Comments on: Our Time Online: Where Do You Think We’re Headed?

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:29:49 +0000

Great take on all this, Mike. Thanks!

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:58:20 +0000

Coming at this issue as a web developer, I advise clients of mine that create content themselves such as writers, artists, musicians, bands, graphic designers etc that you do need a ‘home’ on the web, and by home I mean a place that you control and this usually means your own domain i.e. http://www.yourname.com.

This may start out as a blog, but more and more it is becoming a hub that links out to your other ‘locations’ on the web such as twitter, facebook, flickr, even Amazon for those with products for sale there. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of the entity that controls your presence such as facebook, twitter and so on… what if you get banned from facebook? or they change the terms of service to non-commercial use only? This is why I recommend investing the time and effort into your own domain and then pulling in your content from these other sites, because then you are in a much better position but can still benefit from the visibility and social interaction from these sites.

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:25:16 +0000

I think you’re in a very similar pattern to me. We’ll see where it takes us!

By: Shawna

Shawna — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:52:24 +0000

Very interesting topic! My SO and I were just talking about why people blog or use other social media formats. (I plan on blogging about it soon)

To answer some of your questions… I don’t follow blogs as much as I used to but I have less time to do so. Twitter is nice for me because it’s relatively immediate so in the past few months, I’ve ‘met’ more authors on Twitter than on blogs. I also use Twitter to check out blogs or websites of people who interest me. In fact, if you tweet that you have a new blog, I’m more likely to read it because I don’t check my Google reader as often as I should.

That said, I do love to read blogs and I don’t see that they are a thing of the past, yet. I think websites are the base and perhaps they are becoming a little passé unless they are more fluid, such as yours, where you can learn about an author’s upcoming books, perhaps read an excerpt…

I’ve never seen a FB fan page so I can’t comment, but that says enough in itself. : )

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:46:28 +0000

Keely–wow, that’s an amazing stat, but I can believe it. Good to hear you really use the blogs to follow a writer. Thanks for commenting.

By: Keely

Keely — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:31:49 +0000

Hi Becky interesting topic,
I like blogs and generally if I want to find out about a writer I’ll be obsessive and read their website/blog/become FB friend and maybe Twitter pal.
I did recently become a Facebook pal of Patrick Ness’s fan club. And I love it, they email very occasionally to say look this is new etc. and so far it’s juts led me to exclusive stories just for the fans. but Patrick is in the UK and I think the authors there don;t tend to have their own blogs or even websites. often if you look them up you’re sent to the publishers page for that author which is very annoying!

I think Susan made an interesting point too… we all tend to think that everyone Facebooks and Tweets, but many don’t. Some may be far more comfortable anonymously checking out their fav authors on a website or blog. I think Twitter has some kind of amazing drop off rate like 60%. So 6 in 10 try it and never go back!

Phew long reply! I use Twitter just to catch up on anything interesting but rarely tweet myself. I check facebook pretty often and use it as a water cooler!

Cheers,
Keely

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:11:47 +0000

Good point, Susan. Thanks.

By: Susan Taylor Brown

Susan Taylor Brown — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:03:29 +0000

But here’s the thing…while someone can READ the fan page without being signed up on Facebook, they can’t COMMENT or INTERACT with the person unless they signup for a Facebook account.

As many people who are on FB, there are still a great many who want nothing to do with it.

But you can comment and interact with someone on their blog without having to have an account anywhere.

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:43:39 +0000

Thanks, Linda–I know. I so need to shorten my blogs! And I agree we do need webpages. Just wondering, though, if we will need them in the future if people start going more to FB for the same info.

By: beckylevine

beckylevine — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:42:46 +0000

I feel very awkward about the idea of setting up a fan page, when my critique book is out. I think it’s that word “fan.” I look at the suggestions page on FB and think the same thing you do–why would I fan you, instead of friending you.

But…a real life friend is going to set up her fan page, and I’m going to follow along for a while & study it. And I have no problem with HER doing that, so maybe i’m just being harder on strangers and on me!