A few days later (last Thursday) both Mike the owner of Tusco Display and I attend a social networking event held at Kent State Tuscarawas, in New Philadelphia, OH.  Angela Siefer from ShinyDoor.com is going to teach us how to use Facebook, LinkedIn and briefly talk about Twitter.  Oh boy, more time wasting application thanks to Web 2.0!  My daughter gets up 30 minutes early to use Facebook and spends countless hours every night frittering away valuable time to do chores and I have a LinkedIn account that probably doesn’t even work anymore.  Twitter, yeah just what I need another method to instantly tell the world “Look at me!” 

     Modern technology is pretty well wasted on me, I like shiny new things, but working with ASP.Net and DotNetNuke and hardware all day, it all gets a little trite.  Bottom line though is adapt or die, that is the credo in business.  So Mike the Tusco Display Owner and Michael the Network Administrator go to the meeting.  Network Administrator already thinking, “How many of these people can I make into clients for Technology Workgroup?”  Right away I am engaged with Angela, she is excited about her topic and hits the ground running.  She very easily invites all of us there without accounts on LinkedIn to go and set one up and if your neighbor has one help those who don’t.  We begin to examine the profile and the various tools that can most certainly give us a greater chance of being found as businesses.  I am intrigued as I begin to do the math, I have five friends, and they each have five friends… 

    We move over to Facebook and Angela once again has everyone smoothly navigating the functions and features.  She skillfully points out the “do’s and don’ts”, the best practices and even the faux pas of social networking.  Then she talks about Twitter, briefly and with the caveat that we should get comfortable with Face Book and LinkedIn before moving on.  I feel like that guy that gets told he isn’t tough enough to drink the hard stuff.  I’ll just see about that, I can’t wait to get home and sign up!  I’ll show her! She is certainly smart and well educated but I am a well seasoned, trial by fire, burned to a crisp veteran of technology.  I remember using punch cards for Pete sake not some fancy little USB drive.  I go home and sign up for a Twitter account @mmmock along with the wife and start looking for interesting people to follow.  I have 3 before I go to bed…sadly one of those is the wife.  But she and I now are engaged in this need for “street cred” and begin to build our professional and personal networks on Facebook and LinkedIn.  We are becoming better connected to the business world and I am on track to become a social networking evangelist!  I will help others get onboard and learn to use their powers for good not evil.  It is late I really have to put down the notebook and get at least four hours of sleep.

    Mike and I compare notes all day Friday as we build our networks and discuss how we ALL at Tusco Display get set up and start using this new cyber tool for building business, creating better relationship with existing accounts and our own team.  Brainstorms like F5 tornadoes blow through the office, I am looking for the duct tape to wrap my head with so when it explodes the EMT’s will have all the pieces in one spot to transport along with my body!  Can’t wait to get home and compare notes this social network stuff is a powerful drug…what was it Angela said, “Don’t dive in?  Right straight to the deep end of the pool.