I've come a long way from DeadJournal

Waaay back in the day (we're talking 9 or 10 years ago) I had a Myspace page and a DeadJournal (much hipper than a LiveJournal) where I would write bad poetry, complain about my boyfriend, and express my general angst. My online friends were the same friends I saw all the time offline and were just as narrowly focused as I was.

After the internet and I both grew up a little bit my roommate convinced me to sign up for Facebook. Facebook seemed so much more grown up than Myspace and allowed me to reconnect with out-of-state relatives and people I went to high school with. I created a Twitter account where my only followers were my coworkers because A) Twitter was pretty new back then and no one else had accounts, and B) I still only thought of social media as one more way to be social with my small circle of friends and acquaintances. It was a private account and I wouldn't let clients follow me since I used it as a place to be humorous and occasionally vent about work-related frustrations.

Only in the last couple years have I started utilizing social media for professional development. Once I embraced the idea that Facebook could create communities of brand advocates for business and Twitter could be used to network and build relationships, I dove in and began managing social networks for not only the company I work for but for some of our clients as well. I now give presentations to local Chambers of Commerce and small business groups about Facebook basics, why businesses should bother with social media, and what's on the horizon in terms of new ways to connect as a B2B or B2C company.