By Kristin Tomlinson-Web Success Team

Thanksgiving dates back to 1621, when both the Mayflower Pilgrims and the American Wampanoag Indians shared 3 days of celebration for conquering their harsh environment and feasting with new friends in a new world. Today, Thanksgiving is a time where people come from near and far to reconnect, rejuvenate, reflect and rejoice. Thanksgiving is one of the few times of the year that can be classified as a social holiday. People actually have a reason to get back in sync with someone they’ve lost touch with or possibly repair old ties that have previously been severed.

Like Thanksgiving, social media gives people the tools to reconnect and stay in touch. Instead of a wooden table decorated with lavish decorations and dishes, people gather around electronic devices adorned with various forms of networking sites and portals that enable people to get plugged in and unite. Thanksgiving and social media networking draw similar parallels, bringing people together for practical purposes, whether it be eating or solidifying business deals, cooking meals or cooking up interesting tweets and Facebook chats.

Just as Indians and Pilgrims from distant lands came together on common ground to harvest their bounty, people from various parts of the globe join forces in a “cyberspace” field to prosper for business and networking purposes.

Thanksgiving is also a time for welcoming friends and neighbors into your home to get better acquainted and make existing bonds stronger. Similarly, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter were all designed for people to welcome others to their homepages and websites and get reconnected.

Proclaimed a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving has morphed into an international event celebrated by Americans and their friends across the globe. In contrast, social media was founded by a few daring entrepreneurs and has exploded into virtually millions of household and businesses throughout the world wide web, granting a ton of web success.

Thanksgiving only comes around once a year, but by incorporating online marketing into your everyday life, you can have a reason to celebrate daily. You certainly have a reason to give thanks because social media is known for giving back. It can help businesses reach more customers, boost their sales and give them an edge on the competition. Social media can sit at the proverbial head of the table, and allow consumers to feast on success and profits (instead of turkey and yams).

Both Thanksgiving and social media gives us a reason to celebrate and bring us closer together. But unlike our historic ancestors, we hope our brave new social world will lead to better and more understanding between people of all ethnicities and cultures. Happy Thanksgiving.