DonMcNay.com: Facebook & Other Social Networking Sites

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Facebook & Other Social Networking Sites

Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites.

. I always prided myself on staying at the cutting edge of technology but social networking snuck up on me. Not anymore.

I’m on Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin and Twitter. It is where the world is going and not for teenagers anymore. The majority of my contacts are baby boomers.

I prefer Facebook to anything else.

At first, I limited my activity to posting my finished column but then started mentioning what I am working on

People started sending me ideas and reference material. I received a lot of ideas for a recent column from my Facebook community and their input made it stronger.

It is like having a water cooler with 556 participants.

I’ve reconnected lost friends from every period of my life and communicate with people who I wouldn’t get to know otherwise.

As I started writing this, a friend posted on Facebook that her cat had run away.

Retrieving wayward cats is an area of expertise.

I sent her some tips of what to do and an hour later she wrote and told me she had her cat back.

Although I have known this friend for over a decade, I would not have known about her cat. Since my expertise in cat fetching is not widely advertised, she would not have contacted me without Facebook.

My philosophy on internet friends is similar to the non internet world. Openness is a big part of who I am. Thus, I take almost all comers.

That explains why Newt Gingrich is on my Facebook list.

I’m on Ernie Fletcher’s too. Since I am on Newt and Ernie’s lists, they obviously take all comers too.

I’ve been on four different plane flights (between Atlanta and Washington) with Newt and he has never spoken to me. Now that we are Facebook friends, maybe he will next time.

I exclude porn sites, links that look commercial or those that want me to endorse a candidate. I welcome candidates and campaign sites (and get a lot of information from them) as long as linking is not assumed as a candidate endorsement.