Monday, May 23, 2011

Pick Your Favorite Stalkers


The joys of social media provide us with connections to friends, acquaintances, and strangers where we can say as much or as little about ourselves as we choose. At the same time it seems we can all learn as much or more than we wished to know about others, giving social networks the feeling of an anonymous, electronic stalker. Nonetheless, my fellow bloggers and web-surfers out there tend to have their favorite brands they use in order to get their content published to the web. 

Most of us use multiple options of the following: Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, MySpace, Blogger, Flickr, etc., etc.  Still, I’ve often found that people tend to prefer one or two over all the other alternatives and I am always interested in the reasons why people prefer their “stalker” form of social media over another.  Even if someone publishes content on Blogger, the bulk of their readers might find them via links on Facebook or Twitter or elsewhere. 

There are of course many alternate options I haven’t listed, such as Google Buzz, LinkedIn, and an endless myriad of other types of social media. Such is the web. So what are your favorite forms of social media that you use for your blog or to see other people’s work? And why does that social “stalker” avenue work for you better than others? What gets you the best results?


7 comments:

  1. Hmm - I started out on MySpace, more as a way to keep in touch with friends and family since I don't live near any of them. Once I started trying to get published, I dove into blogging. It remains the one I spend the most time on, get the most out of. I do have a Twitter account and I am trying to use it more. But...yeah, I don't spend much time there :)

    Oh, and Facebook of course. Again, I use it more for friends and family. Once I was published, I also set up an author page, and I set up a separate account for my friends and family since I was amassing large amounts of awesome writer community people :) I love the networking, but I prefer to keep things like my kids' pictures and our everyday life stuff private - so I only talk shop on my public accounts :)

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  2. I like Google Reader for keeping up with blogs. I also recently joined Twitter, which I enjoy. I don't have any great secrets or tips, though. :)

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  3. blogging is my favourite. Not a huge fan of facebook and twitter, but I do them because I feel I should.

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  4. Michelle - How would you say your blogging/online presence is now that you are published compared to before? I'd be interested to know if there were any differences there for you.

    Hektor - It's okay if you haven't any secret tips:) Google reader...hmm...I'll have to try it :)

    Lynda - I def feel you on the "should" factor. It seems like certain social media seems more like a chore sometimes rather than a human-to-human connection. But I def like the people I've met on blogger :)

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  5. I pretty have something for everything. I have a work blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, my writing blog, LinkedIn (which I hardly ever use) and probably a bunch of other stuff I've forgotten about. In the end it's always better to communicate face to face with someone. :) --Meghan

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  6. I actually built the vast majority of my readership before I was published. Then again, I'm published in non-fiction, and probably 99% of my readers write fiction. The thing I've noticed that builds my following more than anything else is following others. Commenting on other blogs. When I do that, my readership/hits/comments, etc soar.

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  7. Very cool insights Michelle :) You have to share some of you non-fiction publishing experiences with us on your blog. I'd like to learn more:)

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