Social Networking - Should I or Shouldn't I?

[danielsangeo]

The icons are ubiquitous, which raises a question for me: Should I get into social networking?

My private life is rather boring and I find I don't have much to talk about on a daily basis about it (my cat barfed in the night and I found it before I stepped into it--isn't that interesting?), but I was wondering if I should get into it anyway, mainly for public reasons such as networking with colleagues in the animation field and whatnot. I'd like to get some input on the pros and cons of doing such a thing. I would especially like input from those in the entertainment field as a job/career.

So, let me have it. Your thoughts on whether I should do such a thing and, if so, which ones are best?

Thanks!

[CuddleBeam]

Being completely honest, the fastest way to sucess on social networking is brown nosing or posting taboo stuff. Enfasis on the brown nosing part.

I really can't handle it sometimes when I go down to analyzing it.

[Drachen]

Use what your friends use. If you don't have friends, social networks aren't for you. It's also a reason not to play multiplayer games.

Here are my suggestions:
You're an aspiring animator and an animator needs a portfolio. YouTube or Vimeo are both great, but artists tend to go with Vimeo more than YouTube. Second is the main one you didn't list: LinkedIn. This is the professional social network. I've gotten two jobs through LinkedIn contacts.

If you don't have friends and don't like posting about yourself or to your friends, there are other ways to use the social networks. Twitter is an amazingly good news aggregator if you properly curate the users you follow. If you're into that sort of thing, Tumblr can be the same for porn. Google+ hangouts are great for quick teleconferencing and Foursquare is fantastic as a restaurant finder.

[tghawk555]

Originally Posted by danielsangeo

The icons are ubiquitous, which raises a question for me: Should I get into social networking?

My private life is rather boring and I find I don't have much to talk about on a daily basis about it (my cat barfed in the night and I found it before I stepped into it--isn't that interesting?), but I was wondering if I should get into it anyway, mainly for public reasons such as networking with colleagues in the animation field and whatnot. I'd like to get some input on the pros and cons of doing such a thing. I would especially like input from those in the entertainment field as a job/career.

So, let me have it. Your thoughts on whether I should do such a thing and, if so, which ones are best?

Thanks!

Going off of the image you posted, I'm guessing that those are the options you've considered. On that assumption, I can offer a bit of input.

Google+: I don't have much experience with this, nor do I plan to. It's similar to Facebook, but it came to the party late and tried to tell the same story, so to speak. Having one is practically a requirement for using YouTube, though...
YouTube: I wouldn't consider this one to be much of a social networking site. For one, its primary purpose is to host videos. Two, the recent updates have made interacting with other YouTubers more difficult (or so I've been told).
Facebook: This is the standard social networking site alongside Twitter. You're not required to provide any of your actual personal information, but you can if you want. Additionally, there's a Process Productions group that we'd be happy to let you join, but it doesn't get as much activity as the forums do.
Twitter: I wouldn't recommend this one for you. A lot of it is about posting about your personal life, and you made the claim that your life is boring and that you don't have much to talk about. I guess you could make a point to not post anything and just read what other people post, but I think that kinda defeats the purpose of having the account in the first place, you know?
Pinterest: This is more or less an image board from what I've seen. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, provided you know what you're looking for/want to see. Again, I don't have an account, so my knowledge about the site is sketchy at best.
Tumblr: Now this one is pretty nice. Aside from certain parts of the community (radical feminists, all-around jerks and douchebags, small children that shouldn't be on the site in the first place being annoying, etc.), it's actually a pretty nice place. It's one of the best places to start if you don't really have any friends on the site (personal opinion), and you can usually find fans of just about anything that you could think of. (Seriously: there's a fandom for "that one blade of grass in my yard." A bit of an in-joke, but still...)

Anyway, hopefully my input can assist you in making your choice. Regardless of what you choose, be sure to let us know so that any of us that have accounts on that/those site(s) can add you as a friend/follow you/etc.

[danielsangeo]

I haven't considered all my options; I just found the image online so I posted it as an example of social networking icons that can appear on a website.

I'll take all the posts here under advisement so I thank everyone for their posts.

[TrunKated]

Friend me! Friend me!

Msg me! Msg me!

Lol!