Newly discovered social media outlets

There are two social media outlets that I have never tried before until now; they are Twitter and Blogger. I have never used Twitter because I never saw the point. From my previous understanding people used it to post what they were thinking and that was it. I now have a better understanding of Twitter. I was able to set up an account and get started. I set up my account and started “following” people. This means that whatever they post will show up on my wall for me to view. What I found interesting was that I could follow many different types of things. I am currently following Alexander Ovechkin; who is a hockey player and ESPN. This is really interesting because just by following ESPN I can look at my wall and get current updates. Tonight it told me about the nerves happening going into game 6 and that the game was about to start. I like the fact that you can follow everything you like and it all appears on your news feed. I also like that you have the ability to un-follow people and not allow them to follow you. It gives a certain amount of privacy so that the only people that see what you post are the people you allow to see it. The other interesting aspect is that you can only post 140 characters. I know from being a Facebook user that people can post what feels like a book on your news feed about everything happening in their life. Twitter does not allow you to do that. Instead it forces you to keep what you are saying short and to the point. Lastly, I have never been a fan of using hash tag because I never saw the point. To use it just to use it I still don’t like. What I learned is that you can use the hash tag and be linked to pages and pictures that people post. That is a new and interesting feature. I just saw at my last Blue Jacket game that if you sent a tweet and did #CBJ than you would appear on the jumbo tron in the arena. This is a new way for the arena to interact without needing a camera running around.

The 2^nd social media outlet I have tried using within the last few months has been blogger. Blogger is a site where you setup a page and design it to your liking. Then you can post a blog, which can be about anything that you feel like posting about. Mine have been all about different aspects of social media and communication. If someone is out there looking for information on the subject they can read my information and continue to follow it if they like what I have to say. It is a way to get your thoughts about issues or subjects out for other people to see or view. Just like Twitter the site allows you to follow people and be followed so that you can keep up to date with their posts. It is another way of communicating with all different types of people.

Personally, I feel that Twitter is the site that is going to be most effective at reaching an audience. Blogging is a great way of getting information out but you have to specifically be looking for it. I am 26 years old and have heard about blogging for years but I had never done it and I have never known many people that have used it. It reaches a wide audience but mostly people who are researching information or blog regularly. Blogging seems to be more of a specific group of people instead of a variety of people. Twitter is something that people ranging from ages 10-80 are going to use. There is something on there for everybody it seems. You can search music, movies, celebrities, family, and the list just continues to go on. There is a large variety of Twitter that blogging doesn’t have. Plus, I feel people have a very short attention span in today’s world. That being said, saying something in 140 characters is going to grab people’s attention much more than 5 paragraphs; most people are too busy to read something that long.  I was just in a weekly HR meeting and Twitter was brought up. The SVP was asking if we were utilizing Twitter and Facebook because they were to important not to be using for hiring purposes. That shows to me that Twitter is a site that is can reach a wide variety of people. We are not focusing on areas that blog because it doesn’t have the same appeal. Businesses want catch phrases which work perfectly with the Twitter character rule of only using 140 letters. Phrases like now hiring or 50% off sale. I think ultimately Twitter has more to offer people. Both are good ways of communicating but Twitter is more in tune with today’s society and the fast paced world we live in.