Tag: twitter

Competitive Streak

Do you ever look at one of your friends or even just a challenge, and think, “I can do this!”? One of the times when this competitive streak shows is during NaNoWriMo. The challenge was created to out-write your internal editor, and if someone can do it, why not me?

Some days it’s the same thing with those grading sites. Marketing Grader and Tweet Grader were mentioned today, though we’ve also compared Klout on occasion. If you send us (and I’m talking about a specific friend who shares my competitive drive) one of these tools, we try to integrate it into our knowledge base.

And why? What does it matter if my Klout score is 15 or 57 or even 95? [For the record, it is none of those.] That won’t sell my books. It doesn’t matter if the Marketing Grader says my website is 0 or 100 out of 100. Did any of you check the scores before buying a book or a service from someone?

I think it’s even funnier that I can admit that those scores are geared toward businesses selling a product online, but many of the people I know who try to learn from it are online but not necessarily selling a physical product. [Yes, I know books are physical products, but bear with me a moment.] I can look through all of the stats and see whether I’m capturing an audience by Twitter followers, or Tweet Graders or other options. I can figure out what I’m doing on Facebook by fans and shares and other activity. My blog has subscribers and links to various social media.

So what are we doing with it? Just checking. It’s a sliding scale to see whether we’re engaging someone or just talking in a bubble. Are we using the platform not as intended but as we can to get conversations moving?

And then, when it’s quiet, my friend and I try to outdo each other strictly by the numbers. If you’re curious, we have the same Klout score and our Marketing Grades are a single point different. It probably helps that she and I share information and little tricks when we find them and also encourage and support each other to keep up with blogs and tweets and posts. It’s a crazy thing to try to keep all of these things up, but somehow it works.

I’m really grateful that she’s there to help keep me motivated and focused on the target. My target isn’t a number – I’m just here to talk and share and learn as I write and publish. Life and work are good, but it can be good to remember it isn’t just a numbers game.

Except I can’t stop trying to get those numbers higher!

Posted on by ransomnoble 2

Geek Appeal

Good news for doodlers everywhere! Ever been stuck somewhere, like a lecture or on the phone with an especially long-winded person, and began to doodle on a sheet of paper? A new study suggests those doodlers may actually remember more than those of us who drift off to daydream.

Read more here.

No hope for me, I’m afraid. I’m a serial story-dreamer. It takes effort to concentrate, and sometimes I lose the battle – as evidenced by a few of my lecture notebooks in college.

And a word for Twitter, which I recently joined: Secret Confessions?

They say they don’t even track your IP address, so you can let out your secrets to the world with complete anonymity. What is it about secrets that we feel we need to tell them to the world, just so long as our names aren’t attached?

So many people have much more bravery when they’re unknown, but when the time comes to take responsibility, everyone disappears. It’s interesting that we need such outlets – or maybe just that we think we need them.

Posted on by ransomnoble 1

Social Networking

Might want to think again about those social networking sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter… read article here.

It amazes me just how much we can do on those. I must admit I’m only on Facebook because I can only keep up with so many sites, but I do hear about a lot of the other ones and wonder.

The article talks about how the younger generation has an ‘innate radar’ to know that there may be inaccuracies with immediate coverage of news, but also that they’re out to share it right away. There is only so much space to post little blurbs, but anyone can say a lot with few words when necessary.

I do plan to use the Facebook page for promoting my book when it comes out, but I’m not regular enough to be uploading news. Also, the guy in question uploaded to Twitter via his phone, and mine’s just not that cool – yet.

So next time you hear someone make comments about the uselessness of social networking sites (or you actually hear them spewing from your mouth), you might want to reconsider.

Posted on by ransomnoble 3