MDI Young Professionals Host First Meeting

Finally, after over a year of talking about it we officially launched the group MDI Young Professionals. At the first meeting there were over 20 Young Professionals which really shows how much of a need there is for something like this. I am so excited to get the ball rolling and grow this group from our informal "thirsty Thursday" crowd to a real deal networking group of young professionals that will actually make a difference in community growth and development. At this point we've all agreed to let the group shape into what it will be, without too much formality, hoping that will keep it real.

Here are a few pictures from our first meeting held at Side Street Cafe in Bar Harbor.

We'll host a meeting the last Thursday of each month, with the next one being April 29th at Leary's Landing Irish Pub in Bar Harbor.

Twitter Queens!

Social Media, social media everywhere we look - there is an article about it, a topic about it in a company meeting, I even muttered the words at a listing presentation recently! It is a fact of life, especially in the business world - if you are not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (to name a few), than you are old news, which translates to bad news in business.

I am so thrilled to be a young professional at this time in the techno/social media obsessed world - because it is pretty much second nature to me....who was Instant Messaging her AOL "buddies" at age 14 and keeps in very close contact with most college friends via Facebook.

Just when I think I'm on the cutting edge - my colleague and friend introduced me to the Twitter Queens group, where the motto is: Empowering women in the understanding and use of emerging social media techniques. - That's what she twittered.

It has been a blast to Tweet back and forth, not to mention the networking it creates. Next week I'll be in Boston for an ad-hoc gathering with like minded Tweeps (twitter people), discussing trends/topics of interest in regards to the real estate industry - RE BarCamp-Boston

So...follow me on Twitter: erica_bates or keep checking the blog for news!

Social networking to my advantage!

So recently I was introduced (I guess you call it that still in Virtual World), to a local business owner/boat builder on Facebook by one of my "friends" who is the boat builder's brother - this is sounding much more complicated than it is. After "meeting" John on Facebook I thought it would be appropriate to introduce myself to him personally..aka real world, seeing that we both do business in the same area and (hopefully soon) will have the chance to share some clients. Hello! isn't this what "social networking" sites were intended for? I love it! Although, I admit I have also been that girl who looks at some random friend's (Facebook) or colleague's (LinkedIn) profile just for fun. All and all, from what I can see most social networking sites are worth their while and truly can present great connecting tools - that is if you have some self control...which I'm working on.