Texting, texting, 1-2-3….

Up until a few years ago I was pretty old fashioned with most of my communication skills….my landline was my best friend!   As many adults in my generation may also feel, it has taken a great deal of time for me to become ‘friends’ with social media……I even still struggle with texting as I seem to always have a case of ‘fat fingers’ and my phone has a bad habit of selecting for me the word it thinks I am spelling.  However, I have been thrust into the 21^st century of communication by my children and I am making the best of it!

When “My Space” came on the scene, I thought it was a cute and effective way for me to know my children better.  In fact, it was kind of fun for a while and being friends with my children helped me get to know their friends as a result.  The introduction of Facebook seemed to make everything more challenging…especially when adults became involved (with each other).  I struggled for years to make peace with this new method of ‘socializing’ and largely found that, if not abused, social media does have a positive place in our lives….it just takes some patience to find comfortable personal boundaries as the boundaries provided by Facebook simply do not always protect a person from others who simply “need” to know everything!

I also continue to learn some really unusual skills….like trying to interpret texting/Facebook chat lingo such as IDK, 2G2BT, ROFL, or ‘#’..…in fact, it is the dreaded ‘#’ that has me the most confused!  It is also embarrassing when I have to text someone back and ask “what do you mean by ‘BBIAM’ ?”  😉

I remember a time (and I am showing my age here) when a weekly long distance call with my parents was the extent of our communication for months.  No cell phones, no computers, no Facebook….just a rotary dial phone with a cord attached (which meant you couldn’t even walk around while talking).  It was also incredibly expensive!

I am now living in a different city and state than my businesses, my children and my longtime friends….yet I am pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to still feel ‘connected’ regardless of the distance.  Texting is a unique way I have come to communicate with my adult children…some kind of small text frequently becomes my initial connection possibly followed by emails or Facebook messaging.  I have also found that these small efforts to reach out to the people I care about usually culminate with a phone call (which, of course, is my favorite way communicate).

When it comes to my business called ‘The Barn’ in Castle Rock, Colorado, the same methods of communication I had in Colorado, I also have in Arizona.  I speak with my manager often on my cell phone, I email and text daily with both members of my management team, I spend time promoting The Barn on Facebook and our Webpage and, most importantly, I communicate directly with our customers either through email or on Facebook.  It is amazing to me how connected I can feel no matter where I am….social media and texting may be less personal than speaking over the phone (or in person) but these avenues of communication definitely do make the world a smaller place!

I do already miss my frequent visits to The Barn just to check in and say ‘hello’ (and shop!!!), but I know that my Barn Merchants are doing everything they can to ensure that our loyal customers continue to visit The Barn for the magical shopping experience they have come to know and love.

I will be back to Colorado every now and then, but my connection with The Barn and our customers is as strong as ever!

I love our loyal #Barnie customers!  (did I use that darn ‘#hashtag’ sign correctly?)

See you soon,

Catherine