It Doesn't Take A Village When You ARE The Village!

Becky McCray was one of my early Twitter friends and for over two years we have not only enjoyed many online exchanges but we have actually had the pleasure of meeting in the "real world" a few times. Becky is truly a delightful person and she has built a solid following and a great name for herself as a Small Business expert with her popular "Small Biz Survival" blog. Here is the part I find incredibly cool:

Becky lives in Alva, Oklahoma, population 4,848.

Becky also lives in Twitterville, and HER population there is 4,852.

That's right, Becky's personal "community" on Twitter is now larger than the entire population of the town she lives in. Every Tweet Becky sends out has the potential to inform, entertain or influence an audience that is larger than her entire home town. MUCH larger if you consider the power of re-tweeting.

Now, perhaps this is not as eye-popping as I am making it sound. Surely Ashton Kutcher can make the same claim as the 3,373,626 Twittizens that follow him far exceeds the population of Ketchum, Idaho, where I believe he often resides (population 3,234). However, Becky McCray is not one-half of a globally know Hollywood couple. Becky is a small town, small business owner, who, without Social Media, could not have dreamed of having the circle of influence and reach she now commands. Becky is one of us!

I suspect that many of the residents of Alva, Oklahoma live their whole lives without leaving and certainly without interacting with thousands of folks from cities and countries all over the world. "Social Media" has given Becky (and all of us) the opportunity to broaden our horizons and enrich our lives through a bigger community... one that has no borders and no boundaries - only bits and bytes and great people like Becky McCray to make it interesting!

It doesn't take a village... WE are the village!

Photo Credit: (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda Social Media Swami Network Solutions