Dawn Papuga kicked off a Friday 5 topic that’s close to my heart. Here are the questions and my answers.
(What’s Friday 5? See here.)
1. What brought you to Social Media and what keeps you hanging around?
I find things and think of things, and I want to tell my friends. Back in the early years of this decade, I used to send out periodic, unasked for emails to random sets of friends, and sometimes people would respond and sometimes not. I worried that I was annoying my lovely friends by filling their email boxes. I started reading blogs in 2003, and decided that a blog would be a much better way of informing people of the wonderful things I found.
Interestingly, few of my long-time friends seem to read my blog. (They’re still my friends though — no hard feelings.) In the meantime, I’ve made many, many new friends through my blog. These new friends and the continuing stream of interesting things that life brings are what keep me hanging around.
2. Which social networking tool gives you the shakes when it’s not updated or is experiencing down time? (Podcasts, Blogs, Micro-blogging, etc)
I’m a little sad without email. (Can you count email as an old school social networking tool? I think so.) I can survive without my regular social networks without too much trauma. There are lots of other great things in life.
3. What kind of insight could you offer to others on a topic at PCPGH3? If none, then what do you most want to hear more about?
Mike Woycheck and I are going to reprise our well-liked "Intro to Blogging" talk again this year (although sadly without the aid of Christina Schulman). I’ll also talk about how to make your blog more friendly to search engines, and a few of us are going to conduct a discussion on Rust Belt Blogging.
I’m looking forward to hearing and seeing how people are using blogs and social media in their lives and their work. There’s always a new and interesting angle to discover.
Find others’ responses to these same questions over at the PodCamp Pittsburgh website. While you’re there, register to attend. It’s fun, and all the cool kids are doing it. Join us!