Average Jane

Average Jane Plans Her Retreat from Twitter

You'd think that I wouldn't love a social media platform that helped make my own blog mostly obsolete, but Twitter has been my favorite online outpost since I joined in 2008. With it clearly circling the drain, I'm cautiously hanging on for now, but I can foresee the end coming soon, one way or another.

In the early days, local Twitter followers found each other quickly and if someone posted, "Who wants to grab lunch today downtown?" you could feasibly get a group of eight people together within an hour to share a meal. I made some great friends who turned out to live within a few blocks of me at the time and we still see each other regularly. I know people who found roommates, met spouses, and, like me, formed solid social lives around their "tweeps."

As the platform matured and I began following more people, it turned into an information firehose. I began deliberately shaping my feed to include perspectives from people in other communities, professions and cultures. I follow so many scientists, historians, activists and experts to learn interesting and inspiring things. 

Twitter has also been a vital source of news, from "on the ground" information when something is happening to filtered national news that surfaces the key stories of the day. I'm not sure what's going to take its place in that regard. 

More than once I've told someone, "I live on Twitter." It's been my hangout, my place to shout into the void when I'm feeling lonely, and a solid source of entertainment. I've been a small enough fish to stay off the radar of trolls for the most part. Plus, it probably helps that I also use it for the same kind of casual, everyday thoughts that this blog has always encompassed. 

Yes, many mornings it felt like doomscrolling was an unhealthy way to start the day, but I also know my own feelings enough to sense when to put down the phone and do something in the real world.

I've always been fully aware of the adage, "If you're not paying, you're the product." That's why I made sure I put in a ticket to get this blog back up and running after last week's outage. I am paying to be here, so I suppose this is where I'll plant my flag again. If nothing else, it makes me findable - and perhaps I'll start posting more regularly again to take the place of the 280-character running commentaries to which I've been so accustomed.

It's sad to see such a vibrant community deliberately destroyed. As much as I enjoy the Discord groups that have sprung up as an end run around the horribleness of social media moguls, they're too siloed to take the place of the Twitter experience. Fingers crossed that a good alternative presents itself soon.

Average Jane Communicates in Memes

One of my favorite things about social media is being able to use memes, cartoons, other people's tweets and GIFs to comment. I know that's kind of a weird thing for a writer to say; probably even moreso when I admit that I don't really have a talent for creating them.

What I do have is a vast collection of images I've picked up over the past several years. I have one or more for just about any mood or situation. 

I have entire conversations using Schitt's Creek GIFs. I often drop funny memes into the ongoing Messenger thread I have with a group of my friends. One of my secret Facebook groups does a Meme Monday post every week where I share the bounty of my meme harvest from the previous week.

Many of the ones I collect are the type of cartoon or image I would have printed out 15 years ago to pin to the bulletin board around my desk. In fact, I still have a folder of stuff like that filed away.

Back then, you only ran across funny and pithy sayings and comic panels occasionally. Today, you can find one or two worth keeping and sharing every day.

I picked the ones in this post more or less at random, but as you can see, cats figure pretty prominently. I have a pretty decent number of dog ones, too. 

Really, anything that makes me laugh or nod in agreement goes into the folder, ready to share the next time I think it will make someone else react the same way.

It's my most inexpensive and undemanding hobby.

Average Jane Appreciates the Internet

In the past year or so, I’ve been branching out and discovering more online entertainment than ever before. For the longest time, I was not big on watching online videos, but now I subscribe to a whole bunch of YouTube channels. Also, I’ve run across some Twitter niches that are very absorbing. Want a rundown? Of course you do!

Average Jane’s 8 Favorite Online Entertainment Sources

1. Lost in Vegas - There’s no shortage of reaction videos these days, but Ryan and George are by far my favorites. They choose genres they aren’t very familiar with, like heavy metal and classic country music, and really listen to the music and lyrics. I’m a long-time metal fan, but watching their reactions to songs I’ve known for years makes me feel like I’m hearing them for the first time. 
2. Sled Dog Twitter - Particularly Blair Braverman, but also Quince Mountain and Chrissie Bodznick (and other mushers you will see retweeted along the way). Until I stumbled across the story of Grinch, I’d never thought very much about sled dog racing. Now I can recognize individual dogs when I see their photos in my Twitter stream, and I can’t wait to see the latest updates from Alaska while the teams train for the Iditarod. I’m not a big sports fan, but I know what I’ll be following on March 2nd next year.
3. Hydraulic Press Channel - Except pronounce it like “hygge” so it sounds more like, “hyoodraulic.” Lauri Vuohensilta is a young Finnish guy who owns a machine shop and likes to film what happens when he crushes things with a hydraulic press. He and his wife Anni are mostly off-camera, but their verbal reactions to how cool it looks when, say, a deck of playing cards explodes all over the shop make the fun contagious. The couple get more face time in their other channel, Beyond the Press, which documents their non-hydraulic-press-related destructive impulses. Check out the video where a crew explodes 110 pounds of dynamite in a swamp to make a pond for reindeer, which may be the most Finnish thing that has ever happened.
4. Ask a Mortician - Caitlin Doughty is a mortician who is striving to overhaul the traditional funeral industry and advocate for more consumer choice, greener options, and more open discussions about death. This channel is chock-full of interesting information about the work of being a mortician, iconic corpses in history, funeral practices of other cultures, etc., all presented in a quirky but exceptionally informative and respectful manner.
5. In the Kitchen with Kate - Millennial British siblings Kate and Alex sit at their kitchen table and try various snack foods from all over the world. I know, it doesn’t sound like much, but they’re charming and fun and their channel is a lovely brain break after a long day. I don’t think they ever rate anything below a six because they’re just too nice. 
6. Hope for Paws Animal Rescue - Eldad Hagar takes to the streets and deserts around Los Angeles and sometimes further afield, filming as he and his team members rescue abandoned animals. I’ve been watching these videos for a long time, so I made the classic, “Have we met before?” mistake one time when I happened to meet him at a BlogPaws conference several years ago. Awkward! The videos serve as a great way to bring attention to the needs of adoptable pets and fundraise for the organization and the other rescue groups that partner with them.
7. Epicurious - Cheap vs Expensive - This is my one Big Media entry here, but I have really been enjoying their videos where experts taste and evaluate foods and beverages, explaining why they believe that one is more expensive than the other. There’s a significant amount of education packed in as each person talks through the qualities of a good coffee, beer, bread, chocolate, etc. 
8. Tango the HORF - This Twitter thread just started last week, but it went viral enough that Tango the HORF now has his own Twitter account. It’s the story of a young, stupid, goofy yet beautiful horse told hilariously by its owner’s daughter. He’s not dead, he just looks that way when he’s sleeping.

