It’s July 1st so that means it’s the first day of a new monthly challenge i’m setting myself. This month will all be about social media for me… i wanted to get more active without it becoming a chore, so i’ve set the following targets…
Dailybooth
photo credit: angelamaphone
I start this July challenge with just 14 daily ‘booths’. I’m not convinced there is a place for DailyBooth in social media long term, but it’s a social network, it’s creative, it’s different…. so i’ll be posting an average of about 2 booths per day in July.
Formspring
I like formspring. It’s a place where you can ask people questions. Simple, but effective. I started out with 54 questions answered, but that will rise to over 200 if i hit my target of 150 answers this month.
Flickr
photo credit: Dustin Diaz
Up until today, i had a massive 4,318 photos on flickr. I intend to upload an average of about 50 (yes 50) photos per day this month.
My tweet count stood at 4,086 before today. This month i intend to post an average of about 10 tweets a day.
Foursquare
photo credit: nan palmero
To my surprise, i had 291 checkins up until today (I didn’t think i used foursquare that much). I frequently forget to check in to places so i’m trying to train myself not to. I want to check in to at least one place a day in July and a target of 30 checkins will keep me motivated…
Youtube
My youtube channel has 45 uploads. I want to upload 10 new videos to youtube this month. This will probably be the most difficult task for me and will test my creativity.
Why?
The reason i’m forcing myself to get more active with social media is to help me be more productive and change the way I think. I want to get more from myself without necessarily increasing my work load. For example, i’ll often walk in to shops and drive to places and be waiting in the car, sitting on a bench, in queues etc… at the minute i don’t use that time to checkin to places on foursquare or tweet… i should, but i don’t. I just never think of it, i’m not in that frame of mind. So that’s something i want to change…
Over the course of a typical day, i do spend a lot of time at home, working, at a desk. There isn’t much i can photograph, but i do also get out a good bit. Since i’ve finished college, i’ve been bouncing around between Dundalk, Drogheda & Dublin. The most obvious way to convert those journeys in to something i can share with the world is video… video of the road in front of me. However a decent, dedicated car dash camera would cost over €200, so that will have to go on my wishlist. Almost every time i go on a long journey i see something youtube – worthy and i’m convinced i’ll stumble upon a crash one of these days and be furious that i didn’t capture it on camera.
Anyway, i’m going to get in to the habit of taking photos when i arrive at places, or when i stop somewhere.. it’s not as if it takes me a huge amount of time. I’m also going to attempt to take more photos of stuff that’s in front of me… whether it’s walking down a street or in a restaurant etc… again it’s not as if i’m doing anything when i’m in these places, so taking a quick photo is a more productive way to spend that time 🙂
So they’re the targets and i’m confident i can hit them all. If not, i’ll have at least gotten much more active on social media. I’ll be away in Paris for 4 days later in the month so that’s going to upset my rhytm and that’s why i’m not committing to monthly targets as opposed to daily targets.