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Tuesday 4 January 2011

2010 - My Year In Social Media.

After writing my last post for this blog, i started to think about what i had done in the world of social media during 2010. I have been using, what we would call social media, since 2006 and i wondered if 2010 had been any different to the previous years.
So, in the interests of curiosity, i decided to do a little research and thought it only right that i post my findings on a social media site for all to see.

Of course, one of the things that i did do in 2010 was to set up this Social Media Journeys blog. Rather than go through the reasons why all over again, here is a YouTube video i made at the time explaining why.

What i thought i'd do, is to go through the main social media sites that i use and discuss them separately.

First: YouTube.
YouTube was the first social media site that i really got involved with, in August 2006. Yes, i had dabbled with other sites, but none that i could get very excited about.
In 2010 i posted 119 videos on YouTube. My total number of videos on YouTube is now approaching 700 by the way.
This actually surprised me, because i felt that i had slowed down my video output during 2010. But, as i'm sure you can work out yourself, this still averages out at over 2 videos per week. Not a bad total at all.
One of reasons for this higher than expected number, is the Road Trip i did in California, with fellow YouTubers in April and May of 2010. That trip has produced over 20 separate videos alone.
YouTube is still a site that i have a great deal of fondness for, but i do find myself spending less and less time there and also finding myself watching less and less videos there too.
I still intend to make and post videos, mainly because i still really enjoy doing so. Long may that continue.

Next: My personal blog - Moose Musings.
During 2010 i posted 238 posts to this blog. Now, that may sound rather a lot. But, i do use my personal blog as a kind of collection point for all of my social media ramblings. This includes my YouTube videos, AudioBoos and posts from this Social Media Journeys blog.
After taking all of those posts out of the equation, i reckon that i actually only wrote around 40 unique posts for Moose Musings. That's still getting towards one a week, which is about what i might have expected. Especially given all my other online activities.
I know a lot of people have their own personal websites to collect all of their online output and that is something that i have considered. But, for moment at least, i intend to continue with using Moose Musings as a kind of one stop shop for my social media ramblings.
One thing i would like to do in 2011 is more writing. I have noticed that my blogging has tended to decrease, especially towards the end of 2011. But, i know that i can put that down to the next social media site i'm going to mention.

Next: AudioBoo.
I first started using AudioBoo in early 2009. I used it for around 6 months and then did what so many of us do, i stopped using the site and, more or less, forgot about it.
Fast forward to September of 2010 and i noticed that several of my online friends had recently started to post podcasts on AudioBoo themselves. As you can imagine, this re-awakened by interest in the site. After all, if they were using AudioBoo, maybe it's time i went back and had a look at it myself?
Since then i have posted 74 Boos onto the site! So, i think you can safely say that i'm well and truly back on AudioBoo.
I have found it so quick and easy to use, especially with my iPhone. I can podcast from pretty much anywhere, which is one of the beauties of the site. I can think of a topic and within 15 minutes, my AudioBoo is uploaded and available for anyone to listen to. That is certainly not the case, for me anyway, with either YouTube, or Blogger.
Since September i have certainly found myself blogging less and podcasting more, for the reasons i've just mentioned. I expect this will continue into 2011.
If you've not tried AudioBoo why not give it a go? You may well become hooked, like so many others have.

Well, those are the sites where i post the most real content. But, of course i also use several other social media and networking sites as well.
Facebook and Twitter are sites that i use frequently every day. I have been on both since 2008 and strangely enough, they are both sites that i resisted for a while, before being convinced by others to try.

I use Twitter a lot and now find it an invaluable way of keeping in touch with online and real life friends, finding interesting videos, articles, breaking news and people. It is also, like Facebook, a great way of linking your own social media output.
Twitter was certainly a huge help to me after the fire on Hastings Pier, in October. I was able to link my online output very quickly and get almost instant response/feedback from many sources.
Another aspect of Twitter that i like is being able to post photos, via such apps/sites as TwitPic.
Apart from my emails, Twitter is the first thing that i turn to in the morning. I think that shows how much it has crept into my life.

