Thursday, February 4, 2016

#typewriter revisited: Experiences on social media






By the way, here's my new video showing five basic tips for typists, produced with the kind help of Sheila English.



9 comments:

  1. Now that I know your secret identity, I'll have to find you on Facebook. Not that I'm on it that often, for similar reasons you mention.

    I like Flickr - I'm also a fan of film photography and developing film and Flickr has many, many groups devoted to specific cameras or film types and healthy online discussions about these things. Scanning a negative to post on Flickr is sort of a pictorial version of typecasting.

    I bought the book after reading your posts here, but finding your page through another blog.

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  2. How time flies! I think these media are all more or less cack-handed surrogates for conversation. You put it out there and wait for the splash. That's not how the analogue world works, where most interactions are one-to-one and face-to-face. Word of mouth (easily your strongest route to sales) doesn't translate very well as hearts and likes and re-tweets. The thing is, you'll never know how NOT playing the social media game would have constrained sales, so I think your approach has been rational and reasonable - as long as it has been enjoyable too. And who knows, the "long tail" of all your internet "buzz" might have pushed the odd waverer over the edge and into the blessed throng of typewriter enthusiasts. Thus creating future readers for The Book, perhaps. Despite trying, I still don't "get" twitter. Perhaps I need a smartphone to really embrace it and that's not about to happen any time soon.

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  3. I like using Vine for six second videos showcasing typewriter features (eg Oliver carriage removal, SG3 paper injector). I can then embed the descriptive Vine videos in my typewriter blog. I am very long-winded, so the short video format forces me to get to the point quickly.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I like these! No one else on Vine seems to be doing anything interesting with typewriters.

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  4. I suppose the "grand-daddy" of social media would be blogging, like here on Blogger, or its alternative, Word Press. And while blogging is no longer "cool" or "in", I find it invaluable. In the Typosphere, it is the blog roll on the right side of your site that I use to follow other typists.

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  5. I prefer the Google Plus:
    https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MacuilliCuauhtliCihuaoquichtzinJoshBeta1/posts?gl=MX
    Then, the Blogger:
    http://joshbeta1.blogspot.com
    And then, the DeviantArt:
    http://joshbeta1.deviantart.com

    But I prefer to post in Spanish...xD

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  6. I tend to find I have more than enough to do with 2 blogs and a web site. I tried Twitter and Facebook and I do have very inactive accounts on both. Twitter seems a bit useless and Facebook is reposts of reposts and little original content. G+ is cumbersome and I never took time to learn it. Then I have email links that I sporadically check too. I guess all the social media sites have advantages and disadvantages and many people like them or they would not exist.

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  7. Thank you for your thoughts. I guess you did your best to promote the book via all major digital ways to reach people so its publication does not go Noiseless (ekhem! ;) ).

    I usually stick to blogs and quite like Instagram as I am interested in photography too. There's an occasional Facebook visit and I don't get Twitter (even if I have a smartphone - Rob :) ). Although there's nothing better than contact on a personal level so I guess you may have enjoyed more the "real world" side of promoting the book - even if it requires much more effort (and money) than pushing a few buttons from the comfort of your study. Watching the stats (hearts, likes etc.) is a trap to keep us glued to the screens - I'm sure that nice opinion received face-to-face has bigger value than hundreds of clicks.

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    1. So glad it isn't just the lack of a smartphone that's a barrier to "getting" twitter :-) Another thought, implied by Joe, Bill et al above is that, well, the Typosphere as a constellation of blogs is a sort of home made social platform in itself.

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