Keeping our social network alive and thriving

If you’ve been reading our newsletters or following our activity for a while, you know we’re all about forming effective connections throughout the southeast. One way that most of us connect in this digital age is through the Internet, specifically social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and now Pinterest. Spreading news and information through the web is the quickest and most efficient way to communicate—but is anyone listening?

Research tells us that the majority of social media users friend someone because they know them in real life—meaning real life friendships drive online relationships. However, advertising and other things competing for our attention can get in the way of effective online connections. For example, Facebook has recently rolled out a new program that purposefully limits your reach to your friends or “fans” (depending on whether you are using Facebook as a person or a page), unless you pay a premium to promote your updates. This means that only a small fraction of your friends or followers are receiving your updates in their feeds. Now, more than ever, it’s important to spread your social media networks through many channels and to make meaningful connections throughout the Web.

So, let’s connect with each other! By “liking” and “following” each other on social media sites we’ll strengthen our brands and reinforce our inter-connection. Whether it is a personal profile or a professional one, we want to know where you’ve been spending your time on the Internet. Please fill out this short survey.

As a “thank you” for participating in the survey we’ll link to your agency’s or organization’s professional profiles (Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube) on your state’s page and we’ll reciprocally follow you back on our social networks (currently Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest—but that may change!).

Fill out the survey today! And stay tuned for the survey results – we’ll post them in our next newsletter.