What were once greatly disconnected segments of one’s life – family, friends and business – are now, thanks to social media applications, being integrated and connected in ways never thought possible as little as five years ago.

Within the span of a few minutes, you can message your daughter, living in another part of the world, and attach photos of last evening’s birthday party for your husband; comment on a friend’s latest photos of their resident Fox and her Kits, photos included of course; and let your clients and business associates know about your latest blog post.

All without ever leaving Facebook. Communications activities that were all but impossible a decade ago are now commonplace.

Fifteen years ago, sending a video of your baby taking his first steps, to friends across the globe, would have required renting a satellite uplink, at a cost of thousands of dollars.

Now not only can you share your precious video with family and friends, they can pass it on to their friends with a click of the mouse. Videos of your cat playing the piano, as in the case of “Nora the Cat,” may even reach millions of people in a few weeks. All for essentially no cost on your part. And a homeless man, with a great voice, can have his video go viral and result in worldwide fame and a job offer. All just a day’s work for Youtube.

Your post about the latest unsafe food product, once a well kept secret known by only a few, is now not only being seen by millions, but is being discussed in their Facebook news feeds, gaining enough momentum to force responsible parties to take action.

Going back ten years ago, the Dinosaur Age of the Internet, if you wanted to go on vacation you’d search on Yahoo or Alta Vista (who?) or some other search engine whose name is all but forgotten, for travel destinations. You’d then sift through the dozens of pages of poorly targeted results.

Today, a quick question posted on Facebook or Twitter will bring, almost immediately, ideas and suggestions from trusted friends and colleagues who, unlike the search engines, know your likes and dislikes.

Travel sites like Trip Advisor will, if you give permission, deliver results that include comments left by your Facebook friends about travel destinations and Yelp will tell you which of your friends liked a particular restaurant.

Social media has even contributed to the election of a President in the U.S. and the toppling of several dictators around the globe.

Whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay and is playing a major part in people’s lives.

Your company is most likely already being discussed on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and other social sites. The question is will you be part of the conversation?

Yes, as Bob Dylan wrote in the title song to his 1964 album, “The Times They Are-a-Changin.” (Lyrics – http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/the-times-they-are-a-changin)