I wish this to be the name of this category, actually, but this is not quite the main interest of the blog, which started with movies, life and facts. My total awe for Twitter made me speak about Social Media matters. I can’t compete with Mashable, or with “specialists”. They made a lot of friends already, and it’s hard to show when some of the so called “specialists” tell nonsense. But, from time to time, I feel the urge to say a word, be it good, or be it critical. I want to be positive, I want to add to the “conversation”. It’s hard, it became futile.
Relevant Keyword (from onbile.com)
Still, a brief review, just to wake up some “enthusiasts” (how dumb), is recommended, or that’s what I feel. This is about what I know, what I have already tested, and, knowing well I’m not a “specialist” or even a “scientist” (how dumber). Let me start with Twitter.
1. Twitter – Loosing it’s first impact, it seems to “grow”, and this is encouraged by people who actually ignore the rest. It is harder and harder to maintain a timely contact with your friends there, because of autobots. Hard to find a message or a mention lost in hundreds of nonsensical messages from in-existent people, from automated accounts. They say Twitter is good for marketing, they say it is good to sell whatever it is for sale, that is better than Facebook and it’s worth I don’t care how many billions dollars. Let me tell you this. Who said you can’t sell if you don’t have enough followers, was right in a way. I have over twenty one thousand followers, it’s not that much for a guy who sells something, but they are mostly people, that’s the reason they are good. They are my friends. Considering I’m not using a software to add them automatically, this is quite an accomplishment. Because of bots, my communication with this people is visibly hampered, they ceased to respond as before, because they have difficulty finding your message in the first place. The design is continuously changing, not always for the best. Twitter is not the only Social Media tool with this sort of changes, but it’s for sure the site with most bugs and infiltrations from outside. It used to be my favorite, but now, it came on the third place. Oh, and they are not driving that lots of traffic as before for everyone, even that I think they still generate traffic for a few. Newbies knew just some of the guys who shared the internet and are labeled “specialists” or even more, “scientists”, and this guys still have some shared traffic from Twitter, mostly from this newbies. Of course, sometimes, the timeline is also crucial, you have to know when to “tweet on target”, not anyone is using HootSuite, so at certain times, your “important” link may be spotted in the “target”‘s stream.
2. Facebook – I don’t use it, and I’m not going to speak anymore about it. I appreciate Mark Zuckerberg, I’ve seen The Social Network and I read the book Accidental Millionaires.
The old StumbleUpon logo
3. StumbleUpon – A former good Social Media site. A former very good social media tool. Like myspace, they changed the design, they even changed their logo, they changed such a lot of things trying to imitate Google+, that they lost a lot of former supporters. There were “champions” there, they HTML designed their own “look”, now that’s gone. Also the “stumbling” is more difficult, the categories are scrambled, the labels are an absolute decoy, and after all that, as if this wouldn’t be enough, they changed the logo. From a stylized SU, they assembled an astrological Aries symbol on the reverse, or it looks like a clogged pipe! Look for yourself, down here:
the new StumbleUpon logo
This is an excerpt from their blog. I think someone wanted them doomed. Read for yourself, please:
StumbleUpon Logo Change – We know this is a big change, and many of you (like us) had come to love our old blue and green logo. However, as we spoke with our members during our redesign process, we heard our old logo didn’t capture the true experience you had with StumbleUpon – the excitement you feel with every Stumble and the adventure that we take you on. (And just in case you were wondering, we didn’t change it because some users saw a similarity between our logo and Cascade Complete dishwasher packets, although the likeness is uncanny!)
the "uncanny likeness"?
While our old logo will be missed, we have also heard from many of you who really like the new logo and feel that it represents what StumbleUpon is to you. We hope that you will come to love it as much as we do here. Plus it’s going to look GREAT on T-shirts and swag – stay tuned!
With all the lack of greatness they showed, they make my number four favorite as a social site, so please befriend me :). Click on the old SU logo in my header, “thumb up” it on your toolbar, whatever. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t bother :).
4. myspace – My former all time favorite, now it barely exists, and you connect through Facebook. They changed it to look a little like Facebook, but they changed a lot of other things, actually. Yeah, they’re dead, so please allow me to not speak of them here. It’ll be a waste of time. Anyway, it is something that is far of any resemblance with what it used to be. RIP my old friend. Oh, by the way, a few days ago, we just passed four years without Heath Ledger . RIP as well, I’ll write soon about this too, I hope.
5. reddit – Controversial, but better than what once drove “more traffic than Facebook, Twitter and all the others put together” (quoting StumbleUpon’s blog again, with a great sadness and resent) before the changes, of course. Perfect if you come to terms with it, it makes my Number Two in my preferences list. I have written about it in my last post for this category.
6. Digg – This is a big bluff. A “Social Media” site like reddit, where you post links in four or five categories and nobody looks at them if you’re not The New Yorker, or New York Times and sometimes Mashable. Otherwise, a great traffic pusher, if you got to touch the first page. There are methods to do this as well, but you can’t do it from zero, if someone advise you just this, do it, why no wait for “diggers” to visit your blog. If you are already famous, you may be on blogspot as well, but what to do with traffic on blogspot?
7. Google+ – My Number One. I think it’s the best of what was ever invented in Social Media. But it is tough, and you have to be real, not an autobot. A lot of people don’t get it, they are mostly on Facebook and have Twitter accounts just for fun, for their mobiles. Doesn’t matter yet. I like it and that’s important. I see it as a Twitter expanded, a Twitter without bots, and with a larger control from your part on your sharing policies. I like the “privacy” terms as well, hoping to be as “concrete” stuff as they claimed, but remember they’re the kings of the internet, they’re:
Caption is borrowed from my friend Neil Ferree, another successful Google+ user.
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Copyright © 2012 Rodolfo Grimaldi Blog – Social Media Chronicles
This article is really worth reading, it has many details in it and yet it is so simple to understand. Thanks for sharing the social media pictures, they had great details in them and I really appreciate your work!