How do you turn this Facebook thing on?

This should be really exciting, but...

To be honest, I haven’t been so nervous since I met ballerina Kat Haefele on a train during my sophomore year of high school — and asked her to, like, hang out or something.

We’ve been telling you for a while now that this column would be hooked up with a Facebook page, so it would be even easier for readers to comment, argue, share a laugh or whatever.

I actually didn’t know when my minders at The Press would decide to take the Facebook leap, so I just kept mentioning it occasionally and then replacing it in a dusty file drawer.

Well, guess what?

First thing Monday morning, I got “The Word.” This column is going live on Facebook.

So I asked: When?

Reply: Now!

Ah.

FOR MOST of you, this would be the simplest of tasks.

I’m already writing four of these columns each week, so what could be so difficult about linking them to a Facebook account and making conversation when folks offer comments?

Here’s the thing, though...

I’m not quite as tech-savvy as your normal 8-year-old.

Yes, I have a personal Facebook account, but I use it for purely social reasons — basically staying in touch with friends all over the world.

I’ve lived in Britain and worked in both Europe and the Middle East, so Facebook is a terrific way for me to remain connected with other folks’ lives.

But I’ve never used Facebook in a business setting (nor Twitter, either, and that’s also coming soon).

City editor Maureen Dolan, to whom social media and all its tweaks are second nature, told me in a breezy manner that we would “cross-share” the Brand New Day page with the official Facebook account of the Coeur d’Alene Press.

Cross-share?

What that means, she said — speaking slowly, as if to an infant — is that Brand New Day and the newspaper’s Facebook page will complement each other.

OK, THEN...

I could actually feel her eyes rolling when I said: “So how do I explain this to my column readers? And how do they reach the Facebook page for A Brand New Day besides going to The Press page first?

You know, in case somebody wants to mention my very cool hat.

Or not.

Now this next part I DID understand: If you’re already signed in to Facebook, you can reach the column page simply by typing “A Brand New Day” into the search bar (without the quote marks).

If you have a Facebook account but you’re doing something else at the moment — like working, maybe — just go to your computer browser and type in this link: facebook.com/BrandNewDayCDAPress

Are you getting all this?

Probably more quickly than I did, certainly.

Anyway, the whole point is that, yes, we’re hoping — whether you enjoy our print or digital editions, or both — that you’ll join the conversation.

A Brand New Day on Facebook is officially...

Open. For. Business.

•••

Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. Follow A Brand New Day at facebook.com/BrandNewDayCDAPress. Email: [email protected]