This set of Loudoun Blogs represents a wonderful and unique cross-section of the life and business of Loudoun County, and is a very straightforward means to participate in community dialogue through “social media”.  There are also lots of other Loudoun-centric online forums out there – on individual blogs, bulletin boards, on Facebook and LinkedIn, in Twitter streams and Wikis; thousands of Loudouners discussing topics from pizza to economic development. It’s growing consensus that identifying yourself (vs. anonymity) is much more helpful in achieving respect and social prominence on the web – but revealing your “personally identifiable information” (PII) is a two-edged sword.

Hopefully, most of us using social media (or any other communication method on the Internet) understand how and why PII should be protected. The spammers, criminal elements and virus distributors don’t need much of it to make your life miserable. Most mainstream social media tools do make it very easy to engage in online discussions, protect your sensitive information (like home address and phone), yet reveal enough about yourself to legitimize yourself as a trustworthy, contributing social networker.

Read more about Social Media in Loudoun County at the Loudoun Times….