Confessions of a late starter

I'm Nikki. I'm a Liverpool-based freelance journalist, PR newbie and social media junkie, so you probably won't be surprised to learn that the media, communication and the changing ways we interact with one another are all of great interest to me, especially when it comes to using the Internet and social web.

But it hasn't always been like that.

You see, the world's a smaller place since I started out in journalism whilst studying at Manchester University in 2000. OK, so I'd had access to the Internet for a while and thought it was pretty cool, but when I read Marshall McLuhan's 'Understanding Media' as part of my course I struggled to get my head round his idea of the 'global village'.

A village? Really?

OK, I could email people and access information much more readily than before, but realistically did it bring me any closer to people than a good old-fashioned letter or phone call did? Did I stand any more of a chance at getting a response just because my message arrived electronically?

As I dived into a career in the print media I really didn't pay much attention to the Internet, aside from the obligatory emailing and web-based research.

It was only a few years ago whilst working at Pick Me Up magazine that I started to pay more attention. The reason being that the women's weekly magazines had started going online and so had their readers.

From tech-savvy teenagers on Bebo to grannies playing bingo on t'interweb, everyone was at it.

The realisation that some silver surfers were more clued up on the web than me forced me to realise the Internet was changing how people communicated and interacted.

From that moment I knew that if I wanted a future in communications, I needed to play catchup. I dabbled in creating a website and blog, 'dugg' news articles but failed to get anywhere.

Until Facebook arrived.

Accepting my first flurry of friend requests on 2nd April 2007 something suddenly clicked. I'd been a late starter, but this was my way into the social web!

Since then I've been re-united with old friends, tracked virtually untraceable contributors for magazine features, scooped a rival's story and made the first steps into a new career in PR, all using the power of social media.

It's not my intention to become social web expert. I don't think anyone can be an expert in something that is constantly changing.  What I intend to do is blog my learning curve and share my thoughts and questions.

If you agree or disagree with anything I say in any future posts, or have something to add please feel free to comment. I love a bit of healthy debate and I look forward to sharing ideas!

P.S. As much as I'm a fan of people with strong and controversial opinions, I will remove anything inappropriate, offensive, racist and any other nasties!