Blog Snob

The more involved I get with social media, the more I realize how much of a blog snob I am.

As I see it, when it comes to social media content, it should be easy for the end user to consume. What I mean by that is, it's should be easy to read and understand.

Blogs that get too technical and have too much jargon, even when the topic is rather technical, rarely make it to my Google Reader. If wordy, in depth articles is what I was out to read, I'd do a search for an academic or journal article, not a blog.

With blogs, I expect, concise, easy to read information on whatever topic is being covered. And honestly, I want to hear the opinion of the blogger - that's why I'm there! What they have to say on the subject is just as important as the facts. I'm there for their voice. It's about conversation, and when the content is outside the conversational tone, then it almost becomes daunting.

Those of us who spend any length of time in the social media space tend to have a laundry list of blogs that we read each day. Some we scroll through just to get the gist of what the writer is discussing, others we're sure to read word for word every day. My reader has 75+ blogs in it, can you imagine if each one of those posts was technical in nature?

Visuals help too. Break up those words with a few photos or relevant videos, will ya?

Thanks!

Maybe that makes me a snob, or someone who prefers to get her information at a 6th grade reading level, but as I see it, information in social media should remain conversational - quick and easy to consume. After all, there's so much of it and so little time to sift through the technical jargon.

Just a thought from a dedicated blog writer and reader.

Cheers!

-A

Social Media Burnout

As someone who works in social media 5 days a week and who spends a great deal of her free time doing things like blogging and participating in conversations on Twitter and Facebook for my clients, I'll be the first to tell you that, if you're not careful with social media, burnout will slap you upside the head.

For the last few months, I've been feeling this sense of complete disgust with all things social media - specifically Facebook - and my participation has dwindled. I blamed it on the job, noting that working in social media 10 hours a day has made it nearly impossible to enjoy participating on a personal level. In fact, I think I've even said a handful of times that I do everything I can to avoid Facebook when I'm not at work. Note: to some it's probably quite clear that I've taken the energy I used to put into these outlets and aimed it at my blogging, hence the wicked increase in posts here. Which, as I see it, isn't a bad thing either!

Recently, something seems to have changed. In the past few weeks, I've slowly started jumping into the conversation again. My posts on Twitter aren't just self-serving anymore, (read: promoting a recent blog post), I'm back to reaching out to others, seeking out information, actually reading the updates that come across Tweetdeck. Same with Facebook - I'm back in action when it comes to taking part in the conversations and posting information that isn't just rubbish about myself for the sake of posting.

All this got me to thinking about the purpose of social media. When I joined Facebook back in college, it was a tool for college kids to keep in touch with friends, link up with old friends and stalk potential new friends. ;) I kid.

But since the evolution of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the purpose of daily participation has morphed a bit. As I see it, you get out of social media what you put into it. If you're an information seeker, you can only spend so much time as a voyeur before you have to sack up and share some of your resources with others. Utilizing Facebook and Twitter to share links to articles and blog posts that you find interesting, sharing photography and videos that helped you learn, that you think would be helpful to others.

There's an element of Karma in social media. If you're just there for yourself, you're likely not going to see it's full potential. But if you're willing to put in a bit of energy, you might be surprised what you get out of it.

So for all you bloggers out there who crave comments, be sure you're out there reading and providing genuine feedback to others on their blogs. Facebookers and Tweeters, if you haven't already, start joining the conversation to talk about more than yourself. You might be surprised at what happens.

Cheers!

-A

Current confessions

So I do this every now and again - and honestly it's been too long since I have. I don't fully understand my own need to put things like this out on the interwebs, but I imagine, deep down, it has something to do with my wanting to better myself....and what a better way to do it than by admitting to stupid crap like this!

Owning up to it is the first step, right? :)

Well, here goes nothing. My (short) list of confessions.

1. I love the crazy, sometimes hectic life I lead. But there are some days I just want to be lazy, and I always feel guilty about that.

2. I check myself out in every reflective surface that I pass - windows, mirrors, clean cars...everything. Though not in the "oh I'm so hot" sense, I just catch myself looking for anything that might be out of place.

3. I have a skydiving blog and Facebook fan page so that I can post about skydiving whenever I want without my friends and co-workers thinking that my life completely revolves around the sport. Even though it pretty much does.

4. Lately I've been working on being more of an observer of how I lead my life and working to improve upon that. I've found a few areas that, with a little attention to detail, could make all the difference. But I'm not going to lie, even though I've figured it out and am working on it, it still stings a little when someone points out those flaws :-/

5. Yes, I am more sensitive than I let on. So be nice, damn it ;)

6. Right now I'm listening to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. And I like it.

7. Every time I eat, I get cold for 20-30 minutes after. Every. Time. Sometimes I'm shivering uncontrollably. I hate it.

8. I unfriended my ex on Facebook - not because I wanted nothing to do with him, but because he told me he wanted nothing to do with me...so I thought it would be easier for him if he didn't have to see my updates anymore.

9. It bugs me when things are uneven, like if I get my right foot massaged, I feel lop sided until my left is done too. I'm also bothered by odd numbered lists - so I'll leave this at 9 just to help me learn to deal with it.

So c'mon spill it! What are some of your current confessions?

Cheers!

-A