machine – if no one answered, you tried again a little later hoping they would have arrived back home.  But you would keep trying and eventually, you would have an actual conversation with the person you wanted to talk to.

Now, while all of these options are still available, we have become a very different society, where people can be reached pretty much any place they are and if they are not there, we can leave them a message to force them to get back to us ASAP.

If you call someone on their cell and reach their voice mail, you can always send them a text – maybe they are in a meeting and can’t take a call but can send you a TTYL response on their mobile.  Of course, if you don’t get a response to your text, you can send them a Tweet or post a comment to their Facebook wall and see if you can spur a witty answer.

Maybe you will post a blog with the hopes that they read it and post a comment about how stunningly intelligent you are.

Maybe you will send them an IM – while it looks like they are there, they haven’t looked at that window in a long time so don’t get back to you right away.

Bottom line is that while we have many more options to communicate with the people important to us, it still requires a lot of effort to match the right vehicle to the right person at the right time to create a conversation.

This lesson can easily be applied to companies and brands trying to communicate with busy consumers, who’s attention is getting pulled in 100 different directions at once.  There is no single answer that will apply to all your customers and actually it will require a good combination of a lot of different tools to reach each consumer the way they want to be communicated with.

Add to this the challenge of crafting the right message – do you simply tell them about the latest 2 for 1 offer at your restaurant or do you ask them which dish or red wine would they most want to see added to your menu?

The answer very well may be that you do both so that you connect with consumers who just want to hear about the latest deal while also connecting with those that want to have a two-way conversation with you.  The most important piece of this is that the conversation has to be both ways – you must have the ability to respond to consumers who post comments or questions so that they feel engaged with you.

I experienced this first hand last week after reading a great article about Ford Motor Company and Scott Monty (@ScottMonty), their head of Social Media.  While my family has not purchased a Ford in over 35 years, I have read good things about the company’s products and wanted to learn more. I started following Scott and read a post from him about recent positive results for the company.

I @ replied to him that I thought this was great news and also that my parents were considering purchasing a new Ford.  Shortly after, I got an @ reply from him saying thank you and that he loved to hear it.  I was amazed that someone at a big brand like Ford would actually reply to me.   When I looked at the Tweets on his profile, they ranged from informational (great new rebates available) to inquisitive (who is thinking about buying a new car with the new gov’t rebate program?) to totally conversational including replies to other users.  The range of types of conversations in Scott’s profile allows him to connect with a wider user base with an ever wider range of communication needs.

My advice to brands hoping to expand their presence and impact in the Social Media marketplace is to remember that there is no one simple solution to connecting to consumers.  Try a bunch of different programs and communication types across a wide range of elements.

While we had few choices in the past when we wanted to talk to others, the options are now endless so don’t give up if the first thing you try doesn’t seem to work.  Each one you try will teach you a lot about your potential customers and a lot about yourself.  And soon enough, you will find the combination that works best for your customer base and makes them feel truly connected to you not simply because they once bought your product but because you took the time to engage them.  While very challenging, it is very doable and very rewarding once you crack the nut.