PearlTrees. A new, easy way to organize links. But it’s not so easy. At least not at first.

My first experience with PearlTrees drove me away from the site right away. But after a few videos, a quick Q&A and constant references to the FAQ page, PearlTrees began to impress. It’s very clear after understanding how the system works, that PearlTrees is designed for those of us who are visual learners. The layout allows you to organize links (or pearls) into groupings (or trees) that make sense to you. It’s great.

PearlTrees also makes it super easy to create Pearls. The site has an easy to use extension that you can download to your FireFox browser. With one simple click, you can create pearls and add them to your trees without ever leaving the site you’re browsing. One simple click, and your trees keep growing.

While it has taken some getting used to, over the past week or so, PearlTrees has made organizing links easy and quick. Feel free to take a peek at the humble beginnings of my PearlTree collection.  You’ll never have to bookmark another page ever again. Just pearl it.

Social Media. The buzz word of the decade. I got my start in social with MySpace. You remember MySpace. The site dedicated to allowing its users to create pages with glittering graphics and their favorite song of the week. And how could anyone forget the infamous “MySpace Profile Picture”. The one where every tween, teen and young adult female stood in front of a mirror with a camera extended overhead to get the right angle. Yeah, I did it, too. I’m not proud of some of the content I put out in the social sphere when I was 15 years-old, but it’s there, I’ve just tried to bury it with other things.

      More recently, I’ve adopted social as my way to forge ahead in the professional world. I’ve been cleaning up my Facebook profile (Thanks, Timeline!), and keeping my Twitter a bit more professional. I no longer tweet about what song is playing on my iPod, and how #awesome it is.

      In the age where every young professional (and college senior looking for a job)  is using some sort of social platform, I have used social to make myself that much more marketable. I have been able to grow professionally and thus, more conscious of the information I am putting out on the web. You never know when that red Solo cup photo will come back to haunt you.

Personally, I blame social for enabling my addictive tendencies. While some claim social sites are fostering the loss of human interaction, I have embraced social and used it to help grow and develop personal connections. That was deep. Social has allowed me to stay in touch with friends from around the world. Within an instant I can tell my best friend in London what is going on in my life. And that’s #awesome.