Remembering the “Social” in Social Networking
I have two Twitter accounts – one for the design business and one for a more personal nutrition blog. I’ve been noticing that people in the nutrition community talk to each other on Twitter all the time – they respond to tweets and actively participate in the community. However, the design community posts seem to be mostly self promotion and link-sharing (often not to original content) just to maintain a certain frequency of posting. There’s very little communication. Tweets with questions tend to go unanswered and I don’t see nearly as many @ reples. I think we in the design community need to balance things out a little more and remember the “community” part of the picture. I’m guilty of it too. On a busy day it’s much easier to just put a link up than it is to talk with others, write something original, or help someone troubleshoot an issue.
Personally, I think it’s better to tweet less frequently and put up quality content than it is to post a link to something that’s already been tweeted 500 times. Self promotion has its place. It’s important to share what you’re working on, post launch announcements, and share your excitement when you land a new client, but it’s also important to share some knowledge or advice when another developer is lost and asking for help or suggestions. We all tend to be very busy and our work is stressful, but the value of human exchange is worth the time and effort.
I’ve been a designer for 20 years. I started in the days of waxers and transfer letters, transitioned to the computer in the late eighties, and tackled web design in the early nineties. I’ve tried to keep up with all of the software and technologies of the trade, from HTML to CSS and JS, Pagemaker to InDesign. I’ve worked in both worlds–freelance and corporate, finding that they both have their upsides and drawbacks. It’s a challenge to stay current, but it’s my passion and the perfect profession for someone who never wants to be bored! I hope that I have something valuable to offer other designers.