Podcast: Protecting Yourself When Social Media Tools Disappear
Allyson Kapin, co-founder of the Rad Campaign, and I had the opportunity to record a Social Good podcast with Allison Fine for the Chronicle of Philanthropy about the demise of Delicious and the issues that arise when free tools disappear.
In the podcast, Allyson Kapin makes some excellent points about the need to not put all your eggs in one social media basket and makes a plug for open source options, which are probably the most sustainable way to maintain free tools--unless you're Google. We also discuss the characteristics of social tools like Delicious that make them most attractive to people.
Hi Michelle, I'm so glad to get a chance to listen to the podcast and appreciate the ideas of the three of you as you put your heads and experiences together. How wonderful it would be to have delicious go open source :-)
When it comes to spreading things around on the web, is the suggestion that we use more than one social bookmarking site? I'm asking because when I was using two (delicious and furl) I always found it hard to remember where I put what (sigh) so I'd often have to look in both places (which kind of defeats the purpose). Looking back now I wonder if I could have put more structure to to the process so I would be readily clear about where I'd tagged different kinds of content? Thoughts?
Posted by: LaDonna Coy | January 11, 2011 at 03:50 PM
Hi LaDonna--When we were discussing spreading things around the Web, it was more in regard to organizations not limiting their social media presence to one platform--for example, focusing all of their attention on Facebook or Twitter. When it comes to social bookmarking, I think that you really do have to find one tool and stick with it or else you run into the problems you mentioned--not being sure where you put something, having to check a few places when you need the info, etc.
I'll be honest--I'm still using Delicious. I have a Diigo account and imported my bookmarks over there when the announcement was first made. I'm having a hard time making the adjustment, though, and haven't found something that felt as simple and was as easy for me to use as Delicious. So I'm not going to be much help. :-)
Posted by: Michele | January 12, 2011 at 07:12 AM