By Michael Kosmala on March 14, 2009

Social Media: 4 Very Different Perspectives, Part 2

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I bought my first computer in middle school using paper route money, a stylish and trusty Radio Shack TRS-80. It’s kind of strange that I remember the model number of my first computer.

I exercised my own computer geekdom by learning early programming languages like Fortran. And by the time I graduated from college, I had become pretty fluent in using a word processor to complete my coursework. Phew!

My first memory of using the internet was in grad school during the mid ’90s. I remember going to a computer lab to set up a free AOL account. We got a free AOL CD in the mail every week for that entire decade… or it seemed that way.

By the way, when did Google become a verb? I’m not sure and I can’t really remember the first time I went to “google” to search for an answer to a problem.

Enter the recent (or not so recent) phenomena called social networking.

The reason I like social networking is that it solved a decade-long problem that even Google couldn’t fix; reconnecting with old friends and colleagues. Within the span of a few days, I was able to use Facebook to connect with old friends that I almost never thought I would talk to again. Having the opportunity to recreate powerful memories from my childhood and pre-Oregon years has been a true gift. I’ve also dabbled with LinkedIn and Twitter.

From a business perspective, I’ve read countless case studies and have experienced first hand the buzz that can be created when social networking is used to market an event and/or product. Finding a way to apply these lessons to achieve current goals in our business is very interesting to me.

Finally, one thing that I don’t like about Facebook is that other people can upload pictures of you. An old friend from summer camp uploaded a bunch of pictures circa 1987 that included me sporting what I suppose can now be called a vintage hairstyle complete with a classy tank top.

Coming up next…my colleague and improv theater extraordinaire, Deborah Elliott.