I’m still being social with media…

… just not on this blog.

I started this experiment about a year ago. I had already been blogging for a couple of years and developed a good amount of social media knowledge in the process, but it was more by accident than by design. The goal of this blog was to focus my efforts and further develop that knowledge to benefit my career.

What was my biggest learning? That two blogs is one too many. Instead of posting on both, I didn’t keep either of them up to date and what began as a fun hobby began to feel like a chore. At the same time, my opportunities to engage in social media activities at work increased. And with all the effort I was putting in there, I didn’t have much left over to post here.

So I’m shutting ‘er down, folks. But don’t worry, you’ll still find me nerding it up in the social space. I’m re-launching my original blog, Everything is a spoon, and you can check me out on my agency’s new blog, Lucidity. I’ll also be renewing my twittering efforts once my new iPod Touch is delivered, posting new photos, sharing my crafty projects and generally hanging out wherever like-minded people are congregating online.

Thanks for reading!

Tags: blogging social media

My dad watches Youtube, and so does yours

I came across some Youtube stats today that caught my attention (source):

Marketers tend to go to social media as a tactic whenever they are targeting youth and consequently find themselves competing for that audience’s attention in what is becoming an increasingly cluttered space. At least in my personal experience. Time to adjust their thinking – by making such assumptions the opportunity to connect with an older audience is being missed.

Ride for Heart – Make with the widgets!

I just registered for the Becel Ride for Heart. If you like bikes, you must do it. Riding on the Gardner and DVP with thousands of other cyclists an amazing experience.

Imagine my excitement when, on the registration page, I was prompted to check my confirmation email for instructions on how to add my personal fundraising page to my Facebook profile. Then, imagine my disappointment when I checked my email and found these instructions:

 NEW – Fundraise on Facebook!

Post your personal fundraising page to your Facebook Profile and invite all your friends to support your Ride for Heart. Here’s how:

1. Login into your Facebook account
2. In the left menu, click on Posted Items (you may have to click on More first)
3. On the right side of the page, you will see a Post a Link box.  Copy and paste the link to your personal page into this box and click Post.  

Your Personal Page Link: https://secure.heartandstroke.ca/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=265808&lis=1&supId=178130686

You’re done!  Now you can easily share your personal page with all your Facebook friends and watch as they help you hit your fundraising goal.

Props to the Ride for Heart for trying to leverage the power of social media but I would have done this anyway. I was expecting a widget. How cool would it be if my friends could sponsor me directly from my Facebook profile? And then if those donations were announced to my network through the Feed, all my other friends would feel the pressure. I’m not above to using guilt and peer pressure to raise more money! What a missed opportunity.

P.S. Sponsor me!

Spreading the craft nerdiness on eHow

I like the internet, crafts and the occasional video game. Today, the three converged in the form of an eHow article – How to Create a Cross Stitch Pattern Based On Your Favourite Video Game

Click and behold the depths of my nerdiness!

Macs are cool

Apple recently released an updated MacBook – now with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with up to 2.4GHz, 2GB memory and 250GB hard drive. I wanted a MacBook before. Now I really, really want one.

Right now I have an HP laptop and it kicks ass. But my boyfriend has a MacBook Pro with a built in camera and microphone. When we Skype, he just opens up his laptop and talks. I have to plug in my webcam, clip it to the top of my screen and then wear a headset like a telephone operator. You know that Mac ad where the PC guy is having a camera duct taped to his head. Yeah, that’s me. I don’t want to be a lame old PC user any more. I want to be cool, like the Mac kids. 

They’re tryin to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no

The following ad showed up on my Facebook page today. Considering Facebook’s ability to target ads based on a member’s profile, what does this say about me?

Long distance relationships, then and now

In 1991, I spent a semester at school in Switzerland and left a boyfriend at home in Ontario. It was my first experience with a long distance relationship. We wrote each other letters three times a week (yes, actual snail mail) and I called him once, on his birthday. We talked for 15 minutes and it cost about $30. That was it. There were no other options. No email. No internet.

