Social media, it’s really nothing new. Thirty-two thousand years ago people were being social, sharing stories and communicating experiences with pictures using the only media they had at the time; cave paintings. Social media is simply the tools you use to communicate your message; plant dyes on a cave wall or a Flickr widget on a WordPress blog.

The tools will continue to change, that’s why I think it’s so important none of us get hung up on learning this application or that application exclusively. The key is to learn concepts and be fearless in trying new tools, as you’ll find that new ones pop up daily.

I have friends that get SO upset when ever they hear about something new, “Oh great, something else I have to learn.” That won’t cut it in the social media world. You need to get excited about new things, and come on, how hard is that? We are living in an amazing era with technology changing daily and social networking groups connecting us in brand new ways. Who knows what will happen in the coming year? I mean, how can you NOT be excited?

So the way I see it, social media has always been around, it’s just the term that is relatively new.  All I know is that I feel very lucky to live in a time where the social media at my finger tips, the interactive technical tools available, are beyond amazing. Technology has become so accessible, I mean SO DAMN EASY, that absolutely anyone can create content online.

We used to call television and newspapers “the” media, but now it’s more commonly refered to as “traditional” or “mass” media and the “new” media a.k.a. “social” media is the rich content, the 2.o way, the good stuff, the FUN stuff! More people than ever are sharing their stories,  ideas, experiences and having two-way conversations online with the added bonus of photos, audio and video. The challenge is wading your way through  the information and finding the quality content. It’s out there, you have to hunt for it, but it’s worth it.