I’m no expert in social media, and there are a lot of social media options to think about. There’s Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Ning, and about a million other options I don’t even know about. In that spirit, Social Media Month is going to be about educating each other about social media. Our first project is the much-anticipated Social Media Carnival!
The task is simple: write a post about a social media tool that you currently use. If you don’t currently use any social media, pick one you’re interested in, do some research, and write a post about what you’ve learned. Posts should be as specific and experience based as possible. If you’re stuck on what to write, here are some ideas — how do you use this particular tool to improve your blog or relationship with other bloggers? How do you balance time between blogging and using social media? What are some specific things you wish you’d known before you started your chosen new tool?
During my last year at university, when I was writing my thesis, I was an absolute Delicious fanatic. There's an old post of mine about the wonders of social bookmarking; you can check it out if you want. (The writing is very stiff and dull, I know, but that was an "academic" post and I wrote it as I thought my teacher wanted me to write.)
In a nutshell, Delicious works this way: you can bookmark web resources so you can find them later. In order to make them easier to find, you can tag them with appropriate labels and add a short description. Tags can be bundled up to build your own taxonomy. In addition, you can also search other people's bookmarks, so that your finds can be more relevant than those coming from a normal search engine. Another feature is the possibility of "being a fan" of people who share your interests.
Delicious is pretty basic and user-friendly, and that's why I loved it when doing research work - the number of good things you come up with is amazing. After graduating I haven't used it so extensively. If you want to look up my bookmarks, my username is Alessandra_p. I have a lot of resources about blog basics (we were doing papers on blogs that semester), writing websites, and translation glossaries.
I don't know how Delicious could be used to improve this blog, other than keeping tracks of reviews and finding new book blogs. For example, there's Renay of YA Fabulous who uses it to bookmark as many YA book reviews as humanly possible. Go on, check her out at YA Fabulous on Delicious.
Quick notes on the other social media I use:
- I'm on Facebook, but I don't have many friends there and don't like to friend people whom I don't know in real life, with some notable exceptions;
- On Ning there are some interesting groups such as Book Blogs, with notable discussions about books;
- I don't seem to get Twitter at all (I wish someone would explain to me where the fun is - maybe I'll find out once the Social Media Carnival is on);
- I'm on Technorati too, but only to promote my blog to potential readers.
I look forward to reading all your great posts on social media!
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by myself and Eva that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!
