Social Networking Sites & Bisque Fire
Wordle brought to my attention by Andrea
Wordle rearranges text in an artful way into a word cloud – I pulled text from my last blog post for this one. Where Andrea finds this stuff, I’ll never know…. It’s just too bad that the image is so small on my blog.
Meanwhile, I’ve been playing around with some social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and others for about the last 6 months. A lot of people use these sites including other artists, potters, friends, family, business people, and potential customers. A part of the problem for me is that all of this takes time which of course takes away from studio time.
I lovingly tend to my blog – I post regularly & read and comment on other people’s blogs. It’s enjoyable to me – and of course, I want more people to find my blog. I think this is where social networking sites may be valuable since I’m able to liberally sprinkle my links around cyberspace for anyone to find. I’ve also registered my blog with various blog catalogs and I keep track of my stats to see how people are finding me.
I do enjoy keeping up with other artists and have managed to connect with people all over the world that I might not otherwise ever meet in person.
So, here’s my lowdown on the few sites where I’m registered:
- I’m not really all that enamored with MySpace, but am loathe to delete it. For the time being my page is static and I might check on it once a month if I remember. I have made contact with a few people from high school, but the truth is I don’t really like the way it works and looks. I’ve received dating propositions even though my profile says I’m married. It seems like a really good venue, however, for musicians as they can upload their music to their profiles for the public to sample.
- I’ve belonged to Flickr for at least 2 years now and think it’s really worthwhile. Not only can you store photos, but you can connect with other people with similar interests and browse other people’s photos. 2 years ago, I upgraded from the free account to a “pro” account for $24.95 a year. With the pro account, I can upload unlimited photos of any size. The free account limits the size of the photo and also how many are visible at one time. I think only the 200 most recent ones are visible.
- My Twitter page is fairly new – I think I’ve had it about a month now. I don’t always remember to “tweet” on a daily basis. It’s sort of like a mini blog where one has a 140 character limit for each post. The jury is out on this one for me.
- Also fairly new is my Facebook page. Since coming back home, I’ve been tending my page and trying to figure out the ins and outs of how it works. It seems a lot more valuable to me than Twitter and surprisingly, I’ve also found a few friends from high school – though the site doesn’t recognize my college alma mater. I attended high school in Stuttgart, Germany while my dad was serving in the Army in the 80′s so it’s been fun making contact with some of my classmates who are spread out all over the world. Facebook seems like it has the potential to really connect people together. My only criticism – and maybe I’m the only one bothered by this – is that you can’t click on people’s profiles to gauge whether or not you may or may not know them. Some names are so common that when you type them into the people search box, 10 pages pop up. Who has time to wade through those, only to email 5 of them to see if they’re who you think they are? But, I guess this helps in the privacy department. So – I’m still trying to decide how this plays out.
- I also signed up for LinkedIn a few days ago, but I’m not sure this is for me – it seems like this site is more geared to a business professional.
So, if you have any comments, suggestions or other about your experience with social networking sites and whether you find them useful, I’d love to hear your feedback.
~Cynthia
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot… remember this work?
Greenware
It’s been sitting on my shelves since late June and is surely bone dry by now and ready to be bisque fired. This might be a good thing to do this week to get me back in the swing of things and to free up a little space. I also have a couple of more glaze tests to do – my tests are already mixed up and waiting for me.
jafabrit
August 5, 2008 at 2:03 pm //
Like you I am loathe to delete my myspace page, so I keep up with it now and again.
Flickr I am finding a very valuable network and it is because of connections I have made there I have been invited to submit work in the uk, canada and new york.
I get very little out of places like wet canvas nowadays as far as interaction, or even a response. I dont’ feel much welcomed or liked there in general to tell you the truth and I have been there for 3 years or more (which is not to say I haven’t met some wonderful people there and picked up super tips).
twitter I can’t keep up with lol! although I do like to tweet now and again.
Earl
August 5, 2008 at 2:05 pm //
Clicking on your word cloud enlarges it.
Cynthia
August 5, 2008 at 3:10 pm //
Hey Corrine – I know exactly what you mean about wetcanvas. I hardly ever visit anymore. It’s always the same questions about ebay, etsy etc. Though, I did learn a lot there when I launched myself online in 2006. I was excited when WC started a clay forum, but it stinks. They seem to think it’s okay to have polyclay, pmc, airdry and wet clay all in one thread. They’re all so different, that I refused to be a part of it anymore.
