Social Networking Facilitator

Connecting People and Building Relationships through Story and Interaction

Hearing about Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, Flickr, Podcasts, MySpace and You Tube and wondering what it all means to you? How about Plurk, LinkedIn, SocialConnect, Qik, Ustream? It seems there’s something new every week. The landscape is constantly changing, but I can help you find the right tools to increase your online presence and your real world impact. Think your customers, clients and volunteers are not interested in social networking?

· Facebook’s fastest growing segment is people over 35. There are more than 200 million active users on Facebook and half of them log on at least once a day.

· Twitter is used more by people aged 45-50 than any other age group, followed closely by 25-34 year olds. More than 9 million people are on Twitter and it’s growing exponentially.

· A Pew study in 2008 showed 42% of internet users have read blogs, and researchers speculate the number is higher because people think of some blogs as regular websites.

Humans crave connection in real life and the online world is becoming much the same. The internet is moving beyond being merely information, to connecting people through their stories. Expecting people to use search engines to find you is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The web is evolving into a more specialized arena where relationships drive traffic. You may have heard “content is king,” and content is essential. It’s the starting place. But these days it’s connection that drives traffic to that content.

Story and relationship are becoming more important in today’s world, overtaking the recitation of facts, which used to be enough. In “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink he writes, “Finding facts wasn’t always so easy… But today facts are ubiquitous, nearly free, and available at the speed of light... When facts become so widely available and instantly accessible, each one becomes less valuable. What begins to matter more is the ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact.”

People are craving connection today, and are willing to interact with individuals, groups and businesses that provide a quality experience. I want to help you find the best way to do that - online or otherwise. Traditional marketing cannot be discounted, but new media has to be part of any savvy plan.

You already know how to be social, you just need to learn the rules and the culture of this new medium, and mix them with the traditional.

email me at patsy@patsyterrell.com