PostPoints tip: Use social networks to update--or replace--contacts lists

The time is coming soon to send out holiday cards and e-mails--if you're more coordinated than me, that time has already arrived--and so you're probably wondering if you have correct contact info for your friends. This is one area where social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn can provide some legitimate value: Either you'll find that some friends have already posted their coordinates on one of these sites, or you can at least send them a message asking for that information. Now would be a good time to do so and avoid the last-minute scramble to figure out what to put on the outside of the envelope or the "to" line of the e-mail. (In the case of friends who change jobs or move often, but whom I don't contact too regularly, I find it's easier not to add them to my address-book application at all, instead checking their social-network profiles whenever I need to reach them.)