Hey Earl, You’re right, but I wanted it to be larger on my blog page and not necessarily transport people away from my blog. Oh well….
andrea
August 5, 2008 at 6:37 pm //
Hey Cynthia — you don’t mean to tell me that after all this time you don’t know that RUDY is a real person, not just a cute pseudonym for my own geeky web surfing and collecting. Everything from my recent post came my way via him, though I do track down some weird links all by myself. Rudy is a friend, a screenwriter/film school teacher and interested in a million things and he is my ‘supplier’. Though I could make a career of web surfing I don’t — for the reasons you mention — and keep my networking to a a minimum. Facebook: I’m there but mostly I only observe (it’s the nosy gene). I refuse to load more than the most basic applications and ‘ignore’ almost everything for my own time preservation. Flickr is more useful to me. I don’t socialize there either but I find it incredibly useful to size my photos and store them on-line. I, too, have a Pro account. People have been hounding me about Twitter for ages but so far I have resisted, and since MySpace is more about music, I have resisted there, too. It takes work for me to keep it simple, but this seems to be working for me so far. Of course I am devoted to blogging. We all need an outlet, right?
Good luck sorting it all out to your satisfaction.
Emily Murphy
August 5, 2008 at 8:56 pm //
I know when you mean about not being able to see someone’s profile on Facebook to figure out if you know them. A good way to do it sometimes is to “poke” them, and they might friend you back. It’s also ok to “friend” someone, and then they can see your profile and determine if they know you. If they don’t, then they’ll just ignore the invite and no harm done.
Robin
August 6, 2008 at 6:10 am //
I agree with you when you say it’s an awful lot of maintenance to keep up with these sites. For now I have a flickr account and a couple of specific groups I have signed up for recently through Etsy teams. I do have a MySpace account but haven’t used it yet. And of course my blog. Since I’ve been paying a bit more attention to my blog I have found it has driven more people to my Etsy site though so I suppose it is worth it.
lynne
August 6, 2008 at 6:24 am //
Cynthia…i feel the same way about myspace…I even post bulletins there every once in a while letting people know i don’t check it often…even my friends don’t listen…i will check it about once a month and invariably someone who has my email will have left a time sensitive note….what ARE they thinking.
Facebook is not much better imo, but I have them both. I suck at blogging…i should get better…
you are my role model…you rock!!!
peace, lynne
Mary T.
August 6, 2008 at 7:54 am //
I used to have a flickr for free, and never did anything with it. I have enough problems just keeping up anymore, it seems. But, I’m not in the same category as you are with trying to sell my work or become recognized. Haven’t even looked at the others. No help from here, sorry, but I have recently joined blogher.com
Cynthia
August 6, 2008 at 11:47 am //
Andrea – I DID think Rudy was you acting under a pseudonym! Doh, I should open all your links…. Well, Rudy finds some amazing stuff. I know what you mean about wanting to keep it simple too. There’s all kinds of stuff/distractions on Facebook.
Good point, Emily! I forget that the internet isn’t necessarily real life – I should just poke someone just to see. I suppose I’m transferring some of my real life angst about not wanting to bother someone needlessly.
I hear ya Robin – I think I’m going to start to edit some of these things in the near future. If it’s working, it stays and if it’s more work than it’s worth, it gets deleted.
You’re too sweet, Lynne! Blog girl. Just do it – I’ve met a lot of people this way and have had some really cool opportunities come my way as a result of my blog.
You’re absolutely right, Mary – I’m trying to build my career and can see why you wouldn’t need to do some of this stuff. I’m glad you are blogging though, how else would I ever have met you??
Lisa
August 6, 2008 at 3:10 pm //
I’ve decided I need to get the social networking thing a bit more under control. It can take the entire to keep current on all the sites. There is value out there for sure – trick is figure out exactly what actions produce the highest value and only do those things.
Twitter is funny for sure. But I still ask (as I tweet away) “where is the value”?
Janet
August 6, 2008 at 7:22 pm //
Been tweeting for a little bit now. I think it is one of the easier networks to use. Signed up for some other network sites, but I dont keep track of passwords and usernames very well.
Havent participated in WC for awhile, tho occasionally I do check in there. But seems the same ol same ol alot of the times. I do tho find it a good resource for finding out whether or not some organizations/businesses, and the like are legit.
Cynthia
August 7, 2008 at 7:22 am //
You’re so right, Lisa – it’s figuring out which ones are the most productive. The other thing that I might add to this is that I don’t necessarily want to be some type of blog vampire and take a bite out of every site just to be there. It has to be an application that I enjoy using myself, because then it keeps it more authentic.
Speaking of passwords, Janet – though, we’re not supposed to, I’ve taken to writing them all down since it’s not a good idea to have the same password for everything for security reasons. But, I’m not sure how else I’m supposed to keep track of everything. I also agree about WC – I really learned a lot about the Internet from that site and how to use it as an artist. I remember first seeing Jafabrit posting on that site and admiring her blog. I think I read all the threads related to blogging before starting my first one on MSN.