Are you terrified of Twitter? Fearful of Facebook? Suspicious of Delicious? Well, don’t be. They don’t bite. These are just three of the most popular of an assortment of web sites known as “social media.” Because I know some genuine computer geeks, I was able to sit down with one (thank you, Cody Bailey) and get a basic tutorial on what site does what and what good is it. That’s the important question, right “well, what the hell good is it?” Later, another geek (and thank you, Robert Stackhouse) gave me some more “advanced” pointers.
I used to see no point in using any of them. I’m not very sociable. But I do have close friends I like to keep up with. And I kept hearing how you “need” to use these things to promote your independent business schemes, your blog, your writing, you artwork, or your whatever. And since I had no job at the time (or now, either), and needed something to do to keep from going crazy when I wasn’t filling out piles of job applications, I decided to sign up.
I actually started with MySpace, but that was only because my brother and niece had MySpace pages, and I knew I could get them as “friends.” But then I signed up for Twitter and Facebook, and have totally ignored MySpace ever since. Because Facebook is dynamic and Twitter is simple. MySpace is too much like and not enough like an actual blog — if that makes sense (no? neither does MySpace). But I digress.
Twitter is simple. You sign up; you can use a screen name, or just your own name (if nobody else is already using what you pick); you get offered a set of other Twitter users (“tweeps”) to follow; and you can send e-mails inviting your friends to sign up or to follow you. If you’re looking for a particular interest group, you can go to search.twitter.com and type your request into the search box. I found some other basenji owners to follow, and now some of them are also following me, and some of them read my blog (Hi, basenji tweeps!). Twitter is fun because you can passively stalk people. I follow some of the actors who were on some of my favorite sci fi shows, like Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, and LeVar Burton of Star Trek The Next Generation, and Nathan Fillion of Firefly. And PETER MAX! He was never on Star Trek or Firefly. But he makes cool art. I’ve been a fan of his since the 60′s. But I digress, again.
Twitter comments, or “tweets” are limited to 140 characters. That’s including spaces, etc. So be brief. But that’s kind of a good thing. You can let all your tweeps know that the weather is shitty, or you’re on your way to do something cool, and everyone can just eat their hearts out that they aren’t you, or you just worked your ass off all day and you’re going to cook a ginormous dinner to get your ass back. People want to know that crap. But without a lot of embelishment.
Facebook is dynamic. You can chat on screen with your friends, no matter where they are (probably should refrain when one or both of you are driving, duh), if you happen to be on line at the same time with Facebook open. And there’s a little doodad in the lower right corner that will tell you who’s on line (crescent moon) or on Facebook (full moon), and you can open a dialog box and call them up. It’s kind of fun, except when you’re both trying to upload a comment at the same time. Then sometimes one of the comments just gets wasted into the ether of cyberspace. Also with Facebook you can paste a photo into your update so folks can see it without having to load another page.
Facebook offers many amusements. I kid you not. You can waste spend an entire day playing the games, taking the quizzes, and spamming everyone you know to play the games and take the quizzes, too. I take a few quizzes. I’ve learned a lot about myself. Like the movie star I’m most like is Kathryn Hepburn (hah, no brainer), my ideal car is a Bugatti Veyron (in my dreams, cause I’ll never be able to afford it), and my hippie name is Meadow Lotus Song. That’s all important stuff. And on Facebook you’re not limited to 140 characters.
If you want to save time in tweeting and updating, you can get Tweetdeck, which lets you send one update to both Twitter and Facebook — but you’re limited to Twitter rules for length. One neat thing Tweetdeck has is a URL abbreviator. There’s a line below the tweet box where you can paste a long URL. Then you just hit the “shorten” button and POOF, your link appears in your tweet without using up as many of those precious 140 characters. There are other “apps,” like Hootsuite, that let you do things like write a tweet in the middle of the night, but put a time stamp on it so it will appear during normal business hours. That’s not one I use — preferring to be asleep in the middle of the night. My brother has an app that lets him tweet from his blackberry. I’m so jealous.
Then there’s Delicious. This is a social bookmarking site. I don’t use it like that, but when I switched computers, I moved all my bookmarks from my iBook to Delicious, so that I can access them from this piece of crap PC. Normally, Delicious lets people share bookmarks and vote on the most popular on any given day. If you have a blog, and your pages get bookmarked on Delicious — a lot — you’ll get a lot more readers, which could turn into money in your pocket if you have ads on your blog that people click on, or if you sell something and a lot of people start buying.
I think anyone who can use a computer and the internet can learn to use Twitter and Facebook. And they’re handy. Easier than writing a letter, less expensive (read free) than a long distance phone call, more like a conversation than e-mail. Tryyyy it! You’ll liiiiike it!
