ENTRY # 11

Entrecard is not to be ignored either, but I haven’t had much time lately to pursue the boredom pleasures of chain dropping, due to health issues and my father in-law being in the hospital again. Entrecard does provide some means of traffic, but it tends to give a high bounce rate with people just dropping cards and immediately going to the next blog and the next. I have gotten a few subscribers from Entrecard chain dropping, so I can’t say it doesn’t bring benefits.

BloggingZoom is also a good social media site, although it seems to be developing into something akin to Digg with category tags mainly focusing on “blogging” or celebrity b.s. that I couldn’t care less about. There aren’t very many blogs in my own niche that have joined BZ, so I do hope more people will join BloggingZoom that write about relationships, family, parenting etc. The latest word is that some great improvements are to be launched very soon, so hopefully networking will bring it’s rewards as well.

My personal opinion of Spicy Page is that it simply sucks, and it sucks big time! A complete waste of time and effort. However, Cre8Buzz has some fabulous members that actually interact with each other and become subscribers and frequently comment on posts. Cre8Buzz can sometimes be cumbersome to navigate in search of other like-niche bloggers, but well worth the effort. Currently, members of Cre8Buzz are only able to join one category group, when many members qualify to be members of several all at the same time. I’m a woman, but I’m also a mom, so I feel I should be able to be a member of both.

By and large, StumbleUpon provides the best advantages to bloggers over and above any other social networking site around. Anyone that isn’t a member of SU is really missing out.

ENTRY # 10

I then discovered forums and the power of real time chat, and IM conferences. I met a lot more people who shared my interests, and those that didn’t. I loved the ability to express my thoughts through posts and emoticons. I got involved in an MMORPG also, and I could say that online games are also social networks because we got to chat and play at the same time. There’s a common denominator, and most of the time the game came first before real life talks, but nonetheless i met some of the best people there.

I didn’t discover blogging, it came to me. At first, I staked out at comment sections of my friends’ blogs, particularly when the topic is hot. Then, I realized that “hey i can do this too!”, so I started to blog. Blogging opened up my world to more venues for social interaction online. And, though I soon realized that MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog are more self promotion areas than real interaction, I still enjoyed these two venues because I found a lot of good blog writers there. Entrecard is still the best discovery I made in my quest to learn more about this world of blogging. At first, I tagged along (some would call it stalking lol) some people in Entrecard who knew the system better than I did, observed what they did, listened to what they have to say about me and my blog, then I started making other connections and improving my blog.

This whole social network thing exposed me to different cultures, beliefs, writing styles and jargon. In fact, more than once, I had to message people asking them to explain a phrase or a whole sentence to me, because the language (though universally understood) has so many different nuances, depending on country of origin and background. And, it doesn’t stop there. I learn more about the internet and interaction each day as I go through the motions of getting to know people, learning about them and learning from them. In conclusion, I think social networks are convenient means of creating relationships without paying for the airfare.

ENTRY # 9

ENTRY # 8

When high school and college ended, I, like all of my friends thought we’d be friends forever. We’d stay in touch as we spilled out into the far corners of the world. I graduated in the early nineties — just before the internet really began to take off. That meant the only actual ways to stay in touch were long distance phone calls (not an option for a recent graduate (except of course for those hundreds of dollars in international long distance, but that’s another story)) or hand written letters.

Gradually most of them disappeared.

But in the past few years I’ve been finding them again. First through Classmates.com, then Linkedin and MySpace, and more recently Facebook. I am finding all sorts of friends from the past. And even people I didn’t expect to keep up with.

But with busy work lives, it’s challenging to keep those rediscovered friends in the loop. That’s also where social networking comes in to play. The social networks mean I can see what my friends are up to. And they can see what I’m up to. I don’t have to do a copy and paste email. And when something really strikes a cord, we can connect through email.

Entrecard adds another element to it. My friends from the analog world can now see and interact with my new web friends who know me mainly through my blog and met me through my Entrecard.

Social networks aren’t a replacement for the world of wet ware. They are an enhancement to it.

ENTRY # 7

For me, EntreCard has been by far the most addictive of the social networking sites. I think it’s because it encourages interaction between bloggers out on their blogs, instead of within the confines of the social networking site. And as a blogger, that’s what interests me. But, I’ve only been a member of EntreCard for a week, so we’ll see how long the enthusiasm lasts.
ENTRY # 6

A bit long winded, hopefully I am not disqualified.

ENTRY # 5