The days when enjoying technology meant sitting at home isolated from society are long gone. “Social media” is one of the hottest buzzwords out there, and the “social” part’s truer than ever. With social media, it’s easy to keep track of hundreds of connections, and there’s no reason for them to be confined to your PC.

Some of the biggest social media Web sites out there are: Facebook, which just reached 500 million users; LinkedIn; Twitter; and Flickr, and each of these sites operates in its own specialty. Facebook is great for finding and staying in touch with people from your past. LinkedIn helps you create professional contacts. Twitter helps you find and share the most interesting content on the Web, and Flickr allows you to show photos to anyone you want.

There are so many great options available to take the Internet with you on the go. Whether you use a desktop computer, laptop, tablet or cell phone to browse the Web, any good social media site has a version that’s compatible with your device.

It’s obvious that Internet access – and therefore access to social media – is very portable. That’s only a part of what makes it so exciting these days. What really makes it so valuable are all the ways it can add to your interactions with actual real live people.

A simple hardware example: So many devices have HDMI ports. With an HDMI cable, you can easily hook your laptop or device up to your television and share that YouTube video you just found, or vacation photos posted on Flickr, with the entire family. Internet-connected TV is just on the horizon, and with more and more streaming video content available, the Internet is becoming much less the solitary experience it once was.

Understanding how to use your high-tech hardware is interesting, and can add to your social media experience, but the key to using social media gets back to the fundamental act of establishing and strengthening relationships. Want to take your online relationships outside the box? These Web sites can help you do that.

Facebook

Facebook is the biggest social media site, with 500 million registered users. The best thing about it is how easy it is to find people. If you’re looking for an old friend, reconnecting is as simple as typing in their name and pressing a button. Once you have a friend or two, Facebook does a great job of recommending people you may have forgotten about. Addresses and phone numbers change, but Facebook profiles stay. You can find your best friend who moved away years ago, and easily reconnect with him or her. You might not have felt comfortable enough with someone you briefly worked with to exchange phone numbers, but as Facebook friends, you can stay in touch with little to no effort.

These are the connections that Facebook makes possible, but what about turning those online connections into real life? Planning a party? One of the most useful features of Facebook is the ability to create an event page and send out invitations. Creating an interactive event is a great way to get invitees to respond, stay interested, and turn up. Sometimes seeing their name on a guest list is enough of a push to ensure they show up.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn helps you manage your professional contacts. Upload your resume and connect with the people you know and others in your industry. Instead of putting business cards you collect in a drawer, put a face to the name and continue to interact and strengthen your relationship, even if a business transaction hasn’t given you a reason to call. Join one of the many groups formed by pros from your industry and share your thoughts. Any of those contacts could be your next client or a new job opportunity.

Twitter

What is Twitter? Why would you want to see every detail of someone’s life? You don’t, and that’s not what most Twitter users do. Despite its reputation as a repository of the mundane, Twitter is great because it turns everyone into a publisher of content they find interesting. Choose who you follow. Follow the people who share the most interesting info – an article from a newspaper or magazine, a hilarious YouTube video, a great song. Some accounts are dedicated to listing events in your area. Imagine having a list of the day’s most talked-about pages on the Internet, and events that day. That’s what you can make with Twitter.

Another great trend on Twitter are “Tweet Ups.” A group of Twitter users with a common interest arrange a time and place to actually meet up. This is great during an out-of -own business conference. You can network with Twitter users you’re already developing professional relationships with online. Web sites like TwtVite make it easy to create event pages so both Facebook and Twitter users can see the details and RSVP.

What’s Next

All the great new hardware out there makes it even easier to take social media with you while you are out and about, and apps (short for applications) are the next big thing in social media. These are programs that can be downloaded to your phone or tablet, many for free. There are hundreds of thousands of apps, which can add to your social media experience.

Foursquare is a phone app that lets you alert your network of your location. A great thing is that when you’re “checked in” at a location, you can see the other users that are also checked in.

Social media can help you find (or avoid) people while on the run. This is just one example of your online network showing you that someone is right around the corner, when without the technology, you never would have known he or she was there.

Real Life

Now put them all together. Interact with new and old friends on Facebook, and make professional connections and join in a discussion on LinkedIn. Share links to interesting articles on Twitter. Once you find a few people who you can share ideas with, you’re a part of an online community.

Come up with a reason to meet, whether it is during a conference or an event that you are interested in, pick a time and place to meet up with your contacts. Send out invitations across your networks on each of the sites. Go to the event and check in on Foursquare to see who is there. Take photos and share them on Facebook and Flickr and Twitpic after the event is over.

You might find your Rolodex getting dusty as you have more ideas, connections and opportunities than ever before. Technology brings more and more spectacular devices, and social Web sites can be a fun distraction. Why not put the two together? With just a little effort, the “social” part of social media can pay off by adding even more to your already rich offline life.