Hooked on Fridays
Posted by Amy | Filed under Blogging
Julia is hosting a blog party today and asked her readers what they are hooked on.
I’m hooked on Social Media.
Anything that has to do with making new connections or staying in touch with friends. My top three time busters these days are Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr.
Friends from my high school have all the sudden joined Facebook and it’s becoming so much fun! I forgot how down right hilarious some people were. Heck, I really forgot about them all together. It’s been 20 years, so cut me some slack if you’re reading this and from my home town…. I’m so old! ha.
Not only am I connecting with old friends again, but making new ones too. It’s nice to see what my blog friends are up to outside of the blog world. Facebook is also great for business. I just started a group for our I Heart Faces photography sharing web site. Friends of friends have joined the group and it’s spreading like wild fire. I also just ran a very inexpensive ad for our web site. In just a few days, our ad had over 100,000 views. We got a lot of new hits to our site that way, plus new group members.
Twitter is totally amazing. Our entire web site promotion for I Heart Faces was done through social media avenues and Twitter was the top referrer by far! We were able to reach part of our target market by following photographers. Through Twitter you can make relationships with your readers and talk with people you might never reach through email.
I think that’s my favorite part of Twitter is the connection made to people through typing less than 140 characters. Just last night I chatted with a writer/photographer for a well known photgraphy web site. He found our site through Twitter and joined our contest. Then we asked him (through Twitter) to be a judge and he was thrilled! Yeah! I’ve personally been contacted for new business a lot through Twitter.
Oh, and how can I not mention it’s a lot of fun too! Last week was 80’s photo day! Hundreds of people changed their profile picture to an 80’s shot. It was a riot!! Right up my alley if you know me!! See if you can find some of your friends here. LOL!!
Have you checked your Twitter Grade? It’s fun to see where you rank. Some how I got on the Dallas Elite list (the most powerful Twitter Users). Told you I was hooked!!
Too busy? Tweet Later is a service that allows you to automatically set tweets to a certain time. You can schedule them in advance. Not as personable, but it’s great when you’re busy! It also sends you your replies via email so you don’t have to stay on Twitter all day.
Flickr
I could stay on this photography site for days just going through photos and commenting. There are so many wonderful groups where people share photos. A great place for inspiration!
I love this craft room group and this cake fun group.
Become contacts with your favorite bloggers like Holly from Decor 8. Or have fun adding your faces in places pics here.
Check out our I ♥ Faces groups too: People or Pets
And of course I’m TOTALLY hooked on I ♥ Faces!
We had some incredible entries for our first week! I want to thank all of you who participated. It was the best week ever! I think Angie and I will be ready for some long naps this weekend.
FYI… We got excited and posted our winners early! Go see if you are a winner!!!
So now you know why my house is a mess if you were to come over!!!
• You can follow me on Twitter here & my design firm here.
• Join our I ♥ Faces Facebook Group & follow us on Twitter.
• Add me as one of your Flickr contacts here.
Tags: facebook, flickr, hooked on houses, I Heart Faces, social media, twitter
January 16th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I haven’t gotten hooked on Flickr yet, but that’s because I don’t quite understand it. It seems difficult to scroll through peoples’ galleries one arrow click at a time. I have a feeling I’m doing something wrong because it shouldn’t be so frustrating. But I’m totally hooked on Twitter and Facebook. Like you, I’ve suddenly had a mob of high school and college friends join up and befriend me on Facebook. I guess it’s finally catching on with us old fogeys.
That’s amazing that an ad on Facebook generated that many views for your new site! Wow! You’re really off to a great start.
Julia @ Hooked on Houses’s last blog post..The Color of 2009: Pantone Chooses “Mimosa”
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January 16th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been skeptical of the value of Twitter, but I may have to look into how it could help me to grow my business! I use facebook and found it difficult to use it to grow a small etsy-based business like mine, but I will still look into using twitter to get the word out! Thanks again!
Melissa’s last blog post..Treasures
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January 16th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I am so technology challenged… I suddenly have a lot of friends doing the facebook thing, my teens are mortified that “old” people are on facebook! It is a challenge for me to balance blogging with my real life, I probably don’t need any more distractions!
coco’s last blog post..hooked again…
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January 16th, 2009 at 10:31 am
I know that some people (my dad!) think Twitter is a complete time waster, but I am convinced that it is one of the top reasons that I ♥ Faces got off to such a great start. It was amazing the number of referrals we received through it!
This was a great review of the value of social media. You should also mention twitter.grader just for fun ~ you know how obsessed we are with seeing where we rank in our cities!
theArthurClan’s last blog post..Amish on a Cold Winter Night.
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January 16th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I’m with Julia on Flickr- I don’t do much there because I don’t “get it” either.
but I’m loving Facebook and Twitter – I think the older I get the slower I have to go at learning new things! LOL
~Tidymom
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January 16th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I haven’t really done anything on these sites…, well joined, but then forgotten about them…, but you certainly inspired me, thanks!
Maya@Completely-Coastal’s last blog post..Nantucket Wine Basket
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January 16th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
you are the social media queen. i never heard the two words together in a sentence until you mentioned them. i think you need a crown that says, “social media queen” in pink rhinestones…or maybe red to match the i heart faces logo. anyway…you’re rrrrrockin’ now girl!
i totally feel the same way about facebook…high school friends and my friends from my freshman year at OU…wow! i wonder why i ever left there in the first place!
love you and thanks for all the great stuff!
ashley’s last blog post..Yo, yo, yo, yoooo—what up, dog?
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January 16th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Congratulations, Amy!!!
Those are some beautiful faces
Bella Casa’s last blog post..Hooked on Etsy!
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January 16th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
[...] Tea for Joy 18. coco@ordinarymiracles 19. Shannon@NonnieBear 20. Melissa 21. Liz@Violet Posy 22. Amy @ Living Locurto 23. Robyn 24. Tidymom 25. Studio M Designs 26. Jan & Tom’s Rose Haven 27. Christine 28. [...]
January 16th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I was just checking into Twitter today and wondering if it was worth it! I don’t really understand how it works so I’ll have to read more about it. Thanks for the great info!
-Kim
Kim @ Forever Wherever’s last blog post..Stuck on Spray Paint!
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January 16th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
I’m a big fan of flickr, and just discovered your I love Faces blog – what a great idea! :0)
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January 17th, 2009 at 2:12 am
I just linked to your great post!
-Kim
Kim @ Forever Wherever’s last blog post..To Tweet, or Not to Tweet?
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January 17th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I think I need to look into twitter. I sort of know what it is but don’t fully understand it.
I’m completely ADDICTED to Facebook!
KV
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January 17th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Just roaming around today. Saw the Super Hero Party post. Outragiously fun and adorable!!! That is one lucky 5 year old. : )
M.L.@the house of whimsy’s last blog post..Two for the Price of One
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January 17th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Thanks for all your helpful comments on Twitter. I’m going to get started soon!
-Kim
Kim @ Forever Wherever’s last blog post..To Tweet, or Not to Tweet?
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January 17th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
I had deleted my Facebook account in August in the hopes of trying to connect more personally with my friends. Yeah, definatly didn’t happen and I missed it so much that I just reopened my account a few days ago. Boy I love that site! Crackbook is what I’ve heard it called. It sure is!
Mandi’s last blog post..A Quick Note and a Prayer Request
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