The Lady Programmer

I got to use Plurk, Twitter and Facebook at the same time for a number of days. Since I got a lot of social networks in my list, I thought I could synchronize updates using only one tool – ping.fm is a good thing to keep these three updated. At first I thought that ping.fm would solve my woes of reducing a bit of work in maintaining social sites.

I was wrong.

I realized that Plurk, Twitter and Facebook are three different social sites with different sets of people. I have Twitter friends, I have Plurk friends and I have Facebook friends too. I had to maintain good relationship with those friends whom I connect with each of those three social networks, not only just posting out links of my own stuff.

As a Plurk friend had said, there can be too much social noise. I defended that too much social noise is a lot better then having no one to talk with – at least online.

Twitter:a big mixed group

I joined Twitter first, and right now I’m proud to have over a hundred Twitter followers. The Twitter group that I got are from different countries like the US, Canada, India and of course, the Philippines.

What I like best about Twitter is that this network is far well developed. There are a lot of software that is written for it, like TwitBin, TweetDeck, Twhirl (what I use) and can easily be integrated in a lot of social sites like Facebook. Also, Twitter remains to be the main choice of A-list bloggers so I get to follow their updates regularly.
Plurk: down to earth and casual

I have a different set of friends in Plurk, and since I am a newcomer, I had only 18 friends and 10 fans on my account. Perhaps if I placed my widget on one or more of my blogs then I must have grown a bigger friend and fan base. I find Plurk a much more interactive site than Twitter. If not for those A-list bloggers who use Twitter more than Plurk, then Plurk should have been a better medium than Twitter – it has more features than what I can write on this post.

I find Plurk users a lot more interactive than my Twitter friends. As soon as I had plurked out something, I often get replies in less than a minute – even from interested strangers who wants to connect with me.

Facebook: a better Friendster

Friendster remains to be the social network of choice in Asia. But to me, Facebook is a lot better. It can put links automatically from those Twitter. It can also post out links from delicious, Stumbleupon, Digg automatically. Well, a great medium to promote, IF only I have a lot of friends. I only got 18 of them in my account.

But most of my Friendster friends find it too overwhelming to maintain a lot of social networks. They are still sticking out to Friendster and I don’t think those Friendster users would like to switch or add Facebook.

Ping.fm: synchronize the social networks at once

I use ping.fm on times when I had to promote my own blog posts or share a link to all the three networks at one. I just wish that ping.fm will be able to show a Youtube and picture snapshot on Plurk and Facebook networks, than just showing a shortened link going to it.

I used a bit of Digg, StumbleUpon, BlogCatalog, MyBloglog and other social networks to take a peek on how to use these. I did not get too far with Digg and StumbleUpon.

Digg and StumbleUpon

It seemed to me that Digg and StumbleUpon are two similar sites that let me interact with others. I can promote my sites by simply submitting my own posts to them, but as a rule, these social sites are made for members to submit content of other people.

Both sites are made on the premise to change the way people access information. Unlike search engines, where the most relevant site appears on search results, Digg and StumbleUpon are entirely powered by the votes of the community. The most popular site gets featured at the front page – this post also gains a significant amount of traffic driven to the site.

photo credit: steve.wilson (Flickr)

This is efficient, because I find good content that show up on the front page.

Other impressions and notes from other bloggers that I had seen with Digg and StumbleUpon are:

• There are so many members. Getting popular with both sites may take some time.
• A blog owner keen on promoting his blog should be consistent in using both sites to drive massive traffic.
• Traffic is not consistent. There could be a thousand of visitors in one day and none on the next day.
• Visitors are ad blind. Even if there are thousands of impressions from this site, you might not be able to earn from these because they have the tendency not to click on ads. There are some bloggers who complained that they had not earned a few cents from those thousands of impressions.
• It is a “fake” traffic where one gets to see a site, rates the site if the visitor wants it, then proceeds to view the next site. When I stop using the services, then I get no visitors at all.

BlogCatalog and MyBloglog

BlogCatalog’s strength lies on its community discussions, while MyBloglog’s advantage is on its tag system. I think both sites are great in finding bloggers who can turn into loyal readers of a blog. Participating in BlogCatalog’s community can help in connecting to other bloggers, while in MyBloglog, the generous use of tags greatly helps other bloggers find your blog.

Twitter

I had been using Twitter for quite a while. I find this useful to do mini-blogging, so I don’t get to worry about putting up a new blog post. Even reaching out for help is better in Twitter, because there can be somebody who can answer your concern.

Facebook

Facebook is a more advanced Friendster account to me, but I’m still keeping my Friendster account intact to connect to non-blogger friends. Facebook lets me put in a lot of timely content – Tweets, blog posts, Diggs and StumbleUpon submissions. Most of the content automatically posts out to my Facebook profile, so I get to promote all the other social networks to my friends in the profile.

Everyone is Still Invited

Of course my first impressions may be wrong. I’m still trying to learn a lot from these sites. If you are experienced in any of these social networks, do leave me a tip or two.

I had posted out too much these past two days. I had been announcing in Twitter lately of that template-tweaking thing. I just decided to venture out into social media.

More Traffic

Why? I had to figure out ways to gain traffic – not only from Entrecard, but from other sources as well – primarily from different social networks.

Just the other day, I was working out my stuff on my StumbleUpon profile. Then yesterday, I got myself Digg-in some articles. I have not touched my Del.ici.ous account, but maybe I will. Oh yes, I have a Facebook account too. Some of you might notice that I had Twittered too much – well, it is really a good platform for me to do micro-blogging without the need to post out something in my blogs. Now with Twhirl installed in my system tray, managing those little tweets get a little better.

I just came back from BlogCatalog – I got hooked with all the discussions going on. It’s like a mini-forum with the IntenseDebate feel.

Don’t forget me to fave me in Technorati. I got a MyBloglog account too.

Leaving Entrecard?

Of all these networks, I plan to be active in Digg and StumbleUpon. I will still doing the daily 600 drops in Entrecard, but I still have no plans of stopping myself from learning new things in blogging.

Everyone is Invited

I am inviting everyone to connect with me in any of these social networks, preferably in Digg and StumbleUpon. If you got your existing profiles already, add me up using those links above or using the BlogCatalog widget below.