Today’s meme from Strawberry Singh!  The first thing that came to mind when I saw this one was: Well, I really should pass on this one and wait for the next, because I don’t do social media under any of my avatar names, and I have seen that some (a few? many?) people feel very strongly about not wanting to mix RL with SL, so I wasn’t sure if I should answer given that my social media is mostly RL related.  But, I love social media a lot and really wanted to do this meme for myself, so I’ll just broadly discuss things without putting in the links to sites that aren’t totally SL related. (all the links to the outside world are in the menu above anyway, and of course if people see something interesting they are most welcome to follow any of my accounts ^_^)

Now, I’m a bit long winded, but here we go!  —>

What was the first social network you joined using your SL Avatar?
Flickr,  in Sept. 2007

Which social networks are you currently on using your SL Avatar?
Well, technically none, I don’t use Ravensong as a name for any of them save the gravatar associated with wordpress, mostly because it’s usually already taken when I look it up. I have pretty much everything tied to my go-to username, which for some reason I didn’t use when I created my first av (I did snag it later on an alt, so I guess if I use her more I will have a lot of social network sites!)  But with that out of the way: 
Only SL related:
Tumblr – which is identical to this blog, because I imported the posts from there to here, and now I mirror this back there.
Facebook – I actually created a page for my avatar but I’ve not tried to get noticed and have no page likes, so it keeps un-publishing itself, haha! I created it because I thought it would be fun to upload a lot of my SL pics and have them be part of the timeline feature so I could go back and forth and see how things evolved for me. So even if it never stays public for long I enjoy looking at it!

Some SL content
Flickr– (Link goes to my SL photos) It started off as 100% SL shots, and still is about 2/3 SL, but I began posting a lot more RL photos there over time. I’ve just started posting SL pics back to it again, but it will probably remain a blend.
Twitter – I started the twitter intending it to be for my av, but I drifted back to rl me again. I do like to follow a lot of SL accounts there though, in lists and in my main stream.

And the rest
I use most of them, though the rest are pretty much only RL.

Which network is your favorite?
Tumblr for sure.  It managed to capture my attention in ways none of the other social sites did. I’m noticing that  SL blogging seems to be gaining traction on Tumblr, which is fun to see. A couple years ago I didn’t see a lot of SL content in the tags. When I did it was mostly teens blogging pics and saying lol wtf, look at this dorky place, but there are quite a few SL blogs there now and I’m enjoying finding new ones to follow.  Flickr comes in second, but I never really thought of it as a social network for some reason. I browse SL Flickr groups a lot but I don’t follow very many people.  I think I’ve always seen Flickr more as a personal storage site with the ability to point people there if they want to see something. If I notice page views on Flickr it’s a happy bonus!  I’m thinking I should make a change, though, and start following more accounts on Flickr, I’m probably missing out on a lot of good pics.

Which network is your least favorite?
Plurk. The sideways scrolling design puts me off so much that I can’t seem to stick with it long enough to get hooked on reading. Which is a shame because it seems to be the go-to place for SL, but I just can’t get into it.

Which network do you have the most amount of connections?
In terms of followers – Twitter, although honestly I think the only reason people follow me now is because they see me turn up in a suggestions sidebar list and say “oh well she has x amount of followers already, she must be saying something interesting…”  Imagine their disappointment when I spend half a day complaining about my furnace! haha…

How/Where do you usually read/use most of your networks?
Primarily from the computer. Phone/tablet tied for second.

What are your favorite social networking apps?
Desktop: Tweetdeck . I’m a list maker so I love the column feature so I can move back and forth in my lists and not miss the people I most enjoy following.
iOS: Tweetbot– My favorite twitter app, I really wish it was available for PC and android. I also use most of the official apps for Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.
Android: Tweetcaster for twitter.  Flipboard (on both android and iPhone)  is a great way to keep up with all the social sites, as well as import my google reader feeds (while they’re still there) or just rss feeds in general.

What do you like most about social networking sites?
Seeing what people are talking about and learning what’s new.

What do you like least about social networking sites?
Trolling. Too many people who thrive on being confrontational. Lots of passive aggressive negativity.

Do you feel social networks are a good way to promote you/your brand/your work?
I don’t have a brand in SL but I’m sure I’d use it to some extent to keep my name out there if I did.  I do post my Flickr pics to twitter or Tumblr with the hopes that people notice them.

What is your main reason for using Social Networks?
I  love to see what other people are talking about. I like following conversations, and seeing the links that people post, they often lead me to some really good content and I discover new blogs to read.  And of course I have been able to meet some really wonderful friends via social network sites, that I wouldn’t have known otherwise, so that always means a lot to me, and in some cases it is because of the people I’ve met that I want to stick with the networks.  Finally, I have this over-sharing gene, I think xD – I love to show off stuff I like!  It hasn’t translated so much to twitter (which is sort of the equivalent of me wandering around the house talking to myself) but it definitely manifested on Tumblr with my apparently deeply felt need to share art, or songs, or photos, or pics of a hot musician that I love to pieces, and then connect with other people who love the same things. I just really enjoy the sense of community you get in many of the networks. 😀