Scrapbookers and the industry as a whole have totally jumped on the social media bandwagon. Back in the “dark ages” we had Flickr, then came Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts and now every scrapbook business you can fathom has a Fan page. And you can even make them all talk to each other!
First off, I want to offer a sincere welcome to all those just entering the sphere (or even just considering it). Blogs and social media are the places where conversations happen today – so you’re in the right places to make like-minded friends and consume information in a way that fits your lifestyle. Cheers!
In today’s discussion, I’d like to dig a little deeper into how YOU as a scrapbooker, photographer and memory keeper are bringing social media into your process. (And let’s focus on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other similar sites – not blogs – here.)
Here are some questions to get you started:
- Do you use social media to document your stories? preserve/share photos?
- Do you use social media to learn about new products and trends?
- How does social media help/hinder your process? your sense of community?
- Has social media changed the industry? how do you see that evolving?
It is my hope we can demystify social media, what it is and the how’s and why’s of its role in scrapbooking. If there is something you “don’t get” about it, please feel free to ask. Simple Scrapper is your safe place to talk, share and learn from each other!
I love using Twitter to capture little conversations or my feelings RIGHT NOW. I actually put together a pregnancy album composed entirely of twitter updates. No pictures at all, but I totally love it.
What a brilliant idea Cara! There are certainly special times in our lives where our tweets tell so much of the story!
I use FB to share little stories, photos, etc. with friends/family. I’ve also been posting my P365 LOs. I have “liked” a number of Designers/Stores on FB and find it’s much easier to keep up with their release dates this way. I love knowing when things go on sale, when there are freebies or coupons. It’s all right there on my wall and I don’t have to think about which fav stores to check and when to check them. I don’t think it hinders my process or sense of community at all, if anything I’ve gotten to know more about indiv. fav designers.
You’ve raised an excellent point Ang – social media can be a productivity tool to help you keep things in one place!
Call me a luddite if you will, but I don’t use any social media and have no intention of doing so. Why? you ask. The security risks, the annoying pings from people I don’t care about from my past, and the vast amount of time that it seems to require. Yes, I’ve heard all the rebuttals to my arguments (don’t bother). I feel no need to keep tabs constantly on friends and family and feel that the pressure to do so is ridiculous.
When I want to share layouts or photos, I use my site at Shutterfly. And I barely have enough time to read the few blogs I subscribe to every day and to scrap a layout once a week.
Glad others are enjoying it, but Social Media is not for me right now.
I am all about scrapbookers choosing paths that are right for their lifestyle. Certainly there are many benefits to a more unplugged (grounded, even) approach.
I only use Facebook and Twitter occasionally – mostly for coupons or special freebies from Scrapbook designers. I scrapbook for myself, so although I upload most of my pages to galleries, I don’t necessarily put them up to share with others per se. I guess I kind of feel that all the Facebook/Twitter stuff is …. fake community, or some kind of popularity contest; it seems very juvenile to me.
I’m curious about Facebook in regard to designers giving out coupons/giveaways. I’ve seen some comments around (maybe on blogs?) saying that Facebook does not allow giveaways and can delete those pages when they find people breaking the rules. I tried to looks for said “rules” on Facebook and could not find any. Are all the coupons and giveaways that designers do on Facebook really breaking their rules?
Tiffany, do you feel a stronger sense of community on some of the message boards.
Here are the Facebook promotions guidelines: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php
It is my understanding that freebies and coupons given to everyone are just fine, but that giveaways that require doing anything on Facebook are not.
I’m actually compiling a list of Facebook updates for my friend who just had a baby. She updated a lot with how she was feeling during the pregnancy and now how her and the baby are doing. Just having those little notes + the dates is really cool. Like a mini-journal she didn’t even know she was keeping. 🙂
What a wonderful surprise!
I check FB every day! I signed up because I wanted to keep up with my kids, g-kids, nieces and nephews. And I share my scrap pages with them.
They like it… think it’s fun… and it does keep our dialogs going.
I don’t have a lot of “friends” outside of family.
I don’t any of the time consuming “games” or “apps”. That’s not what I’m there for.
But I *DO* like my FB!!!
I know my mom is on Facebook to keep up with me and other kids of family friends. In some ways its a broadcast style of communication that has replaced long and frequent phone conversations.
When I first joined Facebook and Twitter, it was with the intention of documenting my daily stories: my online journal. I love it! And the feedback I get from my family and friends is largely positive: they enjoy hearing about our “adventures”. I love looking back on some of the updates (it’s been 18 months now) and remembering how I felt at the time.
There is even a Facebook app to collect your status updates in a file: “My status history”. You can copy these to a text file to collect for scrapbook layouts.
Yeah, I love social media.
I love seeing how some people are choosing social media (Facebook or Twitter w/ TwitPic) as a way to combine their images and stories. It is truly simple scrapbooking at its best!
Thanks so much for the tip about the “My Status History” option. That sounds super useful!
I don’t use Twitter much at all. I just don’t *get* it but I’m trying to learn a little.
I joined FB a few years ago and was gung-ho with it for awhile. I actually printed all of my status updates for 2009 hoping to do something with them (there are a LOT). I don’t know if I will actually scrap them, but I am glad to have them printed.
I don’t use FB nearly as much anymore and I rarely update my status. But I have my blog connected to it and it allows some folks to follow me that way. I do enjoy seeing little updates from friends and family but try to limit it to folks I care about and not Susie from high school’s second cousin. I do follow some scrapping businesses and such but this isn’t a huge part of my hobby.
I use my personal blog and Flickr to share family photos, memories and completed layouts & projects.
I think the print out is memory keeping in and of itself. Not everything has to be truly scrapped!