This week we are excited to bring you a special three-part episode. We call it our social media tool box. Podcasters Stephanie Sorenson and Nick Galieti sat down with Michelle Linford, DeNae Handy, and Greg Trimble, each experts in social media, to discuss how to maximize our interactions in the age of instant communication.

Michelle Linford

Michelle Linford is the Executive Director of EPIK Deliberate Digital, a collaborative nonprofit focused on changing conversations and culture around issues related to kids and technology. The vision of this international-reaching collaboration is to encourage a mindset where adults and children/youth work together to deliberately use technology for good.

Like many parents in the digital age, Michelle has felt the heavy responsibility of helping her children stay safe and healthy in a digital world. She has volunteered for years in the pornography prevention space, so she is keenly aware of the very real dangers and concerns parents have. But she is grateful that her work at EPIK has also helped her understand that, just as prophets have said for decades, technology is a gift from God. It’s how and why we use it that matters.

Michelle shares what she is learning as she collaborates with people who are trying to create a #UseTech4Good culture.

DeNae Handy is currently an instructor of social media marketing and personal branding at LDS Business College. She also has a background in music performance and music

DeNae Handy

education. She is a public speaker about writing, publishing, social media and blogging, the creative process, and also loves to teach about the gospel — especially the Old Testament.  A prolific blogger and essayist, DeNae has been a columnist for Meridian Magazine and published essays in book compilations.

Ms. Handy speaks to how our online presence reflects on our personal brand. Online forums are not insular; what we say and how we interact in one venue will bleed through to how we are seen through different digital eyes. Professor Handy gives practical suggestions for implementing good branding practices in every digital communication in order to maintain a consistent online presence.

Greg Trimble

Greg Trimble is an entrepreneur, member missionary, father, blogger, and digital marketer. He founded an internet marketing agency in Southern California. He is also a featured contributor to LDS Living, Deseret News, FamilyShare, and other online publications. He’s been interviewed about his blog’s success by Fox 13 News in Salt Lake City, KSL, and BYU. Greg has spoken at various firesides and conferences in Southern California, Utah, Australia, and Massachusetts. He and his family live in Riverside, California.

He shares his experience jumping head-first into the deep-end of the blogosphere. March 10, 2014, he sat down, built a blog, and put out his first post. Since that time, he has had over 7 million page views.

Greg shares practical tools for those wanting to maximize their impact as a digital missionary and the reach of their personal blogs.

Whether you are a listener concerned about raising a digital native or one wishing to maximize your online presence, this episode is sure to provide you with some practical tools.

Feature Image from:  “Digital Natives and How They Will Change the World” by Clara Kim, February 10, 2014, http://www.sccl.org/About/Staff-Posts/February-2014/Digital-Natives-How-They-ll-Change-the-World

The post Episode 56: The World of Digital Natives appeared first on LDS Perspectives Podcast.