His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama Joins Twitter

If I said the Dalai Lama was a social networking enthusiast most of you would not believe me. It's alright, I would not believe me either.

They say seeing is believing, so check this out.

That's right. The Dalai Lama has a Twitter account. And that's not all. Apparently he is on Facebook and Myspace as well. Imagine that - the spiritual leader for Tibetans and political leader in India of the Tibetan Government-in-exile is catching on to the internet social services. The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is in control of all accounts and is responsible for all updates on the sites.

It seems that not only Twitter, but other social networks are becoming so popular that even world leaders are getting in on the action. Media professionals should be aware of the growing popularity of these sites and how they are being used in new ways. Advertising on these sites is growing and some sites, like Facebook, offer access to niche audiences.

One of the "tweets" sent out by OHHDL since belonging to Twitter said, "His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office assessable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience." They've certainly got the right idea. Media professionals take note: if you want to reach out to Generation Y, you have to know how to.

Social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are new media outlets capturing the attention of millions. These sites will continue to grow and evolve and the professionals better be ready to keep up. Businesses have started

Generation Y is so in-tune with all of the new technology because we are the ones creating it. Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, is a millennial who came up with the social network in his Harvard dorm room. Zuckerberg knows that media professionals need to start paying more attention to the newer media outlets and created thus created Facebook Ads. While in New York speaking to marketing and advertising executives, Zuckerberg said, "For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”

Making access to our attention so easy means we are bound to see more from media professionals coming soon.