I feature an interesting website, blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page or other online destination related to Waterloo Region on CKWR with Randolph J. Johnston called #WRawesome Online, Mondays at about 12:30. Here is the Midday with RJ’s Facebook page.

I hope by doing so that I’ll help people find places online that help them to connect to their community-online and in the real world. By doing so, I hope to help people find online places that they might not find otherwise and make our community a better place to live.

For folks looking for communications advice, you can get tips from each selection featured. I’ll highlight at least one example in my weekly post.

Farwell’s Social Media Journey

Mike Farwell burst onto the social media scene with fanfare a couple years ago. He joined Facebook and wanted to get 500 friends. He did this as part of an effort to raise money for cystic fibrosis research in memory of his sisters who died from the condition. He even fought Fitz “the Whip” Vanderpool in a boxing match.

I’ve never been a big fan of people bursting onto to social media in a big way without understanding how it works. Still I said yes to his friend request although we didn’t know each other well because our families had a strong connection-mostly from when my mother worked at St. Anne’s School. I knew the genuineness of the cause and wanted to support it.

I’m happy to say that Mike proved to be a fast learner about how social media works and that it’s all about relationships. In fact, he saw how it could enhance his work as a journalist and so I invited him to participate in a Social Media Breakfast: Waterloo Region panel on how social media is changing the way journalists do their job.

Mike Farwell on Twitter is #WRawesome Online

Even though he now works for an out of town radio station, Mike Farwell (@Farwell_WR) continues to live in Kitchener and be active across Waterloo Region. He has taken the base he built on Twitter as a local media personality and continued to use it as a tool for community building.

In many ways how he uses Twitter to make Kitchener and Waterloo Region better hasn’t changed since he was local news reporter. That shows that he has a long track record of using Twitter to share his ideas and support the ideas of others that help to ensure our area is the best place to live. His love of his roots comes out strongly in what he says on Twitter.

It would have been easy for Mike to have closed his account that featured local issues to focus on a Twitter account that focused on his career interests. Or to put more time and emphasis onto his professionally oriented Twitter account. But he hasn’t which shows that his use has always be genuine and he truly cares about his community.

Mike and I don’t always agree. But usually our differences are on how to get to a goal. Less often is it about the goal itself since we usually agree on what the big picture looks like.

So I recommend Mike as someone people in Waterloo Region should be following on Twitter. He’s using social media to be a community builder and by doing so he challenges you to be a community builder.

From a charity’s perspective, Mike is a great example of how your supporter’s can use their own networks to help them move closer to achieving their vision. He uses his social media platform to advocate for his cause but he doesn’t do it by relentlessly pushing but by building on his relationships. Sure there are times when his feed is filled mostly with his efforts to help find cures for cystic fibrosis but he continues to share his broader interests-just as he may work CF into his mix in other months. Find people like Mike-they may already be in your midst-and find a way to get them to support your efforts to create change in a genuine way.