08 November 2013

Social Media Mayhem

It's Everywhere, It's Everywhere!

Overwhelmed by social media? Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings, posted an infographic with a slew of social media options. View the infographic also on its original home infographicality. How many of these social media sites do you use?

Here are the ones I use:

Google+ Jennifer Shoer  

Google+ Reconnecting Relatives
Blogger
Weebly
Facebook
Feedly
Hootsuite
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Instagram
YouTube
Technorati
my new favorite: goodreads
Others: Shutterfly (personal), TripAdvisor, Dropbox (collaboration), Wordpress (tried it and hate it), mindmeister (like it, but don't use it much), picasa, flickr, Skype

Make Sense of Mayhem


Social media can feel like mayhem or the tower of Babel. Voices from all over the world, talking on multiple channels at once. Do you have to be everywhere at once? The simple and clear answer is no. It's not about see and be seen. It's about figuring out what you want to gain from your social media experience. 

Define Your Social Media Community


1. Ask yourself who? With whom do you want to connect?

  • family? 
  • friends? 
  • colleagues? 
  • new people?

2. Ask yourself what? What do you want to learn, share or do?
  • unique skill?
  • personal insight?
  • connect?
  • collaboration?
3. Where do you want to be? Where is fixed by who and what.
  • Communicate with family? Facebook or blog
  • Connect with colleagues? Google+ or LinkedIn
  • Read personal stories about relatives reconnecting? feedly
  • Try out different platforms until you find your fit. 

Don't Worry About What You Might Be Missing

Once you have chosen your social media platforms, feel good that you have done your homework and found the best places for you to spend your limited time online. Post, connect and learn in your new social media homes and don't worry that you might be missing something, somewhere. Because you are...missing something. Let it go. If it is super important, that something is going to get around to your venue. 


If you just can't let go of missing out on a certain subject, create a Google alert. Everytime Google finds a new message of your subject, you will receive an email.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Scrappy Gen
Let's Remember!

01 November 2013

Rubber, Baby, Buggy, Bumpers!

Scrappy Gen 1975
Favorite Flannel Shirt!
While tapping your head, rubbing your belly and
marching your feet, repeat 'rubber, baby, buggy, bumpers' over and over until you can't keep everything in sync. This tongue twister was easier on the playground at recess in the seventies. 

As genealogists (here defined as anyone pursuing documentation of family history), we often are challenged in the same way as this old tongue twister. Here is a short sampling of the myriad and diverse tasks we perform over and over, while marching forward with our projects;
  • review past research
  • interview family members
  • formulate research plans
  • familiarize self with new or previously unknown repositories or record groups
  • visit repositories, online and in person
  • digitize photos, documents and heirlooms
  • create source citations
  • correspond with relatives or clients, repositories, colleagues
  • transcribe and abstract old handwriting
  • write research reports
  • publish family history results

and on and on and on. 

If you are working as a professional genealogist, you will juggle even more simultaneous tasks;
  • legal; business entitiy, client contracts
  • financial; expenses, payments, taxes
  • privacy maintenance; filing
  • insurance
  • professional connections and organizations
  • professional education
  • volunteer
  • social media 
and on and on and on. 

As I said these lists are a sampling of the tasks we juggle while patting our heads and marching our feet. So, if you sometimes feel like you are back on the playground trying to say 'rubber, baby, buggy, bumpers', it's okay, you are in good company. 

What tasks do you perform most frequently? Which ones get dropped first? Comment below to add to my starter lists. 

Hope you are all well. Heard from my daughter in Ohio that there was a big storm out there last night. Today it has arrived in New Hampshire, but doesn't seem too destructive. I am hoping the wind will knock the rest of the leaves out of the trees. 

Happy Friday!
Scrappy Gen
~Let's Remember!




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