Wednesday

Social Networking : Before the 'Blog', the 'Book' and the 'Tweet'...

Before the Blog, the Book and the Tweet...

A little Web 101 here... Personally, I've been entwined in computers for nearly 3 decades. (holy cow I did not realize that until I wrote it) I was blessed to have a Father who was enthralled with computers and I grew up with a variety of computers in my home. My first computer a Dos Based Commedor, black screen, orange letters. I was one of the only kids who were able to type up and bring in a printed book report! There was no internet as we know it back then, you could 'dial in' to text based 'chat' rooms but that was about the extent of utilizing cyber land.

In Elementary School 'computer class' was using DOS coding to 'program' movement of a little triangular 'turtle' across the screen...In High School, typing class was still on typewriters! (actually, in college too for me)

I remember when Prodigy came out, there was a quiet buzz among techie people and this newly found 'internet'. (did I hear Al Gore invented it? lol j/k) Anywho...they were able to log into a 'web' of information. Like cyber-encyclopedia-britannica. Not readily obtainable by everyone, still most of us used computers for typing up text and printing on dot matrix printers (remember the zingggg, zingggg, zinggggg of those printers?)

I had my first experience of 'the web' in 1998, the year my daughter was born. Just 10.5 years ago, which seems like an eternity. I simply cannot imagine life without the internet. Back then I had a computer with Windows 95 that I got for free and aol dial up. It was so exciting to hear the whirrr-zing-bong-bong of the modem and then 'you've got mail'. Those of us with internet felt like the bee's knees. When you'd say 'I was on the internet' people would *gasp* and say 'you have a computer, WITH internet?'

It was still so new back then in 1998. Every other week you'd get an AOL CD via mail, you would see free AOL CDs at Target, WalMart, the grocery store. Everyone was getting on AOL. Web pages loaded slow back then, but we knew no different, it was so exciting.

No one knew what they were looking for, we were just looking to see what we could see and what we saw was so amazing. We could type in any word and find any thing!

Then entered smut and pop ups, ack, remember? You'd make one innocent click only to have 1000 pop ups attack your computer then, remember, the 'blue screen of death'. LOL

Wow I got a little sidetracked there thinking of how it was in those days. Look at me now, I'm BLOGGING about it. Anyone on the planet who has internet can read this post. Isn't that something?

I got started with 'social networking' back in 1999. I was selling stuff on ebay, and discovered online websites for Moms. That's where it all began for me. Just a couple years later I launched my own company and used the web to market. This was before MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and the like. With fewer people actually 'on' the web marketing was much more difficult back then!

However I successfully built a strong company which was 100% web based! In 2004 I mingled my 'old school' web marketing tactics with MLM and since have sold my company and focus 100% on my MLM career building my MLM business 99% via the web.

From the 'old school' to the Blog, the Book and the Tweet... WOW things have changed. Now one can simply log on to one of hundreds of social networking sites and present information to oodles of people just like you and me. Below I'll share 3 of my favorite Social Networking Places...

Blogger. What IS a Blog? I hear this all the time. *gasp* Yes, it's true, there are people who have no idea what a Blog is. Then again there are many that know 'what' a blog is, they just don't know what 'blog' actually means!

Blog means Web-Log and was shortened over time. A Blog is a type of online journal of sorts you could say. You can find blogs on any and all topics imaginable.

In this new era of online marketing, more and more people are shifting to Blogging for marketing practices to aid in branding themselves and their businesses.




Facebook, growing at huge proportions propelling us into the future. Once Main Stream was MySpace which seems to have fallen slight to the mass quantity of users hopping on board with Facebook. Simple to use navigation quickly connects us to family, friends, and long lost acquaintances and high school buddies.

Those of use who use the web for marketing, places like Facebook open doors across the United States and around the planet. We can now reach hundreds if not thousands with a mere flick and click.

I have used Facebook to connect with long lost high school friends, former work associates, my parents, family members cross country and more. It's a media platform that enables you to share who you are, what you do, and to aid you in keeping in contact.


Twitter. This one by far is still the most confusing to people. They hear someone 'tweeted' me, or that someone 'twittered' and when you explain it as 'it's a micro blog' they just don't get it.

Twitter allows people to post mini updates in 140 characters or less. Some tweet about their day, some about their business, some totally random facts, some totally helpful facts, some a potpourri of all of the above.

No matter how you look at it twitter is indeed a very useful tool for networking and growing a business online. Having gotten a lot of media attention lately, the growth is simply unmeasurable to other sites right now!

As an 'old school'/PRE-social networking website web marketer and a web 2.0 web marketer, I coach my team to utilize these methods to top ranking websites and grow successful online businesses.

Find Alethea Anderson on...

Blogger http://www.blogger.com/profile/16233834784190128945

Facebook http://www.tinyurl.com/alethea-anderson-facebook

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/aletheaanderson

as well as many other social networking websites, simply seach me by name Alethea Anderson!

I'm a work at home Mom with a successful online MLM Business.

Alethea Anderson