Green Writing is a Tuesday column here on Real Words that emphasizes the importance of being eco-friendly as a web writer. Additional green writing posts including tips on being green can be found here.
One of the big things that web writers do (or should do) is social bookmarking. This allows writers to promote their own posts and support the posts of others they enjoy reading on the web. The web writer who wants to be greener in his or her actions should make an effort to include green social bookmarking as part of his or her daily work.
Green social bookmarking means promoting posts about green issues. This is particularly true if you write and / or read posts about green writing, green blogging and green creativity. But it applies to supporting any green web content that you find useful to being more eco-friendly. By doing this, you encourage others to read about green topics and potentially be greener in their daily lives. And a bonus is that you can promote your own green writing (including articles that only mention green issues) in the process.
Here are some of the best sites for doing green social bookmarking:
- Hugg. This is a social bookmarking site operated by green news site Treehugger; it is specific to green topics. That means that any green writing you do can be submitted here. It also means that you’ll easily be able to identify green topics to read about it since everything here is green. There’s a lot of great info and you’ll be able to network with a lot of people who are also interested in green writing.
- Mixx. Mixx is one of my favorite social networking sites. One of the reasons for that is that it lets you join groups to which people post topics about specific things. There’s a “Green News” group that tends to be active which means that you regularly see new links to green news items and blog posts. And of course you can add your own green voice to the Mixx.
- StumbleUpon. The best way to get to green information on this site is to “stumble” using the keyword “green”. I did it just now to double check and the first three sites that came up for me was a Treehugger post on diesel fuel, a site called GreenUpgrader, and info about an eco-competition on Life Goggles which is a green news site. All great stuff!
- Greensense. This site is a new site, in beta, that appears as though it’s going to have a green social networking section in addition to lots of other green Web 2.0 stuff. No details on the “about” page yet though so this is just one to keep an eye on.
People who are interested in green social networking (in addition to green bookmarking) should check out the recommendations offered by Treehugger.
Question of the Day: What other social bookmarking sites have strong green writing communities?
[Tags] green writing, green, environment, eco-friendly, creativity, writing, freelance, social bookmarking, social networking [/Tags]
It occurred to me today that I haven’t been active on Mixx, my favorite social bookmarking site, much at all in the last couple of weeks. And I realized that it made me a little bit sad. It was bound to happen since I was committed to a bunch of projects this month but I really enjoy spending time on the site and wish that I had more of a chance to do so over the last few weeks. As I realized this, I began to think about why I like Mixx so much when I really haven’t spent a significant amount of time on any of the other social bookmarking / social networking sites.
After mulling it over, I realized that there are a number of reasons that I prefer Mixx to the other sites that are available:
- I got in early enough to feel like a real part of the site. It’s hard to get active on a site that’s been established for awhile. This was the main problem that I had with Digg, a problem which is faced by numerous other people trying to join the well-established site. I have always felt like the most popular social bookmarking sites have these insider rules that I just don’t understand well enough to enjoy the site. Even when I’ve had success on some of the other sites, I haven’t really felt like a part of the community there. That may have been my fault but it’s the case nonetheless and isn’t true of what I feel about Mixx. It’s noteworthy to point out that, in my opinion, someone could still join Mixx today and be able to get this sense of closeness that comes with the community there.
- It’s chick-friendly. I do a lot of technology writing so I’m used to being the sole gal in a group of guys. However, there are some sites that are more male-dominated than others in terms of social bookmarking. Although many of my Mixx friends are men, there are a lot of women on the site. More importantly, they’re posting links to articles that are about more than just celebrities, diet and fashion. I’ve found other sites that have a strong female presence to be primarily dominate in these areas that are of a bit less interest to me as a reader.
- There’s a wide variety of stories but they are neatly organized. Many of the leading sites are niche sites which focus primarily on one type of story - such as technology. Mixx really has a great variety. But unlike some of the other “wide variety” sites, it’s easy to find what you’re interested in because of the organization of the site. I will say, however, that trying to search a particular keyword has never really worked well for me on Mixx because there doesn’t seem to be a “sort by date” option for the search results.
- It’s a user-friendly site with a great interface. As soon as I signed up, I edited my front page to share only the story headlines that I was most interested in. I’ve since modified it several times. It’s easy to adjust how it appears so that I can quickly see what I want to see on the site, whether that’s the most popular Mixx stories or the material from my groups.
- Speaking of groups, that’s a feature of Mixx that wasn’t prevalent on a lot of other social bookmarking sites although it seems to be spreading now. I like Mixx Groups, and am the moderator of one (Writing for Writers), although they have some flaws. The main problem is that people who aren’t familiar with using the site mis-post things in groups sometimes. However, Mixx has made modifications to limit this and the community itself is pretty self-controlling in this area. You can vote people’s submissions up or down. Unlike other sites, voting down seems to be primarily limited to getting rid of content that’s either mis-posted in a group or obviously spam.
- The people who work at Mixx are awesome. They get in touch to see how things are going. They make changes based on user feedback. When Mixx Groups became a problem for moderators, they came up with quick solutions and worked with moderators to help resolve the problems that were arising. And they’re nice.
