It is late afternoon, I am 12 years old, in the office of my parent's north Raleigh home. I toe-poke the power buttons of the modem and computer because my hands are busy unwrapping the mind-boggling assortment of Little Debbie cakes I'm about to devour.

Busloads of kids like me would get out of school and return to an empty house until our parents got home from work. That did mean free reign in the pantry, but not the real world, which meant we were stranded from our best friends for agonizing periods of time. Solution? Instant messaging.

AOL's Instant Messenger gave us the opportunity to maintain relationships with friends from school through communication that otherwise wouldn't have happened. You were judged in this online world not only by what you said, but also by what fonts and colors you chose.

Eventually, the emergence of blogs provided additional opportunity to utilize design while creating online personalities as well. On my limited AIM profile, I was able to post a link to my Xanga blog and tada! I could tell all of my friends my story with no word limit. The arrival of blogs solidified the concept that people do want to hear your story, and through this, social media has continued to adapt to meet the needs of its users.

Fast-forward 10 years to 2011 and what's the point? For me, instant messages and blogs were the roots of all my future social media use. There is an entire generation of young adults that share the same background. Now, as we mature alongside advancements in technology, we are changing the face of business communication.

Back then, social media was a culture among kids. Now it has become a phenomenon driven by our innate desire to create and maintain strong relationships. So it is no surprise that the sub-cultures of instant messaging and blogs quickly evolved into social-utility communication technologies that meet users' needs to put a story in a public market where everyone is looking.

Yes, public relations professionals are specifically trained to maintain public images, monitor communication trends, predict consequences and spread messages. But every single user of social media is taking the PR at-home tutorial. Facebook has more than 500 million active users. Each user maintains a public image every time they edit their profile or interact with others.

Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere have developed into more than shared social space - they have become an actual culture. In an anthropological sense, culture is specific aspects of living that create such an impact that they transmit from one generation to another. Social media has definitely become a way of life and the transmission between generations is occurring now.

If you value your public image and you utilize social media, think about the implications of your interactions. In order to utilize social media optimally, you must comply with the norms of the culture it has created. Just as it is against public norms to arrive at a client meeting in sweats, it is equally inappropriate to ignore your social media presence. So, tell your story and keep your public audiences interested - but remember, you never know who might be looking.

Tags: Largemouth Communications, public relations, North Carolina PR, Media Relations, Raleigh, NC State, broadcast media, Twitter, B2B, Facebook