Recently I celebrated the third anniversary of my company Boomers’ Social Media Tutor. What began as simply a glimmer – a vision in my head – has blossomed into a full-fledged social media tutoring and training business.

Everyone who starts a business does so as a result of some type of inspiration or vision.

How Boomers’ Social Media Tutor Came to Be:

I was motivated by a strong desire to help others, especially those in my age group, known as the Baby Boomer generation, (born between 1946 and 1964), to use social media to pay it forward.

By which I mean that, as we age, we develop wisdom and perspective that are only earned through having been around the block a few times.

Until social media came into existence, unless you were some kind of celebrity (author, sports figure, entertainer), only a relatively small circle of people could benefit from the knowledge and experience that person had gained.

While that circle included family members; neighbors; co-workers; members of a religious community, service club, or other organization; and others known on some type of personal level – it was limited to people they knew in real life – in real time.

After being part of Facebook and LinkedIn for just over a year, I was intrigued with the potential for folks of my generation to use social media to impart their wisdom and perspectives to people they did not regularly see face to face and those they might not even know in the “real world”.

This concept of the elder (and I use this term broadly to essentially include anyone 50 and older) getting involved with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media site to share this wisdom and perspective is what inspired me to start my business.

 Joyce’s Social Media Philosophy

I believe in “paying it forward.” In other words, what you or I share in a status update or in a comment on someone’s social media post may have an impact far beyond the immediate audience we think we are affecting.

I challenge you to look over your recent activity on Facebook or your tweets and retweets on Twitter and consider what kinds of help you have been providing.

If you have used these spaces to simply toot your own horn and to carry on about the problems of the world, I challenge you rethink the way you spend your time on social media. Of course, I am not implying that it’s never OK to speak about your honors and accomplishments (or those of your children or grandchildren), or to complain about the state of the world as it exists today.

I am suggesting that we also use the vast reaches and enormous power of social media to serve our ultimate goal as humans – which I believe is to be of service to others, to help ease their burdens and challenges, and to lift them up to be all they can possibly be.

Social media has turned out to be a marvelous tool for doing all of those things.

How About You?

 How do you approach using social media? What sort of impact do you choose to have? How might you use social media to pay it forward?

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, nonprofit organizations, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.