Now, in 2008, I find myself in my second long distance relationship and the difference is stunning. We talk and text (he’s in my “My Faves” so we have unlimited minutes). We exchange emails and post on each other’s Facebook pages. We Skype – real-time audio and video conferencing for free. And he sends me the occasional bouquet of flowers cause he’s an awesome boyfriend like that. Sometimes we see each other online and we don’t have anything to talk about because we already know everything that’s going on in each other’s lives.

When I think back to 1991, it seems like ancient history. Relationships based on romantic letters don’t exist anymore. And while thinking about it makes me feel a bit nostalgic, it seems unreal, like it should be my parents’ story. But no, it was mine! I guess that should make me feel old, but it doesn’t. It’s just another reason that I feel lucky to have been born when I was. Because I grew up with technology and yet I also remember a time before technology. 

Incidentally, that old boyfriend is now on my Facebook friends list. My current boyfriend doesn’t mind. He’s got exs on there too.

Last.fm Attempt #2 – Failure

Just uninstalled Last.fm and deleted my account. Again. I was optimistic when I learned that Last.fm could now scrobble from an iPod. It wasn’t always able to and, in fact, that’s why I had uninstalled it the first time. But it seems they still have some bugs to work out. The scrobbling was sketchy at best. I also wasn’t finding a whole lot of value in the Last.fm recommendations. I have much better success in discovering new bands when I read reviews on ChartAttack or Pitchfork.

Gillian, aggregated

As mentioned in my previous post, I decided to set up a tumblelog to aggregate all of my online activity. Why? Initially, I was inspired by a post on lifestreams by Steve Rubel. But mostly, because I can. You can find it at gillianross.com and it pulls updates from this blog, Everything is a spoon, Flickr, Twitter and my Google Reader shared items.

I set up the tumblelog using Tumblr and so far the experience has been pretty good. It was super easy get started and adding a custom domain name was a cinch (the aforementioned headaches were caused by my domain registrar, not Tumblr). I do have a couple complaints though. One, it didn’t pick up my last blog post. Grrr. And two, it restricts users to a maximum of five feeds. There is a link to contact Support and request an increase, but so far my requests have gone unanswered. I just need to add my del.icio.us links and then the aggregation of my entire online life will be complete. With the exception of Facebook. That’s where I draw the line between public and (semi) private.

What’s interesting is that, after almost three years of blogging, this was the very first time I felt any apprehension with regard to privacy. I mean, aggregating all of my activity under my own full name – am I making it too easy for the stalkers? But then I figured, what the hell? Stalkers are resourceful and I’m not giving them anything they couldn’t already find on their own.

Blog(s) update: What’s old is new again

This new blog is going well, even though I haven’t posted in ages, but recently I’ve been missing my old one. I’ve been struggling with how personal and off-topic I should get here considering the whole purpose is to be very focused and on-topic. But sometimes I really want to post about random stuff like concerts and funny things I see on the streets of T.O. Then the other day it struck me – this doesn’t have to be an “either/or” situation. I can have the best of both. And so I brought Everything is a spoon out of retirement. You know, cause I don’t already have enough to do.

The clear distinction between the two blogs is that this one will be for work, in that it appears somewhat professional and relates to what I do, and the other will be for fun. But that’s not to say I won’t experiment with the fun blog and post about it here. I already updated the blogroll and plan on doing an overall facelift. Running both blogs will also allow me to continue my Blogger vs. WordPress comparison and try out some new widgets that WordPress won’t accommodate. Ooh, and maybe I’ll finally give Google Analytics a spin!

There are a few other things in the works too. I’m rethinking my use of Technorati tags. Also in the process of aggregating my online activity into a single tumblelog and setting up a new domain name, which is causing me some headaches at the moment. And with my boyfriend out of town for a few days, I might actually get some of this stuff done. Oops, wait. That was personal information. Save it for the other blog.