Facebook Strikes Again

I have accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn. Primarily I set them up for business and I really don't use them for personal things. Sometimes they do connect me to people who I have not seen in a long time, and that is fun. But, (unfortunately or luckily ???) I just simply don't have a lot of time to spend on those sites connecting with other people. FAMILY Magazine keeps me very busy.

Maybe I should spend more time connecting? I am not sure. But I am willing to try to find out.

The other night my husband and I were out for dinner in DC with friends celebrating a birthday. Their two daughters were with us. They are both out of college but still very young. It was a great time and we really enjoyed their company. One of their daughters is a friend of our youngest so the evening was a reminder of how much fun we have with her.

During dinner another friend of these young ladies came into the restaurant. They both jumped up and went over to see her. Apparently it had been a long time since they had all seen each other. It was nice to see them interact and hear how she had been since they had last been together.

And, (here is the interesting part) not 5 minutes after the friend left the restaurant, both the girls pulled out their cell phones to see a message. The long lost friend they had seen in the restaurant had already updated her status on Facebook to talk about running into them in Georgetown.

Now, excuse me, but REALLY? Five minutes! Why? Was it that important? I can imagine her leaving the restaurant, walking around the corner and pulling out her phone. She would be standing there punching letters with her fingers on the little screen telling the world she had run into long lost friends.

I guess my age is showing, but I just don’t get the thrill of that. I don’t understand why I would want to tell all my friends (or why they would care) about running into some old school buddies at dinner.

Am I wrong? Tell me why you think it is interesting.

Please, tell me! I want to understand this brave new world of communication. I really do. But I just don’t get it.

Brenda

LinkedIn Did It

I am not very good with change. I can change, but I have to think about it first. I like to determine the consequences and then take action. So on Monday when our Marketing Manager told me she had accepted a new position (a really good position with some great growth) my first thought was panic.

However after I thought about it for a couple of hours, I started thinking about all the positive consequences. For her, it is great and I am very happy for her. Our company is very small and there is not much of a ladder to climb. It is more like a single step stool and she was at the top in her area.

My next thought was, "How do I find someone just as great and how fast can I get them started?" So, I turned to LinkedIn. I don't have a huge number of connections. Admittedly, I have not done any work to build my network and people have just sort of found me. But even with the small number of connections I have, I was able to come up with 10 great resumes. Now I have 8 interviews scheduled and some terrific prospects.

So I guess I have to give a big "yippee" to LinkedIn. And, a big thank you to all my contacts for passing along some great people. And, to those that reconnected just to say hi, thanks for the shout out. It was great to hear from you.

Brenda

Here is my segment with Peggy Fox on the exciting plans for the new Children's Science Center in Northern Virginia.