Thursday, May 21, 2009

Can Old Dogs Tweet?

Have spent the good portion of the last few days–no actually almost every waking moment–educating myself in the realm of social media marketing. For me that has meant twitter, facebook, Linkedin and this blog. I continue to build my network through Linkedin and have had an epiphany concerning twitter.

I find the implications of this social media network to be mind numbing. The great news is that there is so much knowledge out there for a 51 year-old neophyte such as myself. In just one week I have been schooled by some of the best minds out there. From Tim O'Reilly, Pete Cashmore at Mashable and the persistent locals here in Long Beach, Nostrum Inc.

Friends are joining in and sharing links and so the momentum builds. Coming from the print world, I find the immediacy of this medium thrilling, if not a bit overwhelming. Pace yourself I say. I attended an APALA meeting this week on the subject of social media marketing and was convinced by being in a room full of print professionals that I was on the right track. It will be fascinating to see how the world of offset lithographers react to this media taking a chunk out of ink on paper.

And this morning I attended a webcast by O'Reilly and was introduced to many more features, tips and philosophy that jumpstarted another series of ideas for my re-branding project. Suffice it to say, the days of spending 6 hours looking at job boards everyday are over. I'll continue to utilize traditional methods, but if I am really going to find a position that challeges me to continue to grow in a field that will definitely continue to grow, I'll keep on tweeting and learning. After all, if as they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, I'm only a little over 7 years old in dog years!

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