Although I use Facebook for both personal and professional reasons the over arching precedent is business. I’ve been sober now for many years and have been around the planet long enough that I won’t be posting any photos that I wouldn’t show the CEO of a company much less my favorite Aunt Susie. For me, it’s been fun to get to know people whom I’ve met but don’t have an opportunity to visit with very much other than on Facebook. Where else would I get to see the beautiful sunrise photos of the beach that my friend who is the Chief Marketing Officer at a well regarded eco-friendly marketing company had posted earlier in the day? Sure, I get the occasional plethora of postings by someone who thinks it is great fun to tell everyone all the little animals they have in Farmville who need feeding but I just slide my cursor over to the right side of their post and “hide” it to get rid of the clutter.

As to LinkedIn, I signed up on it 3-4 years ago strictly as a business networking arena and have been pleasantly surprised by all the friends I have made along the way. So far, I’ve had some coaching clients as a result of LI but not as many as I would like to have. I keep up with LI because of the camaraderie and the great advice/suggestions that I’ve received over the years. This is definitely a site that offers me the opportunity to make friends from all over the world. I love it because of the different viewpoints and opinions that people share.

The final site that I enables me to meet interesting people is Blog Talk Radio where I have a show called “Hope 42 Day”. Once a week I interview various authors, entrepreneurs, leaders, thinkers, and “Hope Ambassadors” from across the world. Today was no exception when I interviewed Author David Heenan who is a trustee of the Estate of James Campbell, one of the nation’s largest landowners, as well as visiting professor at Georgetown University. David was formerly the Chairman and CEO of Theo H. Davies & Co, the North American holding company for the Hong Kong-based multinational Jardine Matheson. Trust me, David’s resume is wide and extensive. I enjoyed our interview immensely and glad that someone with David Heenan’s breadth and reach takes time out in his life to research and write books such as “Bright Triumphs From Dark Hours” which is his seventh book that examines the lives of ten extraordinary people who overcame great adversity in their personal or professional lives by applying winning strategies that guided them out of the darkness of near-defeat and into the light of success. Besides all that, David has an excellent speaking voice. Must have something to do with his roots as a Marine.

I use social networking to meet and get to know interesting people. I also use it to inspire people to find hope and success in their lives. I’m still a work in progress getting in here and figuring this all out and how it works. I do have enough of my diplomat/political father in me that I know that we need to be very aware of what we are putting out there for all the world to see and read about us because once it is out there, there isn’t a way that I know of to make it all go away.

For today, I’m grateful for the connections that social networking provides me and I hope you get connected as well.