For the longest time I didn’t understand the point of sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed, etc. I would hear people say, “Do you have a MySpace?” or “Are you on Facebook?” and would think it was just another Internet trend that would come and go like so many other memes and sites have in the past. I didn’t see the value in these ’social networking’ sites and figured they were more for high schoolers to keep in touch and nothing more.
One day, a couple years ago, a coworker and I were talking about old friends we hadn’t seen since high school. He told me that he had actually reconnected with them via MySpace and so I decided to take the dive and make a profile. As I looked around MySpace, I found myself irritated with the vast amount of useless (and rather personal) information about people on there. Determined not to be ‘one of those people’, I set my profile to private and did find a few friends but after a year or so found myself feeling very unattached to the site as a whole and deleted my profile. My original venture into the world of social networking had begun, however, and I had no idea where it was to go…
In June of 2008 I read an article about a social networking site that was brand new called Plurk. The article spoke very highly of it and mentioned how it was like Twitter only more conversational and more personal. I decided to check it out. Plurk displays your posts (called plurks) in a horizontal timeline fashion alongside other Plurkers that are are following but keeps replies to those plurks vertically inline with that plurk. Difficult to explain in words but I suggest you check Plurk out for yourself.
I found it difficult to pull myself away from Plurk. I was either anxiously awaiting replies to my own plurks or mad with curiosity about what the next plurk from another plurk friend. I would spend hours each day browsing, plurking, and replying to others’ plurks. I couldn’t get enough.
A couple months after joining Plurk, I created a Facebook profile. I consider Facebook to be MySpace without all of the crap associated with it. Facebook also has a more mature user base which makes the whole networking aspect of social networking more possible. I have continued to use Facebook and enjoy it very much. Next came Twitter. Yet another fix for my growing online addiction.
So here I am today, like a crack addict, Plurking, Tweeting, and Facebooking daily. There are certainly more unhealthy addictions that I could have. I have got to say, though, with Twitter in particular, I have come to use it as a networking tool and have met the most interesting people locally through it that I would not have otherwise. I have also received business leads from being a part of those social networks. The point is, online social networking, while addictive, can be a great way to build your business. They can be whatever you make of them, and that’s the beauty of modern social networking online.
Soon I will be posting some information on how to use social networks to build a good business network. Until then, go ahead and join those networks. Join and take in the addiction, the crack, that is online social networking.
This is a geeky comic for the ubergeek out there. You’ll find everything from math to physics to programming in XKCD. Through simple stick figures is communicated a world of geeky goodness that is sure to make you smile. Oh, and don’t forget to hover over the comic images on the website–you will always find witty comments in the alt-tags for each comic.
Dork Tower is more for the RPG enthusiast than anything but always a fun read. The characters are loveable and entertaining and the writing is so incredibly true to geek life! A fairly new comic for me to follow but a good one, nonetheless.
Everything from political humor to social commentary to simple daily observations are found in Indexed. While the subject matter isn’t all that geeky by nature, the simple fact that the entire comic is done with Venn diagrams and line graphs makes this a surefire geek hit while appealing to the masses as well. Look for books of these comics in local books stores, too!