Hello everyone,

This is AZ Media Maven’s initial blog post. Despite being an avid follower of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for more many years, I never got around to starting a blog. I was busy with a new career post-print journalism, raising my family and generally catching up on thousands of little things that never get done – painting, clearing out the garage and closets and other mundane aspects of American life.

But now, I have joined the throngs of self-publishers, and like others, I am convinced that my weighty words are worthy of public consumption. That remains to be seen, of course. My alter-ego, the one that takes care of those above-mentioned mundane tasks of life, is Rose Tring, a former journalist who has worked at many newspapers in the Southeast, Midwest and Southwest. Media has been my life since age 8, and just because print journalism’s fate seems predetermined at this point, doesn’t mean I can’t use those same skills in a new way.

Why businesses need a social media presence

Which brings me to the topic of my first blog post: social media and its burgeoning impact on our lives, from where we shop, to the views we read to the people with whom we regularly interact.  Remember Yellow Pages and other directories made of paper? Most are online now, but we still get delivered to our driveway a bag of dead trees, as I call them. Like those directories, information provided in a static platform will slowly fade away. Even company Web sites, touted as the latest and greatest in customer reach just a few years ago, are now fading. Web sites are like the directories of the past: Static. Their information doesn’t change that often. Most small businesses have little time to maintain an active Web page, nor the money to outsource. In the end, the page just sits there with contact information such as phone, address and email. It’s no different from a directory listing.

Next up, how to use social media to liven up your Web identity and approach to marketing.