The other day I mentioned in my post Social Media - See How Easy It Is some of the services available out there on the net. I just came across a better explanation over at boomthis.com so thought it appropriate to mention it here as it addresses the issue of whether it is of use to us as baby boomers. Here is an excerpt;

‘Dan says he was once given the following explanation for Social Networking sites, which he likened to attending a party. While there, you move around the room, talking to people about your interests and theirs, where you grew up, what your sign is and so on, but you are not really closing the deal in these situations. This is a time to schmooze, to get to know people. Something more serous like job opportunities or networking possibilities may develop in the future but for now you are content with just chatting and laying a sort of social groundwork.’

The article by Teresa K. Flatley does a great job of explaining Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. I myself have tried Twitter and been amazed at the growth in followers. How beneficial is it? - I really don’t know as yet as there seems to be a movement on Twitter at the moment to pick up as many followers as possible, even if those people have nothing to do with your core interest. Anyway, please pop over to read the full story atboomthis.com

Just on the heals of my last post I wanted to put a couple of youtube videos that discuss various Social Media. There is so much information out there that can guide you on the ‘how to’ of each of these media.

So please look at a couple of these videos and see what you may be interested in/want to use and go for it. So here they are;

Stumble Upon…

Squidoo…

Twitter…

Go for it…..and have fun.

I love technology and gadgets. I’ve always loved Mac computers and think the iPhone is the bees knees. I couldn’t imagine life without the whole internet scene either…..BUT…..I just want it to work like it should! I don’t want to know how it works - I just want to have some fun doing it and getting my desired end result.

The whole social media scene has been one that I have kept at arms length up until now. Because I didn’t really ‘get it’, I was a bit intimidated by the whole thing. Also social media is touted as a young persons game, and me, even as a 60s boomer should best stay away from things that I just wouldn’t ‘get’.

I first delved into this mystic area when I installed Stumble Upon. Its been great. You just pick a few categories that interest you in the install process and thats it…. an icon appears in its tool bar and when you want to surf the net for say travel you click on the stumble image and you are brought to a new travel related site.

I then opened a digg account but didn’t do much with it as I didn’t seem to pick an idea that seems popular and has a mass digg appeal. If you have a site I can see the power this site would have. I think its a matter of studying what people do digg and then bring that style to your site.

Next I went to Squidoo. Now this must be the easiest way to have a web presence. Its a simple step by step process and voila….you have your own site. Just add content and you can be an immediate expert in your area of interest. You can add pictures and even video with one click. Just amazing.

Twitter. I mentioned the other day that I refused to even look at it for years. Well 6 days ago I thought ‘what the heck’ and opened a Twitter account with the username of ‘ima60sboomer’. What I actually do with it I am not sure as yet, but in 6 days i have over 200 followers. Now thats no record but for someone that has never had an auto responder or collected emails to ‘make the list’ I have been blown away by the result.

So for you boomers out there who may be holding back trying some of this stuff - don’t. Its not that hard. Integrating it all and moving onto facebook, having your own youtube account etc is still down the track for me but its a more enjoyable process than I thought it would be.

This was something that I wasn’t ever going to do! But I have given into it and finally opened a twitter account.

Its easier than I thought and after 4 days have managed 53 followers. Surprised me somewhat! As I have restricted my interest to ‘baby boomers’ I dont think I am going to break any records as far as followers go.

I am getting more from it though. As its boomer related there are a number of people I have come across with the same interests etc and seeing what they do online, ie websites and their interests has been great.

Of course there is the flipside where some individuals just bombard you with their latest product etc but if it gets too bad its easy to just ‘unfollow’ - problem solved.

So I would recommend it to anyone out there that hasn’t started. Happy twittering….