Ello. The newest, greatest social network that’s hoping to supplant Facebook. I hope they succeed. But what is it? (what’s this have to do with real estate? Not much, other than real estate is in part a social business, and ello is social.)

I’m still figuring Ello out, and it’s a bit fun to be in the early days of something new and somewhat undefined. The loneliness there is a bit different from the loneliness I perceive on Google +; to me, Ello is new while G+ is tried and mostly failed.

But really, I signed up in order to further my lifelong battle to be thought of as Jim Duncan from Charlottesville rather than Jim Duncan the weatherman. 

Some thoughts I wrote on Ello the other day:

I love Twitter. For all the reasons I joined and stayed there. (plus, Tweetbot is my favorite app).

I hate Facebook, but I grudgingly use it for three reasons:
1 – RealCrozetVA’s facebook page is depended upon by the community – more than half of the “likers” are from this immediate geographic area.
2 – One group on FB is immensely valuable.
3 – I get decent engagement at FB because that’s where the masses are.

I wanted G+ to work. But it hasn’t.

So what hole will Ello fill? I like the cleanliness, I like the goal, but I’ve not yet sorted what content I’ll put here that I wouldn’t put elsewhere.

• I could write thoughts for myself, or for a tiny audience.
• I could write stories here that will make it to my blog or my monthly note, which has taken a great deal of my passion, akin to what I do with stories on FB  and Twitter sometimes.

Try it. You might just like it. Why? Because it matters.

We have to stop obsessing over fans and followers and the next new, new thing and get back to using the powerful set of tools we now possess to create meaningful interactions with some of the real people we already have in our lives.

…

To me the message of Ello is pick up the phone and call three people today, comb through your customer list and reach out to five people you should know more about, create a Twitter list of no more than thirty and try to pay attention to what they say this week.

It’s funny – and sad – that we struggle with so many ways to be social.