Boomers' Blog

Do you remember when you first started using Twitter? I don’t mean when you first set up your Twitter account, but when you started tracking with Twitter on a regular basis? It’s just been a couple of weeks since social media guru Melody Jones @SocMediaMelody tutored me in Twitter 101. Since that time, I have systemically assigned all those I follow on Twitter into lists. I have tweeted more, and I have started to more frequently used the @ and # symbols. OK, for those of you who are pros at using Twitter, I know all this sounds pretty darn [...]

Are you age 50 or older and looking for work? If your answer is yes, you might want to check out Work Reimagined, a new service recently developed by AARP and powered by LinkedIn, the career-oriented social media website. http://workreimagined.aarp.org/ The August/September issue of AARP The Magazine gave a very helpful overview of this service on page 76. Here is a link to the online article: http://pubs.aarp.org/aarptm/20120809_CO?sub_id=ghP9yLlXA1Gv#pg66 Quoting from the article, “Work Reimagined can point you to those businesses on LinkedIn that have a special interest in workers with long experience….You’ll find firms that are looking for the strong work [...]

What is the purpose of a Facebook page for a Toastmasters club, service club or other group? Bring in new members. Build camaraderie within the club. Promote the club to the larger world. All the above. In my opinion, it can be all of the above, but each situation is different. During a discussion I recently led on how Toastmasters clubs can benefit from a Facebook group or page, the question was raised – does having a Facebook page bring in new members for that particular club? The answer was – not necessarily. Yet when Toastmasters (or members of any [...]

Are you a regular user of Twitter? If so, how do you use it? Some people find it a great way to search for information, even better than using Google. Others like using it to follow their favorite celebrities, sports figures, and/or thought leaders in their profession. Twitter can also be an easy way to share links to helpful articles or entertaining YouTube clips. It can also be a terrific tool for businesses to use to keep in touch with their customers, especially the unhappy ones. I must admit that until recently I had kept an arm’s length relationship with [...]

In recent conversations with my sister, I got to thinking more about our parents and the impact they had on me and my way of approaching the world. As I wrote in a blog post a few weeks ago, my mother Natalie Eder was an lifelong learner.  She re-read the classics with me when I was in my teens and she was in her 40s. Then in her 50s, she learned Spanish after my parents moved to Tucson, AZ. I truly believe that one reason I love social media so much, especially LinkedIn, is because, like my mom, I love [...]

Just as I was mulling how to put together a blog post that would summarize and compare the major social media sites, I found a very well written piece that I thought my readers would find very helpful.  I found it through a posting in my LinkedIn newsfeed, and it was posted by an official representative of the LinkedIn social media website. Author Katherine Reynolds Lewis in her article: “Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tweets, Oh My! Everything a Working Mom Needs to Know about Social Networking” takes a very practical approach to contrasting these social media sites. She answers the following [...]