But now you’re planning a move to another place, and you feel lost. You have various questions, but you don’t even know who you can ask.
There is now somewhere you can turn at the touch of a button: social media. Popular social media sites don’t only keep you in touch with friends and help you plug in to the news. They can also help you prepare for your move in many ways.
Even if you’ve never met anyone from your new city, with a Facebook account, you have millions of people and organizations at your fingertips.
First of all, see if you can make connections in your new area. Post about your upcoming move and ask your friends if they know anyone from the place you’re moving to. Chances are, one of your friends will have a friend or acquaintance who lives in your new neighborhood-which gives you an instant resource. You can friend this person on Facebook and message them all your questions about the area.
If you don’t find a connection though a friend, you can probably find one through a local organization’s Facebook group. If you’re moving to the new area for school, see if your school has a group you can join. You can also search for
Facebook groups for community organizations or church groups in your new area. Join these groups and get regular updates about events-and post your questions to the group page.
You may need a new job in your city, so LinkedIn is an invaluable resource. You might be too far away to attend interviews before your actual move, but you can still prepare in advance as you network on LinkedIn.
When you connect with your current colleagues and acquaintances on LinkedIn, the connection indicates they’re willing to endorse you professionally. These connections could serve as references as you apply for a new job, or they could help connect you to other professionals in your industry.
You can also search for contacts in your new location that work in your industry, and invite them to join your network. Note that you’ll need to send them an introduction through someone you’re connected with-unless you pay for a service called InMail, which allows you to contact anyone on LinkedIn. These new contacts may have information about jobs in your area, and their expertise and recommendations should give you a leg up on the local competition.
Twitter provides an innovative way to get to know your moving destination before you even arrive. As you probably know, when people post-or “tweet”- on Twitter, they use a hash tag (#) that gathers their posts together with other posts that use the same hash tag. To learn about local news and events, try searching for hash tags that include the name of your new city. You should be directed to dozens of posts that give you a feel of local happenings.
You can also “follow” certain people or organizations that regularly post about your new city. For example, if you’re moving to Chicago and want to get information from a local newspaper, you could follow @chicagotribune. You’ll get all their latest updates on your personal newsfeed.
You can also access other social media sites that can help get you excited about your new town. For example, you could search for pictures of the area on Pinterest or Instagram.
No matter which social media site you use, you can feel ready for your new city before you even arrive. Use these tips to prepare for your move-and keep watching our blog for more moving tips and tricks.
