How do people find information about private residential schools and programs around the country/ world for children with problems?

Since 1998, people could find this information on the Places for Struggling Teens website, www.strugglingteens.com, owned by Woodbury Reports Inc. This 30,000+ page website features the latest in breaking news, visit reports, articles and essays designed to help parents and professionals seeking resources for a child or young adult needing something more than local resources could provide. Every article published in the Places For Struggling Teens newsletter, starting with the first edition in November 1989, is available online. This invaluable source of information allows visitors to learn as much information about a school or program as they can. It is easily searchable and offers a history of this network, staff information, program details, third party perspectives, etc. Unique visitors to the site currently average about two thousand a day.

Over the last several months, Woodbury Reports has also utilized social networking to allow multifaceted interactivity. Social networking is the latest expansion of the potentialities of the Internet. It is a fairly new medium that emphasizes two-way conversations, differing from the normal one-way broadcasting. In other words, social networking allows a coffee house discussion or dialogue versus the college lecture hall where the professor presents the material with limited or no discussion.

Because of the immediacy caused by the Internet and the need for social interactivity, it has become critical for any business to stay connected via social networking. Now visitors can join the Woodbury Reports social networks and discuss schools and programs in addition to doing their own research on Strugglingteens.com. Our social networking focuses on every outlet possible to get information to the readers. Woodbury Reports, Inc. is active on:

• Twitter (www.twitter.com/strugglingteens)
• Blog (http://parent-empowerment-blog.com/)
• Facebook (www.facebook.com/strugglingteens) and
• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2340939&trk=anet_ug_hm).

Twitter continues to be the most rapidly growing segment of the Internet. Sometimes referred to as micro-blogging, “tweets” are limited to 140 characters so it can only provide the basic information, not be bogged down by marketing fluff. The headlines of every press release, article, Visit Report, New Perspective, Essay, job opening and blog post are posted on Twitter with a link to the source for full details. In addition, headlines and links are added when we find stories and relevant information on the Internet.

Blogging offers more of a place to hold discussions. The originator can post an article and readers can discuss it in more detail, with back and forth interactivity. The Parent-Empowerment-Blog contains articles regarding topics and issues in the private, parent choice network of schools, programs and professionals, and allows parents and professionals to hold discussions with me regarding those articles. News feeds and headlines are also available on our Blog.

Although a popular part of social networking, Facebook tends to focus more on the personal relationships, allowing friends to keep track of each other, share pictures, etc. Many people look to Facebook to find old friends.

Where Facebook focuses on the personal relationships, LinkedIn tends to focus more on the business or professional relationships. The Woodbury Reports LinkedIn account even includes the most recent information on industry employment opportunities, for example. News feeds and headlines are available via LinkedIn, as well.

Utilizing social networking as a way of communicating this network with the world is important. Of course, news, articles and information will continue to be available daily on Strugglingteens.com, too, especially for those who prefer not to use the sometimesoverwhelming mediums of social networking. For those who do prefer social networking, stop by any of our accounts and say hello!