What I use and why
After reading the blog post from Sarah Lay regarding what social media she uses and why, I thought it might be a great way to share with you some of the social media I’m involved with. I’ve taken it slightly further than purely social media into the collaborative software, as I feel, for me, the two go hand in hand.
Twitter (@emilyrobe)
I use Twitter to meet people, understand them and it is also an incredibly educational tool. People share their blogs, websites, insights, links they have found, news, contacts etc. It does take time to find the right people and engage with your followers but the results are very worth it.
I use Facebook more for personal contacts, although I do have a business arm on there.
I really like LinkedIn and probably don’t participate on there as much as I could. More than just an online CV, it gives you great opportunities to network via groups and discussions, the ability to showcase blogs and/or slideshows amongst other tools.
Blogging
Well obviously, the fact that you are reading this proves that I blog. I have both this work blog and a personal blog. It’s taken some time to become comfortable with blogging but it works and has a number of benefits.
Skype (emily.robe)
Skype is a great way to communicate with people (free if they have skype too) and works on voice, video or text chat. I belong to a coupe of groups on skype, #VASG have a very successful presence on there, linking almost 30 Virtual Assistants together. We chat about everything from business, social media, we support each other professionally and personally. Another group was formed to support the call handlers for CallTeam. It’s a fabulous example of collaborative working.
Along with the Skype group for #VASG there was a need for an area to share information so it wouldn’t get lost. We started out on Ning, but it really didn’t suit us, Groupsite offers a lot more flexiblity, with a discussion area, link library, calendar etc.
I use Huddle to work on projects with clients. Some of my clients are working collaboratively and huddle is a great way of bringing all the individuals together and share information. It has some great features such as document sharing, whiteboards, communication systems.
These are just a few of the sites I use, I have accounts on Stumble, Youtube, Delicious, flickr and a lot more beyond. However, the sites listed above are the main ones I use.
