On Tuesday, I took off from my regular job to help out my friend Burt Lum and sit on a panel at a Hawai’i Department of Health summit. Our topic: social media. Between Burt, who works for Hawai’i’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield affiliate, known as HMSA, Randy Kusaka of the Hawai’i Blood Bank, and myself, we discussed our own social media and social networking journeys. Burt, who is a social media guru with his own radio talk show, podcast, blog, and far reaching influence, gave an overview and examples of how these technologies are being implemented at his workplace; Randy gave the story of his own journey from having zero social media experience last year to being the Hawai’i Blood Bank’s official Twitter account this year; and I gave a personal look at my own fitness journey and how I blog about it, both here and elsewhere.

I'm at the podium!

So far, the feedback has been pretty positive. We’ll see some final evaluations later; if anything, I think people just wanted more time for questions than anything else. Interestingly, though, part of my presentation was to point out that social networking isn’t new, even if social media is. Yes, blogging and Twitter and FaceBook are relatively new phenomena, but making friends with people, even over the Internet, to use as your support system for some kind of issue–including trying to make changes in your life–isn’t.

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1. Joannie Says:
   November 4th, 2009 at 5:16 pm

   Ryan, this is a great recap of yesterday’s presentation. I’m fortunate to have attended. All the presenters came from different backgrounds and had great presentation/story-telling skills. I learned a lot and I could tell how engaged your audience was as well! Mahalo for taking the day off work to share your experience!

2. ryan Says:
   November 4th, 2009 at 10:38 pm

   Joannie,

   Mahalo for your taking the picture!