Tools of the Trade: Rethinking Social Networks
In 2006 MySpace was the 2nd most popular destination on the web according to a
NYTimes article, and Facebook is right behind. With such a large claim in the webspace, these sites can be great places for promoting your work and building a new audience. And many companies are using social networks like MySpace and facebook very well.
I recently visited the following myspace sites:
Misnomer (our own),
Keigwin Dance,
Danish Dance Theater, and
Time Lapse Dance.
All profiles featured great video and photo content. These companies also had a good collection of friends. I wonder how different companies and individuals are using effectively using myspace as a channel for audience building. There are many
success stories of musicians using mySpace, but where are the success stories of artists and performers from the field of dance?
With the addition of Kristin Sloan's great project
(inter)Mission, the dance community can now really spend time thinking how to best leverage these networks to further their work - both online and offline.
In addition to myspace, facebook, and (inter)Mission, dance
companies could also utilize Flickr, a photosharing community. Because
dance is a visual medium, dance companies should communicate their
visual work as much as possible, and Flickr offers us many tools
including uploads by mobile phone.
In fact, our very
first uploads on Flickr were done via cellphone.
Of all the online communities and sites we participate in, our
Flickr and
YouTube pages have provided us with the most traffic to our site. Flickr also has the ability to create
groups around dance, and the visual language that dance captures so well.
For those already using Flickr, you should check out
Shozu.
Shozu allows you to upload pictures and videos from your cell phone in
1-Click. These online tools have really helped us share our work.
To
get a better sense of why people are using these networks, I ask - how are
you using myspace and facebook? What kind of successes have you had? What other online social networks have
yielded good results for you? Why do you have myspace pages? If you are NOT using these sites, what are your reasons? I'd love
to hear your feedback and thoughts!
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You can definitely use Shozu to do this.
After you use Shozu to upload your photo to flickr, flickr will automatically post to the blog.
When you login to your flickr account, go here to set your preferences:
http://www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail/blog/
Let us know how it goes!