Exploring the New Way to Connect: Meg Untangled Web 2.0

by Claire McCarthy

 

“I’m convinced that Twitter is going to change the world.” 

That provocative line was one of many shared by our own Meg Rokos, speaker at the September gathering at North Andover Country Club. 

“You can already see it. Look at what happened in Iran,” referring to Twitter providing immediate, first-hand accounts during the election chaos, even though the government shut down conventional media outlets. 

Ever the pioneer when it comes to exploring innovations (ask to see her Kindle!), Meg has been using social media, including Facebook and Linked-in, for fun and profit for a few years. Her multi-media PowerPoint presentation contained plentiful personal and professional examples. 

“It’s a way to control information about you that is out there on the Internet,” she said, pointing out that when you keep your Linked-in page updated, it is likely to come up first on a Google search. Linked-in is sort of an adult version of Facebook where you can communicate with professional contacts whether you personally know them or not, as well as let legions of people know you’re job-hunting. 

“Information is being collected about you all the time. You want to be in control of what’s on sites such as Zoominfo.com, which shares with the world personal information gleaned from various sources.

Meg also had colorful examples of using social media to feed her “guilty pleasures,” such as following Ashton Kutcher’s tweets. (Ashton, besides being Mr. Demi Moore, has more than 2,000,000 people reading his 140-character updates. Meg suggested checking out Jordan’s Queen Rania as an example of effective and informative “tweeting.”

One slide showed Meg and her 1958 classmates in Mrs. Cauley’s kindergarten. “I was curious to reconnect with some, so I used Facebook to find them.”

The next slide was Meg and three of those classmates during their ’09 trip to Nova Scotia, completely arranged via Facebook. Clearly, Facebook is no longer the sole domain of kids. Mature, wise women are hip to ways of using it for fun and profit. “Just don’t friend your kids’ friends,” advised Meg.  “That’s very uncool.”

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