daniel fowler
web professional . social media strategist . stage performer . tenor
Social Media Reviews
I have been an active user of social media online before using social media online became cool. Did I inspire the virtual revolution? Well, no. But I have been using the internet since my family first dialed up to America Online in 1997. I crashed my family's computer on three separate occasions questing for knowledge in those early years. The wisdom I gained spurred within me a fascination for the web and computer-based media that today still fuels a healthy obsession with the virtual world.
Below are trademarked images that are linked to social networks where you can often find me dallying. I have also included a short review for each site, just in case you're new to all of this social media hype and don't already know what these sites have to offer. So friend me, follow me, recommend me, add me, and bookmark me. All such behavior is encouraged when using the links below.
Facebook has been an incredible resource for me ever since I first signed up as an early adopter during my sophomore year in college. Lost your friend's cellphone number? Look it up. Throwing a big party and want to get the word out? Create an event and invite your entire friends list. Just don't do it too often or your friends list will begin to shrink. Write on walls, post photos, view photos, update your status. While some features require taller learning curves than others, the developers respond quickly to the demands of the population, and are continually enhancing the site's already marijuana-esque appeal. A+
Twitter is another online phenomenon to which I am relatively new. When you first hear about it, it sounds like an entire site dedicated to status updates. Which I argued wasn't very interesting since Facebook has a status update and a ton of other features. But once I joined I was hooked... for about a week. It is really handy for keeping up with the happenings of your friends, famous people, or the day's major headlines (even CNN tweets). All kinds of people and organizations use twitter, and its design is so intuitive, why not? There are even handy little desktop addons that you can download (or use your phone to TXT in your status) so that you don't have to visit the website just to tell the world that you're eating lunch. A
imeem
When a business picks one thing to do, they usually do it better than competitors that try to do two or three things. Imeem takes one aspect of all the other social networking sites, music, and does it very well. Users can listen to full-length songs that they find browsing user profiles and playlists. They still create a profile with basic information like personal interests and a relationship status, but Imeem allows users to take their music further by customizing their playlists and sharing their music throughout the community. If it sounds simple, that is because it is. I have been on Imeem for only three days, but I give it a high recommendation to anyone that currently uses YouTube to find their favorite songs. A
I only joined LinkedIn a few weeks ago, and while I cannot find connections as easily as I would like (due in part to the "import contacts from email" feature always freezing), I see a tremendous usefulness in this site. Professionally, it provides business owners and job seekers with the opportunity to grow a network similar to facebook, while putting important information about one's professional qualifications front and center. So eventually instead of sending my resume to potential employers, maybe they will take the initiative for once and pull it straight off my LinkedIn profile. A-
Del.icio.us
Does something taste good to you? I got pretty excited after signing up with delicious, despite being skeptical when I first heard about it. Much like twitter, it sounded too simple to be amusing. 'Bookmarks? That's it?' And while that is in fact all this site is, I like to find the good in everything. How many times have you been on a public-access computer and wished you could remember the URL to that cool YouTube video you found at home? Well if you bookmark that video using delicious, you'll never have to remember another web address in your life. Another neat feature is that you can see how many other people have bookmarked that very same page, and you can tag your bookmarks to increase the findability of them for other users. Simple design, easy import feature for already-bookmarked pages, and virtually no learning curve. Serve up your bookmarks today. B+
MySpace
MySpace has come a long way since I first signed up. It gives its users the freedom to design their profile any way that they want, which provides for uniquely individual profiles, but also creates a bandwidth nightmare and navigational chaos. It only takes a few hundred flashing GIF images to drastically increase the loading time of a single profile. Some freedoms of expression are better left enslaved. It does look a lot better than it did four years ago, however, and the creepy-factor of 'MySpace stalkers' is slowly declining. C+
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft gets a lot of hate from a lot of people. It is ridiculed in popular society as appealing only to nerds who have no life. Well I have a very active social life, but I freaking love the virtual culture of WoW. It is a massive multi-player online real-time strategy (MMO-RPG) game that connects real people from across every continent. Blizzard Entertainment has segregated the small in-game population that pretends they are real-life blood elves from the majority of the in-game population that enjoys WoW as a social hobby just like Halo or the Nintendo Wii. But its reputation for being a past-time for the geeky and friendless originates from critics that choose to ignore that the game has 10 million or so active U.S. subscribers. So to that effect, all I can say is don't knock it until you've tried it. A+
Recommend
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