Have tough times forced your family or friends to move far away? Are you working odd hours that restrict your ability to meet or talk with your local crowd?

Social platforms like Facebook allow you to reach across time and geography to stay in touch with friends, family or former work buddies.

Are you interested in a professional connection to those from college or past work?

A Linked In profile helps you reach into business communities. You can see where your colleague’s careers have taken them. You can learn about companies and join online groups. Meeting new people? Giving out a public profile link allows everyone to look up your talents.

Are you interested in researching companies? Do you want to share and learn from other experts?

Twitter is an open global platform. People post short headlines called Tweets that contain links to informative websites and blogs. Begin by finding an interesting website that shows a Twitter symbol. Then look them up on Twitter.com, no account needed. Once you do have a Twitter account, you can follow experts in a nonthreatening manner.

Facebook and Linked In are communities that encourage security controls. Twitter is designed as an open network. All of the tools share the idea of friends helping friends. Once you show an interest in a person online, that person often returns the favor.

So what problem are you trying to solve? For those who use these tools, how has social media helped you?

P.S. I am undecided on Google+. Please feel free to post your comments!