Flickr Photo by Forever Souls

For my New Year's reflection, I decided to start a meme with the questions and tag some colleagues:

"What if I could start all my social media and nonprofits work over from scratch? What would I do differently? What lessons have I learned that will stick with me for 2008?"

I managed to come up with four lessons learned, but the most important was this one:

Don't Join New Social Networks Without Thinking.   This is especially important if you got an email invitation from a friend.  If I learned anything from the Shelfari and the Spock, it is to use your critical thinking skills before joining a social network that a trusted friend has invited you to join.   Ask your friend why they invited you.  Refrain from joining as a knee jerk response until you know that your friend has really checked out the service and has not been duped.  (Thanks Nancy White)