Social Media: are you a consumer, producer or both?

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I've just finished catching up on some of my favorite industry blogs. These blogs--written by my peers in public relations and social media--have replaced trade journals and e-newsletters as my go-to source for best practices, trends, data and industry gossip.

In addition, sites like Mashable.com and the quality links shared by my Twitter Tweeps and Facebook Friends are also major info sources for me.

This shift in my media consumption behaviors began just over a year ago. The 'tipping point' was very sudden!

The communication industry puts me on the forefront of exciting changes, and it might incline me to be more of an 'early adopter?'

I know our tech clients have embraced social media channels like Twitter and Facebook for communication. But what about using these channels as sources for information?

Are traditional trade publications or websites serving your needs primarily or is the bulk of your information coming from social media channels or tools?

Looked at another way, is social media primarily something you produce (i.e. content for your Facebook Fan Page or Twitter feed) versus something that you consume (i.e. reading the content of others such as your customers, competitors, industry gurus; monitoring conversations with search and listening tools)?

Annual event helps keep it all in perspective

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Once a year, Interfaith Community Services holds a meeting for all of its supporters to celebrate their generosity and the community's accomplishments. I started volunteering with Interfaith in 2001/2002 but they've been around over 25 years.

You can imagine what kind of year this past one has been for a lot of folks (and for social services agencies like ICS).

More than 33,700 people in North San Diego County came to it for help this year.

A few of them got up to share their stories today.

First up was a mother who developed a quart-a-day vodka habit to drown her demons. When that didn't work, she tried drowning them once and for all by drinking liquid Drain-O. Her family steered her to get help. She is now sober, beautiful and strong, giving back to ICS by counseling others and donating to the current residents of its amazing sobriety program.

A two-tour Iraq vet spoke about the help he got transitioning from the Marines to civilian life. The job training he received from ICS was the difference-maker for him. (Finding a job in the U.S. should not be harder than dodging improvised explosive devices in Iraq, and yet it nearly was for him this past year!)

A battered wife with nowhere to turn when she needed it most was living in her truck and ready to disable the airbag and drive it into the median. She found ICS and is now in transitional housing, confident and employed.

Stories like these give me hope and faith that people can overcome, but they can't do it alone. That's where Interfaith comes in--people of every faith or simply a faith in the human spirit ready to give a hand up to those who need it.

What a beautiful thing to pause and celebrate!