Two weeks ago a good friend asked me how much time I was wasting on social media. He is not a blogger, never uses Facebook and refers to Twitter as “just another time suck.â€
I told him that social media is a tool and its utility is based more upon the skill of the user than the tool itself.
He snorted and told me that he needed a more substantive answer than that. I nodded my head and showed him the picture above.
It is a shot of Lake Placid that I took last summer. As we stared at the photo I explained to him that prior to leaving I went on Twitter and asked for help finding some restaurants and things to do with the kids.
Twenty minutes was all it took to receive a list of recommendations from people I know. That request for help saved a chunk of time I would have spent researching things online.
That is the kind of information exchange that I love. Quick and effective. And that is part of why I love Twitter.
Google+ Is Different
Google+ is different from Twitter. Since it doesn’t have the constraints of a 140 character count it encourages a deeper, more free flowing conversation.
On Twitter if you want to have a private conversation you need to send a direct message. It is different on Google+
The circles that you use to group your contacts help to address some of the privacy concerns that people have and make it easier to communicate with a smaller group.
It doesn’t relieve you of the burden of concern that others might one day be able to read your “private thoughts†but it does make it more difficult.
I am a big fan of the hangouts and the access to personalities you might not otherwise be able to engage with.
Hangouts are video chats that you can hold with one person or twenty. It has been a real pleasure to have the opportunity to speak face-to-face with some of the bloggers and folks I have met on Twitter.
Windows Live Writer
I downloaded Windows Live Writer based upon a post that Jessica Gottlieb wrote about it in which she said it improved her productivity.
I figured that since it was free it couldn’t hurt to check it out and am using it to write this post.
Thus far I am ten minutes into my Windows Live Writer experience and it appears to be doing what it is supposed to do- make it easier to blog.
And that my friends is something that will always grab my attention.
You are invited to share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments.
P.S. One of the teachers at my kids’ school referred to the song below as old people music.
Update
I don’t know what happened but Windows Live Writer inserted a bunch of spaces into my post. So instead of point, click, post and walk I have been forced to come back and edit it a couple of times. The obvious question is what made that happen. I guess now I’ll have to check into user error or see if there is some other “glitch” that caused this.
Jack I never faced such issues with Windows live writer…You might like to check for some buggy plugin or try it on a BlogSpot blog and see if its working ..Are you using any addition addon with WLW tool?
Maybe that was the issue. I have a couple of Blogs that run on the Blogger platform. I should test it there too.
I still haven’t done much on Google+, but I am tired of Facebook. I plan on learning the ropes as soon as I can find the time. Twitter, on the other hand, is wonderful. I used to think it was a time suck, too. Sometimes, it is.
The only think I don’t like about CommentLuv is that, sometimes, my last blog post isn’t exactly the thing I want people to see when visiting my blog for the first time. Like now, for example.
I have had that happen with CommentLuv too.
Hey Jack,
I had to stop by and read your post since I saw the headline of your review of Windows Live Writer. I had a friend help me with a WordPress issue last Friday and he had asked me if I use Windows Live Writer. I told him since i had no clue what it was, that would have to be a no.
So if you had to come back in and edit your post anyway, what’s the purpose of having it? I am to assume that it’s a piece of software where you can write your posts and it will check and edit it like a Word document or something but you can publish it directly to your blog! Would you say it’s worth our time checking it out?
Hi Adrienne,
Yes, Windows Live Writer is supposed to make blogging easier but as of right now I am not sure that it does. I am going to take another look at it and try to determine if the issue was because of user error or if it is something else.
It is a free download so if you wanted to look at it too you are not losing anything but your own time.
I couldn’t get into livewriter, marsedit, or any of the other platform based blog writing programs, and I’ve tried them all it seems. They all have issues with formatting when the article is uploaded to wordpress, and therefore require editing inside WP, which as you figured out wastes more time than just using WP alone.
I write all my posts in Mac Pages, keep them in a folder on my desktop. When I’m done editing, I upload to WP, strip the formatting and then format correctly inside WP, usually using the code editor. Publish, then move the file from my desktop to its rightful place.
You might try reading a post I did on Michael Hyatt: http://daddybydefault.com/why-i-read-michael-hyatt-and-why-you-should-too/
There I detail an article he wrote about using evernote along with his blogging. He outlines a process he uses for each post and gives you a template to use. It’s been very helpful for me. the rest of his site is fantastic too, in my opinion.
Hi Craig,
I was really surprised by the formatting issues. That seems like a no brainer so why it happens is something that I wonder about. Meant to double check yesterday to see if it was a case with a setting or related to which browser I was using.
I appreciate the tip about Michael Hyatt. Going to check him out in a few.
Jack,
No more livefyre, eh?
I am just getting the hang of Twitter, and am slowly learning the G+ ropes. Oh, there is Facebook too. I need to get busy. Now I know who to call with my Google+ questions 🙂 Thanks.
Nope. I turned off LF, purchased CommentLuv premium and went to work on a bunch of things. Down the road I may turn it back on, but that remains to be seen.