I’ve been trying to keep my political posts focused on marketing and the Internet, in particular.

That being said, I just read a CNN article about the new web site that Obama & Biden set up to keep people informed of the transition.

The articles talks about how the Obama/Biden campaign used  new media to reach out to voters – text messaging, e-mails and social networking.

Now they’ve launched http://change.gov/ where you can read a blog, get contact info and even apply for jobs with the new administration.

Very cool.

What exactly did people do before Facebook? Much less Gmail (and GChat) oh, and AIM. These social networking/communication tools make my life *that* much easier to get in touch with people. So, piggy-backing off of this article from Joel Postman over at Talent Zoo, I’d like to share some advice on how exactly to use these communication channels effectively.

• Connect with people you already know, be weary of “friending” strangers.
• Be professional – even if it’s a personal networking site.
• When sending messages, ask yourself, is this message about something that will be meaningful to the recipient?
• When in doubt, don’t.
• Focus on making the most of your contacts, not making the most contacts.