Another Copy Cat

This is another blog where I review other people's blogs and steal their ideas.

Everyone seems to have followed the same progression in their twitter-verse. They start a twitter to keep in touch with friend and families and possibly that kid in school you love to judge. Then they moved on to celebrities and news sources. Or, if you're like Lindsay and I, Uberffacts. I love checking my twitter really quickly when I'm with friends and telling them the random facts that pop up on my feed.

Once again, Emma's expertise shined. She included screenshots of her twitter to go along with her post. I just put pictures of cute animals. But, who doesn't love cute animals? Maybe I could do both?

What's more impressive to me, though, is that she has found her voice. When she writes, he posts are consistent and sound like they are coming from a specific person. I feel as if I haven't quite found that voice yet. And, as I'm trying to be more concise, I feel as if I'm having an even harder time.

The other blogs also reminded me to start putting my twitter in to lists. I tried last week and got bored halfway through

Maybe I should finish the job.

Also, I'd like to add my twitter feed to my blog. (Maybe if I write it down, I'll actually do it).

The Voice of Vaughn's post really resonated with me this week as well, in terms of his complaints about following news sources. He complained of the apparent "waste of tweet" that many news sources seem to have, as their use of the instantaneous and constant platform of twitter seems to be a bit too constant. I believe that it is important to keep reminding your follower that you're there, but as many of the other students point out, your follower often stops reading if you badger them.

118 and Counting

I started my twitter because my friend made me. She was and still is one of those twitter users who's figured it out and tweets often. She wanted me to get a twitter just so she "could tweet at me". She also created twitters for two of our other friends. Neither of them use it. I decided to try.

I got my twitter around the same time that I joined a sorority. I started out only following people in my sorority so that I could get to know them through their tweets and interact with them. I also followed my other friends here at Lehigh. My friends from back home don't have a twitter, they find that tumblr and Facebook are enough social media for them. 

Then, through recommendations for people to follow on twitter, I followed various Lehigh parody accounts and a couple of "Total sorority move"accounts. I also followed some celebrities. Ellen Degeneres was the first I followed. I also follow her on Stamped. I also followed Wanda Sykes and Taylor Swift. Ellen is the only one who tweets often.

Now, thanks to this class, I follow Lehigh Valley with Love and some news sources. I'm working on the rest of the lists recommended for the class.

I still mostly only follow my friends, and most of my tweets are still just interactions between the girl who made me make my twitter and I.

Inspiration from Others

I lied... This was a bit more than I expected.

When looking at the other blogs, I was constantly reminded of the difference in expertise that each of us have. This also happens to be my favorite thing about this assignment and the class in general. Some of the blogs (I would say I definitely fall under this category) were obviously started by beginners. I though I had mine completely customized because I selected my favorite from a list of default backgrounds and chose a font. This is just another lesson in the role social media can play in sharing information and inspiration. I now know what the possibilities are and I plan to copy some of my favorites.

There were people who added pictures and links to their posts. There were people who were using a personal blog, so they had all the categories of their posts in a list on the side. There were people who had links to all the other blogs on the side (definitely doing this... My RSS feed is confusing). There were people who had their twitter either linked on the page, or had their actual feed on the side. Some people, like Emma (see? I'm already learning) had it all.

I was also struck by how much shorter a lot the people's blog posts were than mine. And it wasn't because they had less to say. Perhaps I should work on being more concise, as this is a blog post and not an essay.

I've still got a lot to learn.

In terms of the other students opinions' on twitter and facebook, everyone seemed to have opinions, regardless of their level of experience. Twitter is a place for connecting with people on a more even playing field. People can interact with celebrities in a way they couldn't in the real world or on Facebook, which is something I didn't even think of. Facebook is more personal. Almost everyone worried about privacy on Facebook because of the personal nature of their posts. However, these same people loved the public aspect of Twitter.

I don't know what to post a picture of, but I'd like to post one to make this post more aesthetically pleasing, so here's a picture of something I like (customization and personalization):

Also, I'd like to highlight something I read in Stephanie's blog that I think is a great summarization of the ultimate potential for social media:

"More times than not, we, as consumers, see information as simply there for the taking. If we can shy away from the ‘what can you do for me’ and lean more toward ‘what can we accomplish together’ – from a producer AND consumer perspective – we can get one step closer to knowing it all."

Well said.

Facebook vs. Twitter

My experiences with Facebook and Twitter are extremely different. Facebook defines an "active" user as someone who signs on at least once a month, so I would probably call my self a super duper really active user. I am constantly checking my Facebook. I look at my news feed constantly and often have it in another tab while I'm doing other things so that I can see the (1) when I get a new notification on the tab. Twitter, on the other hand, I check maybe once a day. I forget sometimes and still haven't figured out how to do basic things. That being said, I do see the importance and merit of both.

Twitter is more immediate and constant. Like with Ted, you are able to post things often in order to create buzz. People aren't checking twitter all the time (well, let's face it, some people are), so Twitter allows you to consistently post things so that you are always present on their feed. Constantly reminding people of your presence will create more of a buzz as well.

Because of the list-like quality of twitter, it is also important as a business to be on twitter constantly so that you don't miss any consumer engagement opportunities. All of the companies on the article about thriving company twitters are so successful because they respond to their consumer and use twitter for customer service.

Also, the constant and immediate aspects of twitter are the reason why I wasn't surprised by the data about news organizations. People get news directly from news organization twitters because the information is timely and easy to access.

Facebook is more of a culmination of all the information you need. I can go to a page and see a store's hours, information, photos, posts, and everything else all in one place. On twitter, it's just a list of tweets. Facebook also has longer posts, so more information can be shared.

I think my main reason for not using Twitter much is because I don't have much updating to do. If I want my friends to know something about my life, I'll tell them. I also very rarely post status updates on Facebook because of this.

In terms of the articles, I have some thoughts about the ones talking about the "cons" of Facebook. They seem kind of nit-picky. Facebook is a social website intended for charing information. Everyone knows this when they sign up. If you use a "social reader", obviously this is going to be shared and social. If you can't be bothered to check a box that won't post it on your homepage, then you should at least not read anything you'd be embarrassed about. Also, the fact that one of the main reasons that Man Bartlett deleted his facebook was because he hated that his default email got changed without notice. Who cares? I don't get emails from Facebook because I'd rather just get my notifications from Facebook. Any one who needs my email has it, and if they don't they could contact me on Facebook to get it. Also, a topless woman is a topless woman. I understand that she was doing it for an important cause, but if Facebook bends the rules, then they will lose all authority in moderating actually inappropriate content. Facebook should learn how to be more interactive with their users in terms of warning them before taking action, but I think Bartlett's anger was a bit misguided.