- It’s a small community but it’s not too small. It’s fairly easy to get to know people on Mixx if you want to. There are many different ways to communicate including commenting on each other’s posts, joining groups, adding to soapbox discussions and chiming in on forums. However, many sites that make it easy to become a part of the community (such as TopHubPages.com) are sites that are so small that they don’t drive significant amounts of traffic to your posts. Mixx is a nice happy medium for that.
- It’s a fun site. When something’s wrong on the Mixx site (which I’ve found to be rare) you don’t get an annoying “error” message. You get a fun message that makes you laugh while you wait for the issue to be remedied. The design of the site and the things that happen on it are all fun.
- I like awards. It’s silly but I like to get rewarded for the effort that I put in to things. Mixx has “top ten” awards and “most active” awards on the site that are updated regularly. This draws attention to your posts and gives you something for your efforts. Sure, it could be argued that you get rewarded in terms of the social networking benefits of the site - and that’s true - but it’s kind of nice to see your name on the “top” page. Plus, checking this page makes it easy to find the people who are most active on the site which are really the ones you want to be friends with if you’re planning to be active as well.
Prior to spending all of my time on Mixx, I dabbled in many of the other social bookmarking and networking sites. Sk*rt, Del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, Furl, Fark, Reddit and Digg are just a few of the sites that I spent energy exploring. Of them, the ones I ended up on most were Stumble and Digg. I still use Stumble a lot for finding stuff online but never got the hang of submitting things and networking on the site. As for Digg, I used it primarily because it’s a main site that a lot of people check out and that’s good for getting attention to the links that interest me. However, I faced many of the same problems as a new user on the site that others across the blogosphere have expressed (see links below). I was basically just waiting for something to come along that was mostly like Digg but a little bit friendlier. Mixx is that answer for me.
Now I need to stop writing blog posts and go back to Mixxing!
Links to other posts about Mixx: 7 Features that Will Make Mixx Huge, Ultrapersonalization of Mixx, Digg Refugees Head to Mixx, Best Advice for Mixx: Stop Following Digg
Links to information about problems with Digg: Digg and the Cease and Desist Letter, Digg and Ron Paul, Response to Digg Complaints
Question of the Day: For Mixxers, what are the benefits that you see to using this site over any others? For non-Mixxers, what social bookmarking sites do you prefer and why?
[Tags] Mixx, social networking, Digg, social bookmarking, web 2.0, community, Internet [/Tags]
I was one of those people who joined MySpace when it was first launched. Ten years ago, I actively wrote handwritten letters to a bunch of pen pals that I had collected over the years. Those people were some of my best friends throughout high school and I remain in touch with a handful of them today. But for the most part, our correspondence has moved on to the Internet. It was one of those people who first introduced me to MySpace and I signed up as a way to stay in touch with her. I was active on the site for a few weeks and then my interest in it tapered off. I just wasn’t interested in what it had to offer and I promptly proceeded to remain inactive on the site for a couple of years.
Then, when I made the move from Arizona to San Francisco a few years back, I discovered that everyone here had a MySpace profile. And not only that, but it seemed to be the easiest way to get to know new people. We’d meet online or through friends but we’d really get to know each other through the comments and conversations we shared on MySpace. So, I dusted off the old profile and began to use the site almost daily. It wasn’t long before I began to realize that MySpace could help me make professional contacts in the area as well. So I adjusted my profile and set to work using it in that capacity.
And then, the floodgates were opened. The more work that I began doing online, the more I found that people wanted to connect with me through some social networking site or another. I began to get requests to join people on sites like LinkedIn. And the world of social bookmarking began to become increasingly important as I was asked to support the work of friends and associates with my votes on sites like Digg. I became an avid fan for a few short months and then, once again, my use of the sites tapered off. I found that it was difficult to actually make use of the sites on a regular basis and still have time for my other work.
Now, I use a few of the sites. And I’m trying to streamline my use to just those few because I feel that gives me the best chance to actually get to know people on the sites. If I’m going to bother being connected to people there, I want to be able to get to know them and to share the new news that’s going on. Otherwise, it seems like a waste of my time and theirs to say that we are “friends” there. But this doesn’t discount the important power of these sites. I still think that they’re a great place for making new friends, staying in touch with people and letting others who might be interested know what you’re up to. I just think that for my own use, it requires that I limit the sites I’m on to really be able to develop the connections that I’m making there.
The sites that currently interest me the most for social networking are MySpace (although I only use my work profile now, not my old personal profile), LinkedIn (which I’ve been on for awhile and am just starting to develop use of) and Bitchy Betty (a new site that allows people to support each other’s non-profit and good cause efforts). I use more bookmarking sites than I do networking sites (Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumble, Sk-rt, Hugg, Propeller … to name a few) although I’m working on curtailing my use of those, as well (with the first three on my list there being my preferred sites). So, I suppose that I haven’t quite decided if I love social networking or not. I do think it’s important and I think it can be fun. That said, you can feel free to contact me through those sites if you’d like; links are available on my contact page.
