Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Let's Blog Off about Facebook

This is my second post for a Let's Blog Off topic. http://letsblogoff.com/ This week the question is "Do social sites like Facebook connect the world or isolate people?" My quick answer is they connect the world.

I was introduced to Facebook in March of 2009 I got an excited phone call from my college pal Wayne, pictured above in that stunning lime green paisley sports coat. "I HAVE FOUND GWEN ON FACEBOOK! YOU HAVE TO JOIN!"  So I joined. After we graduated from Auburn in architecture in 1982, we lost track of Gwen. The last time I had seen her was at my wedding. We had head rumors that she had married a Spaniard and was living overseas.
The rumors proved to be true. Gwen had lived in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, China and Japan; she was currently living in Spain. She was planning a trip to the states in a few months and we arranged a mini-reunion with Wayne at my house. This would never have happened without Facebook. Since then I have connected with friends and family and enjoy hearing what they are doing.

Around the same time, my marketing consultants suggested that we start a business facebook page to complement my blog...but due to my advanced years we should wait a few months before starting to tweet! I have been tweeting for almost a year and find it to be the most valuable of the social media that I use. On Twitter I follow lots of architects and designers. Since I live in a small town, it helps me stay connected with the outside world.

Most of my clients live somewhere else and are building a retirement or pre-retirement house here, so they find us on the internet. Therefore, the larger presence we have in cyber space the easier we are to find. A great blog that sends quite a bit of traffic to my web page is Houzz http://www.houzz.com/  I don't use LinkedIn much but through a connection on LinkedIn I was quoted in a story in Residential Architect magazine http://www.residentialarchitect.com/architects/off-the-beaten-path.aspx
It didn't result in a new client contact but it might one day!






2 comments:

Nick Lovelady said...

It's wild how social media connects us all in different ways- both reuniting school friends and connecting with other industry pros.

Enjoyed the read- also glad to see some more Auburn folks. War Eagle!

details and design said...

gooooo gators! oh, wait..that is not the post! I just had a high school boyfriend from [ahem] long ago find me on fb..it was fun catching up but I mostly use social media to connect with my peers...and have loved every minute of it!