This week, I spent a half hour on the phone with Grant Webster talking about the power of social media.

We live in the same town, minutes apart. I met him through Jim Lange; Jim and I attend the same church. I met Jim, though, initially, through social media. And the library. It’s a good story.

Soon after we moved here in February, I took my girls to the library to get cards. The library is one of my favorite places on earth, for obvious reasons, so getting cards in our new hometown was at the top of my list of things to do.

That day, I saw a copy of Jim’s book on a sale shelf and noticed that he lives here, too.

So I bought the book, went home, and looked Jim up on Twitter. I looked him up on Facebook. I found his blog. I sent him an email. Not long after, I met him at church. He wasn’t hard to find, even though our church is large, because he’s really tall. I met his wife, too.

I was happy because we were new in town and we  hadn’t met many friends at church yet. I was happy because sometimes the world can feel so big and then something happens that makes it feel suddenly smaller.

Jim introduced me to Grant Webster, who is brand-new to social media, because he thought I might be able to help him. But first, Grant helped me: answering lots of technical questions and logging into my WordPress account to help me work out issues with this blog.

So, this week I talked to Grant about social media. He is launching a new blog — later today — and he wanted my advice how to make connections.

I gave him a few tips and then I told him a story about social media, one of my favorites.

It’s about the day I got a cell phone call from Tanmay Vora. Tanmay and I connected on Twitter and later on Facebook. He writes a great leadership blog and had often supported the work I did on the other blog. He wanted to build our connection further, so he picked up the phone and called me.

From India. To get to know me, and let me know him.

I was really happy because sometimes the world can feel so big and then something happens that makes it feel suddenly smaller.

The power of social media is in the connections, but is also in how we use those connections to make a positive difference for the people in our lives.

Can you help me show Grant the power of social media today by stopping by his blog or following him on Twitter?

Tell me something! Do you have a good story about social media? (I bet you do!) Share it here.

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Decision Making and Social Media

Social Media Communication