Back to Social Media then as I've been tagged by Laurence from Blog Till You Drop with the following question: "What are the 8 ways in which you've used social media". Not sure I can find eight, but here we go!
1. Blogging
I started blogging in August 2005 i.e. almost 3 years ago and yes it is time consuming but I've experienced so much thanks to blogging over those last three years that I would go as far as saying blogging has turned around my life ! Blogging = Social Media ? Totally. Blogging is not just about writing in your own in front of your computer. It's about sharing point of views with your readers and other bloggers. And I've met so many bloggers in real life that right now, my social life is deeply linked to the blogosphere...
2. Social Media @ Work
In September 2006, I was working with Renault in Paris, on the launch of Twingo Concept at the Paris Motorshow. We were looking at ways to reach those young customers who traditionally do not attend auto-shows and this is were I introduced the notion of Social Media within Renault. I thank those who trusted me at the time (Philippe) as it wasn't an easy task to get the senior management to understand why we wanted to
involve bloggers for the launch of a new vehicle... But it worked, the feedback was so great that in 2007, when we launched the real Twingo,
Renault invited 20 European bloggers to Slovenia to test the car !
3. Twitter
When I first moved back to London in January 2007, I was really missing not being part of the French Social Media Scene so I guess Twitter came at the right time for me ! By mid-2007, I remember being able to know exactly what my French blogger friends were doing, which parties they were going to, etc. At the beginning, Twitter for me was purely a social tool. I guess because it has grown so much (although there seems to be only 4,000 people using Twitter in France for example so it's still a "geeky" tool). Anyhow, because I am now following so many people on Twitter, I can't read all of them instantly. However, when I have 5 minutes free, I check my Twitter page for all the interesting conversations, links and update. So nowadays I use Twitter to be up to date with what's happening in terms of new tools on the web, or events in London, etc. It's like an RSS feed really.
4. Facebook
I love Facebook ! In the very same way Twitter allows me to know what's happening with the "web 2.0" world, with the "Social Media" things, Facebook allows me to know what's happening with my "non-blogger friends" (but also with the bloggers !). Facebook is all about the simplicity of sharing. Sharing pictures, inviting people to events, remembering birthdays (that's one thing I particularly like on Facebook as I'm useless with remembering birthdays !). One thing I hate on FB ? Vampires and other stupids applications, although they seem to be less widespread those days !
5. LinkedIn
This is probably one of the social networking sites I have used the less but it's growing on me. The fact I was with the same company for more than 7 years meant that in terms of social networking, the most important thing was to network internally. And when your company is a huge international one, that's a lot of networking to do !!! Having left Renault at the beginning of the year, I am slowly but gradually building my LinkedIn network...
6. Dopplr
Dopplr is not yet a mainstream tool. It's a shame though as it can be very useful when you travel quite a lot. So what is Dopplr ? Dopplr is "an online service for intelligent business travellers". It "lets you share your future travel plans privately with friends and colleagues. It then highlights coincidence, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Paris when you will be there too." Are you on
Dopplr yet ?
7. Flickr
You all know Flickr so I won't go into the details. I have my own Flickr widget on this blog's column. It's all about sharing my pictures with my friends.
8. Netvibes
I have written a few posts already on Netvibes last year, including
this one which describes what is Netvibes and the point of it all.
This is it for me... quite a long post and I haven't even mentioned
Brightkite,
Pownce,
Plurk,
Jaiku, FriendFeed or
Seesmic ! So, on the basis it's my time to tag people maybe some of you will describes those tools ! So here is my list of 8 bloggers that I tag :
Paul,
Darika,
Nick ,
Whatleydude,
Lewiswebb, and
Mike because I would love hearing about how he uses Seesmic. And 2 french bloggers :
Greg &
Raphael.
