I recently received an e-mail from a friend of mine telling me how "cool" it is that my job encourages me to get involved in social media. She tells me she's become so involved that she may have to retire (at the ripe old age of 26) in order to blog, Facebook, Twitter and Plurk full time.
This is one of the reasons I resisted joining Facebook for so long â€" people become obsessed with it. I spend enough time online as it is and was a bit concerned I would end up sleeping and eating in front of my laptop.
Although I do have a personal blog I create for a select group of friends, I didn't understand the concept behind Twitter. Was this not the same as MSN Messenger? Was it necessary to have another method of communicating to friends? With my blogging and e-mailing, I'm fairly certain they hear enough from me as it is.
Over the last two weeks I've joined them all! Facebook, I must admit, has been a lot of fun. Despite the shock of seeing my high school friends 10 years older, I definitely understand how connections are made and how useful a tool Facebook has become. As a newcomer to the business of PR, my contact base has been growing steadily due to my online connections.
As far as Twitter is concerned, it doesn't seem to be a method of communication that many of my friends have caught on to. The only person I found using this tool lives in Europe, and as I mentioned above, has a clear obsession with social media. However, seeing as there are members of the media out there who prefer to be pitched by Twitter alone (as it forces you to be quick and to-the-point) I'm positive it will come in handy as part of my job. In the meantime, I'm sending Twitter invites to my friends in the hopes that they'll jump on the bandwagon. Only time will tell ...
And as for Plurk â€" I am still trying that one out, so watch this space!
~ Stephanie Sayer, Account Coordinator, GCI Canada