What are your favorite YouTube channels and Twitter accounts to follow? Is there something great I need to know about?

Average Jane, Podcast Guest

Last week I was the guest on The Shakes podcast. This week it's up on Soundcloud for your listening pleasure(?).

Why Average Jane Loves Social Media

Because a rhetorical question asked idly on a given afternoon...

Can produce the same joke answer from two people hundreds of miles away from each other:

Nice to know that my Twitter followers share my juvenile sense of humor. Maybe it's a sign I should get this t-shirt after all.

Average Jane Is Tempted To Buy Something

Over the last few weeks, I've watched a really effective use of Facebook marketing play out on the Crazy Aaron's Puttyworld page.

It started with a little teaser post:

Not long afterward, it progressed to this:

They kept the interest going:

And finally they put out a call for suggestions as to what to name the new product and wisely tied it to a push to gain more fans.

Over the next week or so, there was hot debate over the name, which ended up narrowed down to a four or five selection poll. A vocal faction wanted to call it "Cloud Poop," but the eventual winner was "Liquid Glass."

They reported as they made their way through various production tests and worked out a packaging design. Finally, the big announcement came that it was available for sale.

However, it was a limited production run, so they were able to build on the excitement they'd generated and come close to selling out pretty much right away:

All in all, it was one of the most fun fan engagement initiatives I've seen on Facebook. Best of all, it was completely carried out on the wall and the company website, so there was minimal cost involved.

Did I buy some? Well, no. I already have an ample supply of other colors of Thinking Putty and if I were to buy an additional variety it would probably be Strange Attractor (which I have previously purchased as a gift for my cousin). However, it's clear (no pun intended) that lots of other people stepped up and bought some.

Obviously not every product is as outwardly fun as Thinking Putty, but companies would do well to follow their example when it comes to sharing the new product development process to generate anticipation.

Average Jane Puts Her Skills to Work

My job title is Social Media Strategist. That means I help devise strategies for clients to incorporate social media into their corporate communications, marketing and even customer service practices. It includes blogger relations (which is interesting for me considering that I'm often on the receiving end of blogger pitches), and sometimes even handling a company's Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, etc. accounts on a day-to-day basis.

I've mostly been putting this expertise to personal use when it comes to promoting my bands. My current cover band, Rock Machine, has a Facebook fan page and a MySpace page, both of which come in handy for inviting people to come out and see us play.

I also recently started a Facebook account for Soroptimist International of Kansas City, MO. Even if you're not a member, you might enjoy "liking" the page to see how this venerable businesswomen's service organization is continuing into the 21st Century.

Just yesterday, I became an admin of the Facebook page for The Animal Rescue Alliance (TARA), a local foster-based animal rescue group for which I volunteer. Up to now, my work for them has been mainly to take a shift each Sunday morning caring for the cats that are up for adoption at a Petco store. The volunteer who had been handling the Facebook page recently passed away, so it seemed almost selfish not to offer to take on the updates considering how well-versed I am in the medium.

In addition to all that, I had an idea this week that I think will be a great value-added service for my husband's recording studio clients. He was talking to a band that had just recorded an album, urging them to start their promotion now - before the final CD copies are completed. I was eavesdropping (we were in my car) and said, "Tell them to submit it to Pandora now because they take a long time to evaluate songs."

Even though I could only hear my husband's half of the conversation, it's obvious that the reply was, "What's Pandora?"

That led me to a train of thought about offering a Band Promotion 101 session for the bands that record in the studio. I could spend a couple of hours teaching one or two of the most marketing-oriented members of a band how to optimize their Facebook and MySpace presences to promote their gigs and sell their songs. I could introduce them to the top online radio outlets, talk them through submitting their music to iTunes, CDBaby and other online stores, and basically just get them started down the path of growing their base of fans and customers. Sounds like fun!

I already eat, sleep and breathe social media, so I'm always happy to jump in and do something new there. It's work, but it's also fun. How great a career is that?!