Monday, March 30, 2009
The Ups and Downs of Internet Communication
Ah, the wonderful world of the internets. (We miss you, G.W., lol)
Ever since I started my blog in late November, I've become a machine of useless social media knowledge. I started using Twitter around the same time as I started my blog because I was told that to not tweet was to be a useless stain on the Gucci dress that is humanity.
So, I embarked on the whole Tweeter/Blogger past-time and have since come to several conclusions about the good, bad and ugly of internet communication.
On a side note, I am a pop culture fanatic. I live in a small town in Iowa and don't want to be thought of as a corn growing, pig wrangling, toothless farmer. Not saying that many Iowans are, just saying I know the stereotype is out there and I don't want to add to it by being out of the loop with the rest of society.
So, here's a few things I've learned:
1) Don't trust anyone. Now, I haven't sponsored any Nigerian princes or anything like that, but it never pays to get your hopes up about something until it has actually happened. All that happens is the person on the other end drops off the face of the earth and you're wondering what you did wrong. You did nothing wrong, some people are just commitment-phobes.
2) A good blogger reads other people's blogs. You would have to be awfully cocky to just assume that if you write it, people will flock to you in droves. Just like a good author needs to know what other people are writing, a good blogger needs to do the same. My theory is that if you're a fun person to tweet with, you probably have a blog worth reading. So, I love to check out new blogs and find myself subscribing to them left and right. It enables me to see what they're doing right and also get a few kicks reading their posts. A few that I've come across that I love are:
The Juggling Homemaker
Jackass Letters
His Boys Can Swim
24/7 Moms
3) It's okay to be friendly. So many people that are trying to gain notoriety or fat wallets off their site/blog are robots. Seriously, it seems like they have robots generating their content or their tweets. All they do is shove their guides/tips/training whodads down your throat. And to these people I say, "Boooooring!" I don't want to follow people that are snooze-fests. Nor do I want to go to your website and watch your training videos. I want to talk to people with personalities as lovely as mine! Okay, so we all have different thoughts and you can't please everyone all the time, but I want to get noticed for my witty repartee, not my SEO, CEO, VIP, LMAO, XYZ status.
4) You and google may become best friends. You don't just wake up one day with all the knowledge there is about blogging, tweeting, html, acronyms, etc. If you did, I'm jealous. So, familiarize yourself with google and wikipedia. For instance, I was dying to have a three column blog, but being the tightwad I am, didn't want to pay someone to do it for me. Alas, after many attempts to find my answer on google, I finally found something that worked! I learned to make button links, create my own header, what abbreviations and application names mean on twitter. You name it, I googled it. Knowledge is power and google has made me the Queen of Sheba.
Well, that's enough points for now. Four IS my lucky number, you know! I hope with this post that I might have helped at least one person. If not, at least it gave me something to do to pass the time until the mail gets here.
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A good blogger reads other people's blogs.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more!
And you only started in November? That is so great to hear! Your blog is great. I just started last month so hopefully some of that blogger luck will rub off on me. :D
Thanks, girls! I appreciate the comments.
ReplyDeleteAnnette, if you feel it, they will come, lol. (Get it, Field of Dreams.) Just be yourself, keep it real and people will be interested!
Great blog, I can't believe you have only been doing it since November.
ReplyDeleteThe number 4 is my lucky number too