First, I directed this article to expats who do business online with blogs and websites. If you’re doing business online, you can either learn to use social media to attract and grow your audience, or you can pay huge sums for advertising and PR. Therefore, most of us choose to use social media.

When I write about preparing for your overseas move by figuring out how to stay in touch with friends and family back home, I do talk about Skype, VOIP phone services and other, more personal, forms of communication.

With a membership approaching a billion, a lot of people seem to think there’s a place for Facebook in their personal and/or business lives. I use it for both, and find it helpful for both. No, it certainly doesn’t take the place of real conversations with my kids (although I find it reassuring to have such an easy way to see they’re alive and well).

On the other hand I’ve “met” folks through social media who have enriched my life in one way or another, people I would not have otherwise come in contact with.

As with anything else in life, the tools you choose have to fit what you’re trying to accomplish. There’ve been times I’ve banged a picture hook into a wall with the heel of my shoe, but if I were installing a floor I’d buy a hammer. . .

Letting go of those old documents can be a wrench. When I divested myself of stuff, I fell in love with my scanner – I could scan the docs I just couldn’t bear to let go of, then upload them onto my hard drive and onto a cloud storage system (e.g. Google documents or Dropbox). Then I could either shred them or hand the originals off to the next generation for them to keep if they wanted.

Facebook is certainly NOT for everybody (case in point: my dad tried Facebook sometime last summer (and he’s in his mid-70s, mind you) but closed his account when he saw that people put everything about their lives on their; and he just wanted to better communicate with is kids and grand-kids who use it.) I also have an older sister (who’s in her early 50s) who doesn’t use Facebook either because she never saw the appeal (but she has an Ipad and uses that fairly well) despite her nieces and nephews wanting her to open an account at Thanksgiving gatherings (which is the only time she really sees the rest of our family).

What happened to online chatting? Or is that not “cool” anymore? With all the buzz about tablet PCs having built-in high-power webcameras, why not push SKYPE or a similar service? It’s the same concept as social networking but you can talk in real time instead of wait for a “blog/vlog” post from someone. Not to mention, SKYPE is more preferred over Facebook abroad because there are less security concerns with it (and less having to deal with proxy server issues like the “Great Firewall of China”).

Anyone care to give me good (i.e. reasonable) explanation of why I should care about social networking over proven staples like e-mail or phone calling?

I am investigating moving to either Panama or Boquete, Ecudor. I am a ways off from actually moving, and have a lot of details to attend to. I am divorced and have two young children from the marriage, but they live with their mother full-time. My issue has to do with the possibility that I won’t be able to see them for a long time once I move to the new country. Have you had others in my position? If so, how did they deal with it? What conversations with their children did they have, and how hard was it? I will have my girlfriend with me, but I love my little 7-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl very much. Any suggestions? Thanks! Dave