It is what it is, baby!

My friends who are not social media saavy look at me and think that I really know what’s going on with social media. But the fact is, I’ve learned more about social media in 2009 than any other year of my life. The truth is: I became an entrepreneur before social media existed and so I had to shed a lot of old thinking in order to fully embrace it. Now, I consider myself social media saavy, but every day I learn another way to utilize social media. Every week I find a new way that social media can, will or has changed my life.

In the spirit of the end of the year, I’m listing the 9 ways that social media changed my life in 2009.

1. I reconnected with people that I liked from high school and college. (Notice I said people that I liked. I did not connect with any people that I DID NOT like from high school or college.) This allowed me to connect with old friends. It felt good. (Facebook)
2. I learned to create my website utilizing new technology by listening to people in my network who design websites for their businesses and clients. This gave me a real edge. (Twitter)
3. I met a life coach who gave me real guidance and motivation through a difficult personal and professional time in my life. (Twitter)
4. I launched my WebTV channel and was able to gauge how many people were watching my Every Corner web series. (YouTube)
5. I connected with and learned from new colleagues across the world and built partnerships centered around similar interests. (LinkedIn, Twitter)
6. I connected with new colleagues across the US that work with youth and increased sales of my books. (Twitter)
7. I was able to introduce my film to new and seasoned colleagues–including showing links to the trailer and the trailer itself. This allowed me to gain media coverage and increased attendees at my film screenings. (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace & LinkedIn)
8. I secured additional radio and blog interviews with outlets that I’d never heard of–creating new partnerships. (Twitter, Facebook)
9. I created a supportive and encouraging group of followers that I interact with on a daily basis. These friends and followers share my passions and interests in many areas. I have over 5,000 followers. They brighten my day everyday! I love their quotes, sayings, feedback. (Twitter)

You may not be able to tell but I’m pretty much in love with Twitter. Twitter has given me so much, in fact, I could have written an article entitled, “9 Ways that Twitter changed my life in 2009.”

Has social media changed your life? Tell me how.