As of today I am an active user on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram, Linkedin, Skype; I also have accounts with YouTube, Google+ (only because it's "mandatory"), MySpace (I recently found out, my information is still all there), Snapchat, Yelp, and many more social media & blogging sites along with all those websites that required me to put in my info just to access their content. Every device I own has these accounts all connected to it, so I can access each site from anywhere, 24/7/365. Taking a day off or going on vacation, no longer means that you are unreachable; if you take that sick day from work, you better not update your Facebook status to "ready for the Bergdorf Goodman sample sale today" .

Who would have ever thought that a kid from Harvard would completely revolutionize the way we interact with each other? Certainly Facebook is not the only social media out there on the web, but it is still the most powerful networking site with the highest number of active users on a daily basis. Pretty much everyone we know is on Facebook; truth is that we all have that odd friend who does not want to subscribe, or who joined and now deleted his account. It seems to be the "hip thing" to deactivate your Facebook account for a while and then coming back. The social networking site reported that eight out of ten users return to Facebook within a month of deactivation of the account. It's like running away from home; you are just doing it to get attention, but we all know you will come back soon because you miss it.

Today if you are not on Facebook or any other social media site, it's almost as if you do not exist. I know this may sound harsh and a superficial way to think about your existence but let's see it from the L.A. perspective. Hollywood is overpopulated with all kinds of celebrities, the struggle is to stay relevant and making people want to have more of you. What websites like the one Zuckerberg created are a scaled down version of Hollywood but for the average person. Do we really care if our friend from pre-k just went to see a Rihanna concert? No, but we care if he received 100 likes on that post compared to the 25 on the picture of you and your puppy.

My goal in these few lines is not to analyze the psychology behind social media and how it works, but mostly to convey to businesses the concept that if they do not have a presence on the web and on social media, they may as well not exist. The Internet is our encyclopedia now, for everything. If you cannot find information online on a company, what's the first thing that goes on through your mind? "What do they have to hide? Sketchy!!"; at least that's what I think.

So put yourself out there and present the best version of yourself to the world, because what you share online is the window to your business, product, service, and personality. This is the new idea of first impression, so make it count and remarkable.