Have you ever thought about missing home while on an International Relocation? With the help of the good ol’ internet you can reach out to other travelers as well as friends and family after you have moved away with some of the tools we have listed below but first let us define Social Media.

What is Social Media?

Wikipedia says Social Media is:

The use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.

Examples of Social Media include Twitter as well as Facebook, in addition to other forms of social media such as message boards and even email can be considered a form of Social Media.

Do Relocation Transferees and International Assignees use Social Media?

The Hydrogen Group, a Global Recruitment firm, recently released their Global Professionals on the Move Report which was cited by the IESE Business School blog about the question of if employees on International Assignment use Social Media to get over home sickness. Interestingly enough, not only did they report that people are using Social Media abroad, the highest response at 37% received on this question was “definitely yes” as opposed to only 3% who said “definitely no”.

Here is a chart of the results:

What are some Social Media tools to use during a Relocation?

• Twitter - Twitter is a great way to stay connected with your home country. In addition to be able to find trends based on region you can also follow breaking news from people on the ground all around the world. In the past Breaking News would come from the TV today it comes from Twitter.
• Facebook - What better place is there to stay connected with family and friends while you are away on an assignment or relocation, than Facebook. This site has over 500,000,000 members, it’s very likely that people you know are already on the site. Also, Facebook is also the largest repository of photos on the web because you can save an unlimited amount of photos to their servers for free. Seeing photos of friends and family makes you feel closer to them.
• Linkedin – Connect with past, present and possibly future colleagues on Linkedin. Just because you are relocating doesn’t mean that networking opportunities are over. You might find that many of your connections are seemingly randomly connected to other contacts you have from a completely different sphere of influence.
• TripIt – Simply forward your all your travel plans to TripIt and it will create full travel itineraries that can be optionally shared with connections online. Sharing travel plans might lead to impromptu meetings with friends, family, or co-workers who happen to be in the same place as you at the same time.
• SeatGuru – This site makes finding the best seat on the plane a lot easier. The true travel pros know exactly which seats have the most leg room and if sitting in the exit row is a good thing or a bad thing depending the on the type of plane. This site is for the rest of us to help us choose the best seat available on any plane on any airline.
• Upcoming – This site which is the brain child of Yahoo! will help you find events that are upcoming in your new area.
• Neighborhood Relocation Tools – Recently we did a post on “What should I know about my new neighborhood before I relocate?“. Included in the post were some additional great tools to investigate your new neighborhood before you move there.

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This was posted by

Mike Morabito – who has written 170 posts on The Paragon Relocation Blog.

Mike has over 10 years of relocation experience working for Paragon Relocation. Mike is recognized by Worldwide ERC as a Certified Relocation Professional (CRP) and a Global Mobility Specialist (GMS).

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