Google+, Path, Pinterest and everything else: Speed-dating the social media tools of the day

I have a week “off” this week, which means I’m really trying not to pay attention to the office, save for producing a special section mostly from home. In the spare time, I’ve finally found time to experiment with a few of the more recently relevant social tools out there.

Trying out social media tools is a bit like speed dating. | Photo: Flickr user linh.m.do

I asked Facebook which tools people like best right now, specifically mentioning Pinterest and Google+, but intentionally omitting Path.

Should’ve known that Path would be the one that got talked about anyway. Max pointed me to a post saying “Path is what I enjoyed most about Facebook before it turned into the Internet platform: a social network for your private, personal network.”

Yes, I think that’s a pretty accurate statement for something so short and ripped from its context. And I like Path. It’s very attractive, which is exactly what Ef told me when I asked him about it. My problem is that I’m a little tired of convincing my loved ones to try a new thing with me (though not as tired, I’m sure, as they are of that rigmarole). So while I’m excited to experiment with it myself, that’s about all I can do because it’s a tool that feels like it’s specifically built to exclude publishers. Somebody will prove me wrong, but I don’t want to create a Colorado Daily account on Path and start trying to connect with people. Imagine how creepy that would have been to you on “2005-era Facebook.”

From the parislemon post:

Williams broader point about social network overlap is a good one. Most of us are at the point now where if a new social network comes into our lives, it means getting rid of an old one — Flickr -> Instagram, for example. That’s a pretty big problem for new social networks going forward. They can’t just be good, they have to be really, really good to make up for a switching cost. Or they have to be totally different — but even something totally different means time spent there instead of elsewhere. Something will probably be cut.

Somewhere in a dark corner of my brain, there’s a party going on. I’m an early adopter, so I’m on tons of these networks — and I give up on them just as quickly as I sign up, most of the time. The mentality provided above is great for these reasons: fear of being obsoleted should keep social tools relevant (or else!) and I’m excited that we’re in a place now where we’re not just looking back at Friendster and Myspace as the left-behind communities but Flickr! I mean, Flickr! I use it all the time. And yet, for social purposes (which mine aren’t), Instagram is where it’s at. Apple even named it app of the year. But don’t get married to it — something smarter and sexier will come along eventually.

So apps are subject to natural selection now more than ever. What does that mean for us? Gotta research and do some good guesswork and groundwork where you think there will be traction.

Social media tools and choosing what to use them for

Happily, the insightful post Max sent me to also sent me to another really insightful post on the myriad social networks and what the author uses them for. Inspired by those posts, here’s the quickest look I can manage at a whole slew of tools and how I use them (and I’ll be updating the partial list I recently published sometime after a bit more experimentation).

Remember the early days of Twitter? A bit of lively conversation and room for a lot more. | Photo: Library and Archives Canada

I’m using Google+ the way I used Twitter in the early days: Before most news orgs are any good at this network or devote any time to it because the critical mass isn’t quite there yet, I’m posting semi-frequently on a niche topic: the U.S. west and the environment. It’s an interesting time for the west and energy issues, I live here and nobody’s really doing it. Not even High Country News, whose mission is nearly exactly that subject, had put much into it before late December.

It remains to be seen what the network’s voice will turn out to be, but if you want a possible peek into the future, follow Breaking News. (Obviously, I disagree with Justin on Google+ is the nerdier Facebook — it feels more like Twitter to me from a publishing perspective. I’ll probably be proven wrong on that, but right now it’s not all that networky-feeling to me. Maybe because I’m landlocked? Are you coastal types feeling like G+ is the new Facebook?)

Tumblr still falls into a bit of a hole for me. I like the interface and it’s really attractive when used well, but I’d rather blog here when I’ve got something to say. Outside of that, it’s all reblogging and images. So I tried tumbling images I found striking. Pinterest does the striking-image thing, too, with an audience focused a bit more on material goods of the omigodwant variety. And I kind of like how easy it is to make separate buckets for things under one name or brand. I started off with a catch-all bucket, and one each for bicycles, places to visit in the west, space (outer) and space (negative). In the end, do I need either one? Not really.

I think Ashley has done a nice job in meeting the medium’s voice with the Daily’s Tumblr.

There are good places for institutional Pinterest accounts to go, too. Here’s the Travel Channel’s, for starters. And here’s some more Pinterest stuff to think about.

Facebook is in a weird transition place for me. I’d used it for just personal stuff and created a “Fan” page for web + journalism. That’s just another place to drive people to, though, so I’m probably going to retire it as I’ve been using my personal Facebook account for more public posts of late, mostly but not exclusively relating to Boulder and Colorado Daily stuff — and less for keeping up with friends. So it’s kind of become another soapbox. In fact, we had a lively chat about yesterday’s blog post there.

If I had very close friends already on Path – and I’m thinking of like five or six people right now –  that’s probably where I’d keep up with friends. But I send a lot of email for that purpose and that solution is fine for me.

Twitter, like Facebook, is an outlet for stuff that relates to my job in Boulder. (For the past two weeks, I’ve been sort of on vacation mode, so there’s not as much stuff there.) But I do a lot more responding and conversing there than broadcasting. That speaks to the richness of the experience and the depth of the many communities on Twitter. It’s really not the early-adopter crowd anymore.

I also used Twitter as the placeholder tool for removing commenting functions from a hypothetical site in an argument I made yesterday. I’d rather have short conversations there than in comments.

I don’t use Instagram or Flickr socially. Instagram seems redundant to me. Want to peg your photo to a location? See below. Want to peg it to a brand? Use Twitter. But what do I know?

Check in! | Photo: Flickr user whatleydude

I like Foursquare a lot. Yelp and Stamped are competitors here with opposite virtues: Yelp is established and has a large community and web presence. Stamped is new and hot and, at the moment, iPhone-only. But I like the way Foursquare works much more. I use it with friends, but it’s probably closer to the truth that I use it like a video game, trying to unlock achievements. Why? Don’t know. Steve Buttry has some thoughts on why. But it basically boils down to the fact that location is fun and interesting and there’s always something new in the world of restaurants, bars and local businesses. And I like the tips on Foursquare more than the ratings on Yelp — for some reason, it seems like irritated customers who had one bad experience can screw up a business’s Yelp page all by their lonesome, but on Foursquare you get a broader picture. It’s not some long Larry David-inspired diatribe — it’s “Come hungry and get the masala dosa.” Lists are cool, too.

We use Foursquare for the Colorado Daily as well, and like the “personal” account much more than we like the “business” account right now. But that might not last.

Too much stuff?

If it’s all starting to sound like a lot of tools, it is, and that’s why some must die off. Steve Buttry’s year-end look at his year in digital journalism sent me pinballing around the web a bit, but I ended up reading the account of the Denver Post’s large social media success with a photo of a mountain lion and a very large cat staring at one another through a window.

Steve sums up:

The social tools I count in this story: Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, Picasa, Reddit, Tumblr and email. You can’t just seize on a favorite tool such as Twitter or Facebook. The digital journalist needs to be comfortable using several tools and learning new tools.

Good luck! And please tell me if you see news orgs using any of these tools in a particularly cool way!