Tumblr-tastic

The crickets have been chirping a while here; it’s because I’m hanging out over at Tumblr’s place. WordPress, it was great fun, but it was just one of those things.

Come see me at shannalo.tumblr.com!

From Twitter to Tumblr

So I joined Twitter last year. At first, it was more like stopping by that new restaurant in town that everyone’s been talking about; you walk by several times, and maybe even peek in the windows. But then there’s that day when you finally give in and walk inside. You look at the menu. It’s simple, but it’s got that one dish you’ve heard so much about. Just as you walk in the door, you realize that a few friends are there, and after trying the signature dish, you become a regular. Before long, the waitors know your name. They call you Tuesday as a joke, because that’s the day you always come for your usual. Months go by, and you love being Tuesday. It’s your thing, and you can now join in the conversation around the water cooler at work about this great place.

Then it starts to happen — the flavors and atmosphere that were once so hip, so enticing, slowly become less interesting. Maybe even bland. You still like it, but Tuesdays just don’t have the spark they used to. This is where I am now with Twitter. I still love it, don’t get me wrong. But I am beginning to become disenchanted with it. My new social media avenue is a site called Tumblr. It’s like Twitter unleashed; you can follow other people, and they can follow you. What’s more, you can post links, pictures, quotes, audio, video…just about anything you could possibly want to post. It’s like a blog with a pulse, and a community.  I see it as a 2.0-esque merging of Twitter and blogs. There is a feed of followers, yet the content looks like blog posts in that it includes a variety of media. You can even call in on your phone and leave an audio post, should some sort of brilliance strike you while you’re away from the computer. Users can also install themes, both free and for charge. These themes are more like the blogger themes made available on WordPress and Blogspot. Twitter keeps it basic, and that’s certainly part of its allure; as a design geek, though, I like being able to customize my site a bit more, and to edit HTML should I decide to. I literally joined it this past week, so I’m still getting used to it, but I already love it. Whether I’ll maintain it as much as I did Twitter remains to be seen. For now, though, I’m Tuesday again. And I like it.

iPhone Addiction: There’s Not an App for That

Let’s face it. I would do this if someone took my iPhone away from me, too.

Alright, so maybe I’m not as bad as little Gibson (and maybe I am), but I think the technology behind today’s new smartphones is amazing. We flaunt them like we invented them most of the time, prodding our friends to check out an app as though we drew up the plans for it on a napkin at lunch last week. Apps like Facebook, Twitter, Shazam, and PhotoScatter let me share just about anything I like. A big draw for me is sharing photos — I love photography, so being able to post my pictures at once to Picasa, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter with my PhotoScatter app is right up my alley. For example, just last week, I had an amazing chocolate cake at a local restaurant, Amsterdam Cafe. My friend (and fellow iPhone owner) and I both took pictures of this mocha marvel and posted them to Facebook. By the time I got home, I had 8 different kinds of feedback to the picture. Of a cake.

What prompts some of us to share the mundane things of life, I’ll never know, but I do find it fascinating that community can be created over a mutual adoration of chocolate cake (with whipped cream on top).  While this isn’t necessarily anything new, the way we share life’s little things is changing. Social media apps allow people to be constantly capable of publishing; through the WordPress app, I was even able to blog as I was walking past Samford Hall earlier this month. So, apps can even be used for school!

Though I’m not sure what the future holds for smartphones, I know it will probably keep getting even better, especially as video technology and augmented reality software becomes more advanced. Until then, I’ll keep on posting pictures of favorite foods and places with my awesome iPhone apps.

Social Media Press Releases: Not Your Mother’s Press Release

As I’m typing this on my iPhone, I can’t help but think about how even blogging is changing from a dedicated sit-down with a computer to a more mobile, as-it’s-happening kind of experience. The WordPress app (oh, you had to know there was an app for that) even asked me if I wanted to enable geotagging for my blog, so you could hunt me down to a specific location and chat, debate, or stalk. I declined the offer, but even so, I feel that blogging itself is no longer “your mother’s blog”, so to speak.

Another major shift in social media is that of press releases. As audiences become more adept at sifting through, if not locating, information, a culture of more straightforward and honest news releases is emerging. No longer content with corporate-jargon-filled releases, people want to feel as though a corporation values and respects the intelligence of consumers and media. That said, I found this in an article about SRMs:

“Why Regular Press Releases Fail in Social Media

Here are the 3 main reasons why a press release would normally have zero chance of success in social media:

1. They have the wrong singular focus, which is on the company issuing the release.

2. They are full of marketing-speak that inherently engenders mistrust in the eyes of the social media audience.

3. They don’t have a specific audience in mind, and are written broadly and presented blandly.

Now, it’s perfectly fine to want to promote your company, because after all, we all have to make a living. But the social-web audience doesn’t like blatant sales and marketing speak.”

So, with the cultural shift in which the distance between corporation and consumer seems to be narrowing, the relationship must be handled differently than it would have been in 1984. A company of 2010 needs to take an approach that sees the consumer as more of an equal that understands the innerworkings of business more than people have in the past.

YouTube: Broadcast Yourself

One of my favorite uses for YouTube is music discovery and sharing. If ever I hear a song that I like, but the 30-second clip on Amazon or iTunes isn’t enough to convince me that I should buy it, I go straight for YouTube. Granted, this isn’t what most people use it for, but I love how any and every song I’ve ever looked for can be found there in its entirety. I’ve had to learn how to ignore the lousy videos created by the users who post them, and the annoying captions doused over the video — aside from this small drawback, I am fastincated by how songs found only on the b-sides of records have made it online. Another use I’ve found handy is finding some of my most treasured moments from my most loved show…Friends.

My Favorites list on YouTube is a smattering of music and oddities; from my interest in aviation to the fact that I find a small kitten acting surprised to be funny, much can be learned about me. I’m not much one for uploading videos, but I enjoy YouTube surfing, discovering newer videos from the Related Videos section. Here is an example of one such find:

Anymore, I don’t even feel like I need a TV in order to be entertained. In fact, I almost prefer finding videos or shows online, because then I can pause them and return to them later if I want to. I suppose it’s the control and customization that I like most. And, of course, the occasional surprised kitty:

My First Podcast

Take a listen!

 

Alright, so maybe NPR won’t be banging down my door anytime soon, but I did want to at least give it the good old college try. I wanted to do something really cool and interesting, but a head cold intercepted all my brilliant thoughts and I was left rambling about my meager experience with podcasting. Nonetheless, I did a podcast, so that’s a step in the right direction. I may try it some more one day, but for now, I think I’ll leave it to the pros.

Also, here’s the link to the church podcast site I mentioned:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/first-baptist-church-opelika/id218881636

Symphony

Symphony

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