I can still remember the day my college welcome packet arrived in the mail. Not because I was anxious to discover my dorm assignment. Not because I was curious to read my class schedule. In fact, I skipped though each of those pages and focused on one line: my ".edu" E-mail address.
The summer of 2005 was as life changing a time frame as any in my life. I had just graduated from high school and was preparing for life as a college freshman. My exposure to social media at that time was fairly limited. Although I had managed to frequently update my Xanga site with inside jokes and diary entries, I was oblivious to the impact social media would have on my life in the very near future.
I can recall one day that summer, I was reading a friend's Xanga when I noticed an interesting link at the bottom of the page. The link read: "Check out my Facebook profile".
What is Facebook? I wondered.
From that moment on, the Facebook craze spread like a wild fire throughout my social circle. Talk of wall posts, profile pictures and friend requests dominated conversation. At that time, only college students could start a Facebook profile, and an E-mail address ending in ".edu" served as the secret password to this ultra-exclusive club.
The evolution of social media has developed my generation into a very unique user. Passionate, updated and open, we are scarcely afraid of sharing too much, but always trusting of our privacy. We frequently interact with users in similar networks, and may even be open to new conversation. In many cases, we select conversation topics at the suggestion of other users.
To this user we must tailor our message. But how do we find them?
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