Facebook, on the other hand, is something that i've grown into during 2010.
Even after being dragged there in 2008, i was still to be convinced about the site. That feeling still persisted at the start of 2010. But, i'm now coming around and find myself using the site more and more.
Strangely enough, it is the local aspect of Facebook that has helped me to enjoy it more. I use the site just as much to keep in contact and up to date, with local people, as i do with my Internet friends.
I do use Twitter is a similar way, but the local people i interact with on Facebook are far more likely to be people that i actually know and i feel that makes a lot of difference.

I mentioned in my earlier Social Media Journeys blog post about Posterous and the fact that i'd given up using the site, mainly because it had become, for me at least, a site too far.
I was using Posterous in a similar way to how i use my personal blog and found that duplicating my output on yet another site, was just too much.
I would still recommend Posterous for some users, but i don't think it's for me anymore. Who knows though, that may well change at some point in the future.
Like all sites that i tend not to use anymore, i still keep my account open, just in case.

MySpace Now, where do you start with MySpace?
I was never a big fan of the site anyway and have only realy used it because of my involvement with Hastings Rock radio. I look after the stations MySpace page and to be honest,  hardly ever go there these days.
Those visits are likely to be even less frequent after the recent re-design of the site. I know i am not alone in thinking that it's awful. I'm just thankful that my need to use MySpace is becoming less and less, partly due to the emergence of sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Having said that, MySpace can be very useful for posting blog posts about Hastings Rock. There are still a lot of musical people out there who use the site. I suspect though that, like me, they'd happily use an alternative if they could.

Two other sites which i did use, to varying degrees, in 2010 were LinkedIn and Flickr.

I only started using LinkedIn because several people asked me to and i'll be honest, i've yet to get anything out of using the site.
I suspect that i'm not the right type of person to be using it. It appears to be aimed at the higher end of the working population, which is an area that i didn't really move in myself. I fully realise that, like so many other sites, LinkedIn will work well for some and not for others. Horses for courses, as we say in the UK.
I'll keep my profile and maybe even update it from time to time. But, it tends to take an email about the site to remind me of its existence.

Flickr, on the other hand, is another one of those sites that i've used periodically and have now started to use once again. It's a site that i like and i suspect the only reason i've not used it very much in the past is because i've been posting my photos onto my Facebook profile instead. Once again, that thought of duplicating what you're doing and the time that it takes, stops me from doing so.
But, i now have a new DSLR camera and a renewed enthusiasm for taking photos and this has led me back to Flickr.
I've always had an interest in photography and enjoy taking photos, but the lack of a really good camera has often stopped me from taking it more seriously.
As it happens, i was approached, via my Flickr profile, by a website that produces online guides to cities around the world. They wanted to use one of my photos for an online guide to Brighton, in the UK. A town only 35 miles from where i live.
So, i suspect Flickr is a site i'll be using much more in 2011.

And there you have it, a trip through the social media journey that i made in 2010. Sure, i used many other sites as well, but the ones mentioned above are the ones that i posted material onto.

I wonder how my own journey would compare to anyone elses? I suspect that many of the same sites would be used.
As always, i'd love to hear anybody elses own experiences. Who knows, i may well discover some great new social media sites to use in the process?

So, what does 2011 hold and which, if any, new social media sites will i discover and start using during this year? And how many will i stick with?
I've already had a look at the latest buzz site Quora. That seems to have everyone talking, so i guess it's only a matter of time before you'll find me there as well.

Wherever your own social media journey takes you during 2011, i wish you well.
Have a happy and interesting 2011.

PS: For a view of what my "real life" was like in 2010, you may be interested in this video that i made for YouTube recently. Like this blog post, it's an epic, coming in at 14 minutes long!

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