Obama Knows Facebook
We live in some pretty exciting times, technologically speaking. I haven’t picked up a newspaper in years. I don’t watch the news on TV. I get almost 100% of my news and information through social media.
Twitter allows me to follow the news and, almost more importantly, to follow the people following the news. For example, I know that I can trust people like Robert Scoble and Chris Pirillo to stay on top of technology. I know people like Chris Brogan, Jim Kurkal and Gary Vaynerchuk are going to show me what’s new in social media. For better or worse, I trust them.
On YouTube I can catch any TV “moments” I may have missed. Jennifer Lopez fell on stage? Let me YouTube that. They did a remake We Are The World? Cool. I’ll watch it online. The only thing I use my TV for these days is to DVR The Office and a couple other shows, or to watch my Netflix movies.
Then there’s LinkedIn. I probably use this the least of all social media sites. Why is that? Because it’s a bit too serious and boring at times. Besides, I’m friend with a lot of the same people on Facebook, and I can just as easily follow what they are doing (including changing jobs) and interact with them easier on FB.
However, LinkedIn is still the BEST way to maintain an online Rolodex of all the people I’ve worked with, and all the people I’m networking with. It’s also the best place to house an online resume complete with references that are easy to validate. I also ometimes use the Q&A section, groups, and some of the other features.
Email isn’t really what I’d call “social media” per se, but it is my preferred digital in-basket. I use it to capture blogs, Tweets, articles, videos, and pretty much anything I want to take a closer look at when I get have more time or am sitting in front of my computer.
It’s also my permanent archive of a vast amount of information. Thanks to Google, Gmail has the best search in the world, so I can usually find anything I want in less than 30 seconds, and usually less than 5. I’m not joking. I can find ANYTHING, going back years. Even work-related stuff because I either used Gmail or forwarded a copy of my work email in order to keep things easily “searchable.”
Outlook 2007 definitely improved it’s search, but often the search index gets out of sync and you have to reindex. That’s scary after you’ve switched over to the Google method of taggging and using one big Archive folder. I found myself frequently jumping over to Gmail to find something work related because Outlook was having a “bad day.”
Lastly, there is Facebook. Oh, Facebook, how I love thee. And hate thee too. I’ve never been more social in my life. I know more about some of the people I went to high school with than I do about some of my closest friends–only because my friends are not on Facebook (yet). I follow some of my favorite brands, I am meeting new people and extended family members, and I can share a little bit about myself as well.
If I feel like sharing a little more, I can write a blog post like this one. On my iPhone. In bed. Yep, that’s where I am at this exact moment. Later I might be at Momoya Sushi, or an Apple store. I’ll let you know via FourSquare, which is shaping up to be the next Twitter, especially when more businesses get on board and start giving away instant discounts (20% off anything in the store) and free stuff (a round of drinks, appetizers, gambling chips) whenever you “check in.”
The inspiration for this blog post was actually something I saw while waiting outside the women’s restroom at the mall. I jumped onto Facebook and read a post from President Obama about the recent health care and education reform he had just signed into effect. OK, so it probably wasn’t the “actual” President, but someone in his administration.The bottom line is they are making excellent use of the social media tools that are available. This screenshot from my iPhone pretty much says it all:
