When Mark Goren tagged me at the beginning of the year in 8 more things, I was stumped. What might I share?But, then, I got to thinking about social media.
I really enjoyed the social media angle that Mark expresses in his blogpost. Plus, I've been living and breathing social media more than I ever thought possible, particularly in the last few months. Yet, I'm still figuring it out.
So, I got to thinking some more and wondering... and decided to morph this meme as follows:
What are 8 ways in which you've used social media? These can be your success stories, suggestions on how to use new social media vehicles to improve on older ones, or even mistakes that taught you how to make sense of it all....
1. Today, June 27, represents a personal social media milestone. It corresponds to Flooring The Consumer's 2nd blog birthday, and The Carpetology Blog's 6 month birthday. Regretfully, the Wear-Dated website - which has strong social quality - launch day of 5/30/08 missed the 27th by 3 days. It's almost one month old!
2. Matt Dickman sold me on the Flip Video Series Camcorder
at the October 2007 MarketingProfs B2B conference. [See have you googled yourself?] It took me a while to figure out how best to use it [video can really intimidate], but during Blogger Social '08 I broke out of my cocoon to launch the YouTube series titled "A Foot's Perspective?" No faces. Only feet. It's still evolving.3. I'm figuring out Facebook. I realize that carpet isn't the most buzzable topic, but I remain optimistic... I've created a Facebook page for Wear-Dated, and my very first group for Friends of Wear-Dated. Care to join? By the way, Jason Alba has - as usual - terrific tips!
4. I'm taking to Twitter, to such a point that I've modified my background. Blogger Social helped make it meaningful. I'm also frustrated with it. I don't want to just be Broadcasting with 'Social' Media, but I also find it really difficult to monitor the conversations. I'm just now giving Twhirl a whirl. Is Plurk the answer? The interface is fascinating.
5. I haven't figured out how to manage all of the streams of interaction. And, given the pace of the past few months, I've had to let some things slide.... Which complicates the catching up process. I'm not sure about Friendfeed for integrating the various tools, but really appreciate Steve Woodruff's post asking Where is the Ideal Social Media Interface? Check out his really fancy graphics.
6. LinkedIn is getting more dimensional, especially with the creation of groups. But, it's still quite formal. I find that a soothing counterpoint to all of the other exciting tools out there.
7. Animoto has been on my horizon ever since Mark Goren created the Blogger Social video. Especially after taking so many pictures of shoes and feet at my friend Claudia's wedding in Morelia, MX in April. Here is my first go. I'll take it through a few more versions [I have a LOT more pictures than appear here] before posting it as an official Carpetology video, but I'm pleased with the overall effect...
8. Despite all of the novelty on the social media scene, it's even more important for those of us experimenting with these conversational tools to not forget that there remains a big world out there for whom this stuff is confusing. And that the end goal is to enable and facilitate conversation. When it gets too complicated [i.e., having to upload yet another profile] or too distracting [i.e, read this New York Times article titled Fighting a War Against Distraction], then we miss the boat. So, it's important to integrate the new tools with the old tools. To figure out how to showcase that it truly is friendly and conversational and all about making traditional face-to-face interactions that much stronger.
That's certainly what I got out of Blogger Social 2008, BlogHer Business '08 and Marketing Profs B2B 2007.
Given the social media nature of this meme, I'm particularly interested in hearing how the following are using social media to experiment and communicate better, smarter, and more intuitively than ever before....
+ Marketing Diva Toby keeps all of us on our business toes, most recently examining twitter business feeds for Atlanta. Cool!
+Lolly has used social media to redefine herself from researcher to advertising planner
+ Personal Branding Blogger Dan Schawbel interviews the author mentioned in the NYT article above in Will Our Personal Brands Enter a Dark Age of Distraction? [how perfect!]
+ Paul Chaney uses Facebook [and others] in amazing ways
+ Tangerine Toad's Alan Wolk brings together advertising, marketing and Web 2.0
+ Mack Collier methodically dissects social media tools in The Viral Garden and MP's DailyFix
+ Steve Woodruff, recent videographer and existentialist
+ Connie Reece manages to be actively involved in all of the cool places. How do you do it?
+ Katie Chatfield whose passion for celebrating goodness, the positive and others, in the most concise way possible, inspires me.
So many of you have inspired me [Mike Sansone, Ann Handley, CK, Valeria Maltoni, Drew McLellan, Gavin Heaton, and many more...] and I invite you, too, to participate in this discussion.
Related Posts:
Connecting Via 8 Random Things About Me
Tag.. I'm It!
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12 comments:
CB - great list. I found myself nodding and thinking yes, yes and especially yes to #8. Too often social media pundits don't integrate or even consider how traditional tactics can/should support social media and the opposite is of course true.
Congrats! on your blog-birthday and on the success of the carpetology and the wear dated site. Oh and thanks for your kind words. Will give some thought to this meme.
Hi CB, thanks for the link. My alter-egos and I really loved that "War Against Distraction" article in the NY Times too (see the "conversation" on my blog). I also agree that for me, SM is a means to this end: making personal connections stronger. All the best, and see ya at the next social!
i think is very important to visit and share social media links, but maybe more is to understand what kind of structure it has... i´m confuse for example with facebook, leave very tired to recieve so many e-mails inviting me to play games there...
thinking what i need more today.... i find coroflot is perfect now to me. I can download my portfoilo, and it´s very specific ( textile designer), and the last 50 days i recive 4 nice proposals of freelancer/jobs, also i build a type of list of friends that has the same job... it´s great for fashion network.
thinking about the relevance of the social medias made me to be in more them 200 links ;)) some is just for to understand what the true concept of the link, other it´s for to send after invitations for friends, for example that are new designers and need new spaces for to make his e-commerce but with a public buyers ready ... sorry about my bad english
alllllll was for to said that one more time i´m very happy to recieve your feeds by e-mail and to read your great posts ;)
CB, among the many good points of using social media, one that has been outstanding is the opportunity to meet you - a blogging "neighbor" here in north Jersey. Great post - thanks for putting it together.
CB ... I am a fan of Animoto too. I think that it is a "sleeper" ... when everyone figures out how easy (and cheap) it is to use, it will go nuts! Happy 2nd blog birthday! What a milestone!
Toby, thanks very much.
There's such an interesting contrast or dichotomy in the works with many of us too taken with all of new toys out there [shiny object syndrome I remember someone referring to it as]. The challenge is figuring out how all of these things can be practical. That's why you are so grounding.
Terry, you and your alter-egos perfectly capture the war we are facing. But, it's all worth it given the quality of the personal connections that it creates.
Thanks for sharing and visiting, and see you soon.
Santa Mistura, what a pleasure receiving your comment! Thank you.
Very interesting to learn about your positive experience with coroflot. What a great example of a community built around specific needs and interests. That you have seen so many benefits makes your recommendations and invitations to join that much more credible, further strengthening that community. Perfect!
Steve, my neighbor, I completely agree with you! Thanks for the inspiration.
Gavin, I like that you refer to animoto as a 'sleeper' - perfect descriptor. Thanks for visiting!
Happy blogging birthday C.B! And thanks so much for tagging me - I really enojyed reading your answers. It's fascinating how our media consumption is evolving, isn't it? ;)
Thanks, Lolly! And thanks for responding to the tag so quickly. The evolution of our consumption is just fascinating. Makes one wonder how different it will be one year from now.
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Reminder: Please, no self-promotional or SPAM comments. Don't bother if you're simply trying to build inauthentic link juice. Finally, don't be anonymous: it's too hard to have a conversation. Thanks, CB