It saddens me that Facebook has become AOL 2.0. People never leave there. I’ve watched my blog stats erode horribly since FB has taken over the goddam internet.
I am a Twitter girl, I admit it. I tend to hang out more on Twitter than anywhere else. I like the immediacy of it and the massive amounts of information that flows in the stream. It’s perfect for news junkies like me.
It pains me that the various social sites have pretty much ruined blogging as we know it. If I don’t cross post to FB that I made a BLOG post, it will quite literally never get read. I has a sad about that. Truly.
I would leave FB altogether if not for the pages I run and the sad fact that no one would ever read this blog if I didn’t link to it from there. ;_;
Having a FB page has become more important than a website these days – so FB would have you believe. I just have to disagree. While YES, FB is free and has billions of eyeballs, I still think a site is better if you actually want people to FIND you via search. Site + FB + Twitter = good coverage, IMO. For ALL of these, you gotta work it! Especially FB and Twitter.
As for the other social sites begging for eyeballs and time, here’s my take on them:
Google Plus: I tried, I really did. If they made it work BOTH WAYS so I could post TO it as well as FROM it, it would be relevant to me. But since G+ expects you to drop everything and use it exclusively. Well, NO. Just NO.
Pinterest: I just don’t see the point. It’s been said that Pinterest is for FB people who can’t read. I would have to agree. I tend to post articles and stuff, not just a picture. Not for me.
Formspring: The Ask Me Anything site. It was interesting for about 10 minutes. Again, I just don’t see the point.
Instagram: Hipster hangout. ‘Nuff said.
Tumblr: I think this is trying to give more of a blog feel. Don’t need it, I’ve GOT a blog. Redundant.
iMood: An OLDIE but a goodie. I’ve used iMood since my very first blog back in 1998. It’s silly and I love it. Very old skool.
Twitpic: I use this to post pix on Twitter. Twitter is going to “phase out” (read: fuck over) all third party apps soon, so I guess twitpic will be going away. I may keep using it anyway. I’ve got a lot of pix over there!
LiveJournal: Still crosspost to it and still read several feeds there. I still have a soft spot for LJ, despite the huge number of truly fucked up people there. :)
MySpace: MyWho? Ha! Rumour has it that MS is trying to relaunch as a music hub rather than the sad excuse for social media it became. I deleted that profile long ago. I hope it works out as a music hub, tho. We need one.
And my take on other online resources that we use:
WordPress: I love using WP for my blog. I also love that you can get a FREE BLOG over at wordpress.com if you don’t want to mess with software, etc.
Etsy: Where my little handmade earring shop (Boneless Cat Designs) is hosted. I like Etsy for the most part. I hope they don’t let it become overrun with commercial people and screw up the handmade vibe.
Spreadshirt: Our comics T Shirts provider. They do good work, although not particularly cheaply. We don’t do enough volume to order shirts in bulk, so the print on demand availability of SS is perfect for us.
Storenvy: Where the rest of our comics shwag is located. Ease of use and FREE are the keys to Storenvy. If we were bigger, we’d do something else, but for small biz, Storenvy totally rocks!
I realise that the FB people probably didn’t even read to the end of this post. It’s long and it talks about stuff other than Facebook, after all. Facebook is the new AOL. And it’s a shame that so many people really don’t even know what they are missing! It’s a big internet, people. Why not leave the safety of FB and explore? FB really is NOT the internet. I promise.