8 more – Social Media -things meme

Photo by Omer Simkha

Laurence just tagged me for the social media meme – basically it’s about sharing 8 ways in which you’ve used social media (original post form C.B. Whittemore here). I like memes – it allows me to write a potentially/relatively interesting post without making the effort to think of what I should write about. I know, I’m a lazy bastard…

1. I started blogging last year in October – I wondered at the time why it was I wasn’t already doing it – though I probably answered that question in the previous paragraph. I really love it and got into a whole world that in all likelihood will never ever be able to fully apprehend nor comprehend, which I find find very exciting! Technorati tells us they’re tracking 112.8 million blogs at the moment, and that’s by no means an accurate representation of how many blogs actually exist (Do they use it much in China..?). Over 112 million simultaneous conversations on every possible interest human beings have – awesome! And pretty overwhelming.

2. To waste time. Mostly with Facebook last year (though now I use mostly to find people and to let old school friends find me), and just recently with Twitter – I’m just starting to get into it and quite liking it; though I still don’t think it can be “useful” on a day to day basis.

3. For recruitment. In other terms, I’m a complete online stalker (I’m sure you’re all very happy to know that about me ;o). I’ve been looking for professionals in the digital space for close to 3 years and if I can’t find them and unravel a good chunk of their lives on the web most of the time, they’re probably not the associated digital geeks and nutters I’m generally looking for (I include myself in that bunch – can’t say if that’s good or bad). Prime suspect for this channel is LinkedIn, as well as Facebook and any other website that has some kind of community aspect (Not revealing all the tools of the trade). Google, while not exactly what goes under the vast “social media” umbrella, will lead you to it pretty quickly if you start googling people’s names.

4. As an (important) extension to the previous point, I essentially sought and found my current job through social media channels. Pay me a drink some day and I’ll go into more details

5. For meeting new people with similar interests. I used to play role playing games (table top, not video games) back in Paris with a group of good friends. I only stopped when I moved to London because I didn’t have that circle of friends anymore. Last year, I decided to get back into it and found people doing all the research online, going through MySpace, Forums of UK RPG shops, conferences, etc. I managed to find a group of cool people and we (try) to play once or twice a month. Similarly, I got hooked on the Rhum arranges website, as you can see from the previous post – who again, have a very cool widget.

6. I started using too many websites for my own good. Fortunately Netvibes allows me to manage pretty much the whole lot of them as well as my blogs and other feeds. I’ve checked out a few other sites like that, but I don’t think I’ll be changing soon. And it’s French so “Que demande le peuple?” It also has a community aspect, though it’s still in beta (As are most such like sites these days) and I don’t know many people using Netvibes so far, so it doesn’t make it as interesting.

7. Not exactly using, but I read about social media. So far my favourite book in the domain is Wikinomics – loved it! Read it if you haven’t, it’s awesome. On the opposite end of the spectrum, The Wisdom of Crowds – which I didn’t really like. Read it only because it’s so hype right now and then you’ll be able to quote it in meetings or something. Essentially there are some good enough parts in the book, but overall I thought it was a few interesting points poorly strung together into a (non) unifying theory. Just my opinion, glad to talk about it over a drink…

8. Actually talking about books, I love Amazon. How do I sometimes choose books to order if not from other reader’s comments? Most of my library and DVD collection is on Amazon (I’ve rated them, but not commented for each – it’s on my “maybe I’ll do that someday” list). I also put nice pics such as the one on this post from Flickr, and I use it to to share my beautiful pics! (I need to upload plenty more…) On the music side of things, I’m now a complete fan of Deezer – best music/online radio/music community around by far (And also French!) – definitely tops Last.fm for me. I’m not using the community side too much yet, but using the music part every day!

Done! And to finish I’ll tag Will, Michelle, Neil, Priyanka, Amelia and George for the meme.