Pocholo Peralta - "2 Generations of My Social Networks The First GenerationThis includes four major social networks: Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I’m not really an avid user of a particular network. I spend more than an hour per day on Twitter for research and use the other 3 only when prompted. I use networks for productivity, not idle chats. Maybe that’s the reason Twitter limits posting to 140 characters — it promotes productivity and reduces idle words.My opinion and experiences with networking My ironic interaction with Facebook FB was my first, still active network. It became the most useful and my fav when my childhood best friend succeeded in using it to find me (we lost contact for 26 years!). Imagine my joy. Then suddenly, last December 2012, FB suspended my account without giving any reason. The exact date? On the birthday (Dec 26) of my best friend when we have to correspond of course. And just hours or a day before that, a private family photo of Mark Zuckerberg’s sister Randi was published by her friend without permission http://pochp.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/facebook-photo-privacy-breach/I discovered too that FB went on an accounts suspension spree and the target were popular online activists (clue: I am also an activist though I don’t think I’m a famous one). I was still wondering what FB was doing with my FB page after suspension. Yesterday, Lifehacker gave the answer I suspected all along — FB is using our accounts to annoy our FB friends with ads! That is simply spam inside FB. The motive of course is to earn cash from ads. Makes you wonder if FB could be more evil than that. I wonder too how long before FB takes the hard fall.One problem with social networkers is that they don’t hear you when you warn them of networks with safety and privacy problems. They are too happy with their networks which turned them deaf. For me, FB is just good for sharing pictures which, ironically, is not safe too. Tech-savvy pedophiles and kidnappers only need photos to track anyone down. And why would I want to chat inside FB when email exchange is more safer and private?LinkedIn LI was my second network. It’s not very useful for me and that is probably because my account is not premium. The best thing that LI did for me was getting my first corporate reference or recommendation from a total stranger (follower) who have higher credentials than me.Google+ Like with FB and LI, I only use it when I’m prompted, or when I send (share) comments and article links to it.Twitter The usefulness of Twitter with me could not compare to the first three. It’s the last network I joined (December 2011) and yet I have the biggest following here — 155 and going faster. What I tweet mostly are my blog posts which are mostly about alternative media and tech. It puzzles me though that most who follow me are marketers who I mostly don’t follow back.I only had 75 friends and followers in FB and a website which analyzed my page said that my friends should be proud because ‘you choose your friends very carefully’. That friend count would be lower if I don’t care for the feelings of my inner circle. Some friends of friends who followed you and whom you followed back — and whom you want to unfollow — are just annoying. That’s what make unfollowing in FB hard not like in Twitter which is more business-oriented and less personal.So the most important lesson for me: know the new follower first before following back. It’s better to ‘snub’ right away than to hurt your friend and the follower by unfollowing which hurts much more.He who hath many friends hath none. ~ Aristotle Have you experienced suddenly losing a social network or even an app you love? You should expect that to happen because it will happen. And that is why we shouldn’t love our networking lives. I lost my Facebook account but fortunately, I’m not fond of it and I’m not really attached to networks. What would hurt me is if I lose my online writing and other productivity tools. The Second Generation The other social networks where I became active since late last year RebelMouse (RM) RM ‘organizes your social presence into a beautiful, dynamic and social site — in minutes.’Do you feel embarrassed about your website? Make RebelMouse your social front page. Create blog posts, slideshows, and galleries and post them to RM. You’re automatically promoting your content you’re proud of in the process too. Rebelmouse.com BuzzFeed (BF) If my short piece is original (not only curated) and isn’t exactly about social media or Technology, I post it to BF. BF describes itself as ‘…intensely focused on delivering high-quality original reporting, insight, and viral content across a rapidly expanding array of subject areas…’ buzzfeed.com Quora Quora works like Disqus and is primarily a ‘question and answer’ network. You can make yourself famous by answering questions. What I do is add links or use my Quora blog if my question or answer is important and interesting. Quora.comReddit Reddit’s policy is strict and highly techie. I use it as alternative to Buzzfeed. The unique thing about Reddit is you can create your community or ‘subreddit’ then allow or forbid other members to edit your subreddit. Aside from the difficulty of getting your ‘reddit’ approved, redditors can make your story sink or rise by their votes. […] " active 2 weeks, 5 days ago
