Social Networking meets hobbies

I’m not sure if it’s the type of people I hang out with, but at times I’m the only person in the room that does not know how to knit. Not that I have much interest in picking up the hobby, but I just think it’s interesting. So, for this reason, I decided to talk about a website that not many knitters seem to know about – yes, Ravelry.

Ravelry has been around for almost three years, and has slowly gained popularity. This is probably a good thing since the website looks to be run out of a home; the home of Casey and Jessica Forbes (judging by some picture).

Official mascot on top of server


On the website, Forbes goes on to say that “Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.”

Ravelry is a social media oriented website which allows people to share their patterns, techniques, choice of yarn, and pictures of finished products.
Wondering how a certain touque would look using yarn x, with needles y, and pattern z? You can use Ravelry to find that out.

On the website Forbes describes the way that she came up with her idea: “Wouldn't it be great if there was a place where you could organize your projects, stash and tools and at the same time help you find people with similar taste and interests? Couldn't this website provide a single location in which to search for pattern and yarn information from many different producers and publishers?” Answer: yes.

As well Ravelry allows designers to sell their patterns a whole lot easier. If someone on your friends list has created a piece that you really love, you can easily find out with a few clicks what pattern they used, and where you can buy it. In the case that it’s free, you can just download it from the same page.

Do you want to use the same yarn that they did? Ravelry has its own yarn store, making it easier for people to buy the exact yarn that you need. Apart from selling yarn, I do believe they sell t-shirts, bags, and stickers.

So if this sounds like a fun time to you, it’s worth checking out. Happy knitting.

Old Spice -- You could smell like me

This is quite a funny commercial that is floating around the interweb. I can't say that I will be buying Old Spice in my lifetime, but maybe it will have an impact on you -- probably not! still, it's a good time.

Web 2.0 age

Web 2.0?

We are now living in a Web 2.0 kind of world. Social media websites are popping up left, right, and center these days; so it’s hard to keep track of all of them. More recently Google has decided to jump on the bandwagon as well. Earlier today, Google announced its new social media feature: Google Buzz. (They must have gotten the name idea from here). Google Buzz will face off with giants like Twitter and Facebook: the largest social networking websites to date. But what I really want to talk about today, is using Twitter and Facebook for PR purposes.

How do I use Facebook?

Facebook and Twitter are used for quite different purposes. Myself, I’ve been a member of the Facebook network since its early beginnings. I’m not sure why I even joined, but I knew once I joined that it was not going to be easy to get out.

I find that most people use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, but not necessarily too much to follow specific groups. Although those groups do exist, some of them are quite useless: Let’s see if this onion ring can get more fans than Stephen Harper. In the case of useful group like the Winnipeg Free Press, they have some tough competition. Competition? Yes. Competition.

The Winnipeg Free Press has to compete with some of my other friends who have updated their status. So instead of reading the top headline, I get to hear about how someone is attending such-and-such party; or, they are having a glass of orange juice. Comical, yes, but not headline news. I use Facebook as a form of entertainment, so I don’t mind if people post about orange juice drinking.

How do I use Twitter?

I was “forced” to join Twitter my last semester, and I’ve been logging on a tiny bit more frequently with every month that passes. I’ve found out that it’s a lot more clean version of Facebook. People still post about putting on their pants and having some cereal, but if its REAL news you are looking for, this can be easily accessed.

Keeping up with real news is what makes Twitter different from Facebook. At first I just followed my CreComm friends, but soon found out that I could keep up with what was making news in the music world…then the “real” world like The Winnipeg Sun.

PR Strategy

As far as which of these social media websites to use as part of a PR strategy, I would have to say that it depends on what you are promoting. If you are promoting a film I would suggest using Twitter as the main social media medium. But, I don’t believe Facebook should be ignored: some people only have Facebook accounts.

Which one would be more effective? - Probably Twitter. With a Twitter account you could start following people in the community who are known actors, directors, and maybe just film buffs. If these people decide to follow you back, then you can use this two way communication tool to build a relationship with them and give them a reason to attend the film.

If you are promoting a person, I believe that Facebook would be the right choice. Facebook gives the impression of a more personal relationship with someone.

So, in short, that is what Facebook and Twitter can do for PR.

What was he looking at?

The latest viral video is this one: a guy that gets busted looking an inappropriate photos at work while a news report is filming the whole thing.



I'm pretty sure that this guy is busted, and there is no denying that he is looking at inappropriate content. As well, there is no denying that it is him doing it. Maybe he shouldn't have turned around at the end -- maybe that wouldn't have helped anyway.