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Hello, and welcome to my little corner of quirkiness. The purpose of this blog is to make it easier to connect with my readers. It's really that simple. The name of the blog, "Quirky Dreams," is relevant only in that my dreams are often quirky, unusual ones, and they are also where I get many of my writing ideas from. I dream in full-length, color, high-def story lines, and if they are remembered, I write them down. Parts or all of these dreams may enter a story. A story might be based around a single dream or an idea from a dream. Regardless of which it is, this is my writing blog, so kick back in your chair, bed, recliner, or airport terminal, and enjoy the blog.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Social Networking

I know it's been a while since my last post. I don't exactly know how many people read this religiously, but I apologize if you do. Things have been a little chaotic.

Something I almost feel overwhelmed with lately is the fad of social networking. Let me start out by saying that I'm not knocking it. It's really great to be able to find the people you went to high school with or someone you lost touch with.

But I have to admit, as interesting as people are, we do tend to go overboard sometimes. Just look at all the people who post hundreds of pictures of their children on Facebook. Yes, your kid is adorable. I get that. I know you love the little rugrat. But I really don't want to see the picture of his first successful potty training. I don't care how cute you think the drool spot is. Really. One or two pics please. I'm not that interested in your kid.

Marketing. That's usually enough to send me running. As someone learning to market her ebooks, I have to say, I think a lot of us go about it the wrong way. I think very often we are so inundated with internet marketing that we usually just train our eyes to pass over the stuff. I know I do that with Twitter spammers. They use a program like Hootsuite to send out spam links to their own material on a timer. I don't know if this actually works, but I find it severely annoying. I thought Twitter was to connect with people, not to provide a one-way marketing spam site. I've had people recommend that I do something similar. I just can't make myself do it. If that kind of thing annoys me, why would I subject other people to it? I'd rather have meaningful little conversations with people who actually want to talk with me.

LinkedIn. Tried it. Everyone told me "It's great for making connections for when you need a new job!" Well...the problem is that by the time you need a new job, you've already linked yourself to all your coworkers, and they now know that you're looking for a new job. How long before your boss knows you're sniffing around competitors? The entire company? It felt to me like Facebook could do the same thing at any rate. Why manage another one?

Lastly, Google+. Seems like a decent social networking site, but I'm just not sure if I really want to manage another one. I'm on it for the sake of some friends, but unless those friends give me a nudge, I'm not all that interested. Maybe I'm just burned out.

I know social networking is the hot thing and has been for a while, and there are some really nice benefits to it, but I think perhaps the way it's used is starting to burn me out on certain aspects. I don't check my Facebook nearly as often as I used to. I like Twitter a bit, but the spamming desensitizes me to new posts. Maybe you readers can pull something useful from my ramblings to market your own stuff, maybe not. I hope you do. Making the internet a better place and all that, one rant at a time. ;-)

4 comments:

  1. Agreed. Well said, Renee. So refreshing to see someone else say what I have been complaining about for far too long.

    G+ may be the best compliment to Twitter; a dynamic duo instead of a replacement. I'm hoping.

    Then I can leave Facebookville behind...with all its sheep, cattle, corn and drooling tykes. :D

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  2. Yeah, I think if everyone jumps to Google+, I'll get into it more. Until then, I'm primarily using Facebook. Of course, I have a friend working for Google who is not happy about that... >.>

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  3. But... but... I have 687 friends on Facebook. This is living!

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  4. If you read my other comment I'm thankful this the second book I read made by you ugly kids

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