Why and how I use WordPress, Tumblr, Instagram and Foursquare

by jeffhilimire on October 27, 2011

There are a lot of ways to share content these days, aren’t there? I’m constantly playing with and testing out new apps/sites that let you do just that, share your content in new and interesting ways. It’s why I have the second screen strategy for my devices.

Lately I’ve been using a few apps to do most of the sharing and I’ve received a lot of questions on why I use multiple services for these things. Although this seems to be an always evolving strategy, here is my current usage of “sharing” services:

WordPress ~ I use WordPress for this blog, jeffhilimire.com. It’s what I can best describe as my professional blog. While there are personal stories here, they are usually tied to my experience in business and my interest in technology, and not about my family and extracurricular activities. I use WordPress over Tumblr because I get a little more control and options and with WordPress and its important for me to be able to change it pretty significantly if I need to.

Tumblr ~ I have two Tumblr blogs. I use Tumblr for these instead of WordPress because they are more short-form (photos, short posts, video) and because honestly, I love Tumblr and want to use it. The first blog, Cause sometimes you just gotta blog stuff, is just for fun, lots of funny pictures I see around while traveling. The second, Badassedness, is meant to be a compilation of things that I see that are, well, badass. It’s really just a fun blog for me to test and try new things on Tumblr.

Instagram ~ I’ve come to love messing around with Instagram. At first it was just because of the different ways you can format the images, but I find it very fun to browse my Instagram connections, like @leesnewton and @ktmel. I currently almost always use Instagram when taking a one-off picture I want to share. If I’m putting up a bunch of pics from an event or something, I’d probably use Facebook, but for one-off’s which is mostly what I do, I love using Instagram. Often times I’ll share those pics with one of my Tumblr accounts as well.

Foursquare ~ Personally, I’m way too boring for Foursquare. I wrote about Six Reasons I’m Down on Foursquare a while back in what ended up being one of my more controversial posts (lot of people debated me on it), but the main reason remains the same…I’m too boring! So I end up using Foursquare when I travel to very unique places or if there is some marketing reason, like I want to see what a brand is doing with Foursquare. Otherwise, I can go weeks without really using the service. If I were still 22 and single, I’d probably use it all the time. But oldish and married, I very rarely do things Foursquare-worthy. This is also my most secure and “friend-limited” network – I don’t want the entire world knowing where I’m traveling.

Let me know what social networks you’re using to share content!

Share

Related Posts

No related posts.

  • Bigdog@dmtatennis.com

    So if you’re to old for foursquare why do I have a smart phone? No reply needed (I’m used to it!)

  • http://www.vladgorenshteyn.com Vlad Gorenshteyn

    I consciously made a decision to blog using Tumblr because it was easy, sexy, mobile, and free. (Btw, expect to see a lot of Obama on Tumblr this political season). Granted the search function doesn’t work but the good folks at Tumblr promised to have this up and running in time for Hannukah. 

    I’m still finding myself interacting and sharing content on Google+. Despite its lack of ubiquity brand and consumer-side, I still find that the UI/UX is superior to Facebook and it’s a relief to see a minimalist platform before the advertising arrives. Also, as an Android user, it’s nice to be plugged into an ecosystem that maximizes the phone’s cloud and social features. Google hasn’t really done a great job in ‘connecting the dots’ for Android buyers (comScore reported 43.7% market-share for June/July/August; iOS had 23.7). Frankly, I’m not surprised at the lack of marketing, given their technical background. The network needs to be primed with females:  tweens, teens, moms. Perhaps Google should tap night club promoters–they know exactly how to broadcast to a female audience in order to prime their business for mass crowds (and males), but I digress.

    Foursquare is still a staple, though it’s lost about 20% of its gaming luster. I use it for deals sometimes and to see where my friends are, but it seems to get a truly social experience on Foursquare, you have to turn to third party application layers (i.e. Sonar, Forecast). I guess Foursquare offsetting application development + R&D costs to later acquire these companies. In addition to adding social features, I  see their biggest success (and monetization) in acquiring a mobile payment system like Square and integrating NFC (in time for the near field ecosystem to become ubiquitous).

    Linkedin is still the best professional social network, by far. LinkedIn should really encourage its user base to interact more though. It seems like most folks are tuned into WIIFM on Linkedin which not social at all. This is one of the biggest threats/opportunities for Linkedin imho.

    Instagram–still waiting on the Android implementation :(

    Twitter is a staple, of course, personally/professionally. 

    Facebook’s also reserved for personal use and client business campaigns.

    –my two cents

  • http://www.brainwads.net/drewhawkins Drew Hawkins

    I use WordPress and Tumblr for pretty much the same reasons. Tumblr is random, more lifestreamy types of things I like to share. 

    I’ve also started to use Pinterest a bit. At first, it was to make it less cupcakes and wedding dresses with board of man. However, as I continue to dive into it, I’ve found it as a good source of creative inspiration. Really starting to like it. 

  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    Regarding Pinterest, everyone keeps talking about it. Based on how I’ve laid out my social network usage, how would you recommend I use Pinterest? I’m interested in trying but honestly can’t figure out what I’d do with it. Thoughts or examples?

  • http://www.brainwads.net/drewhawkins Drew Hawkins

    I think the best use I’ve seen for it is how Jai uses it. He has boards assigned via typography, color schemes etc to help with his design work. Him showing me how he uses it got me interested. 

    For me, I use Pinterest to dig around and find interesting content for client work. On a personal level, it’s used similarly to Tumblr as far as discovering visually cool things online. For my blog, I’m probably going to start using Pinterest to find images for posts instead of Google image searching like I have in the past. 

  • Pingback: Alright Pinterest fans, let’s do this

  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    Excellent writeup of the networks you use, Vlad! Thanks for sharing.

  • Dan Milward

    My wife and I are building a house and we use it as a scrapbook for all the ideas and cool “home” related pics we find.

    My wife spends “hours” on it searching / looking at clothes. Something Ill never understand.

    And finally I use to find pics for presentations.

    Its really really cool. Like flickr before it was shit ;)

  • http://www.brainwads.net/drewhawkins Drew Hawkins

    The house building idea makes a lot of sense!  A good way to visually organize things. I like that. 

    I also use it to find pics for presentations and blog posts. Very useful

  • yukes

    Can you tell me how to choose which tumblr blog posts your instagram photos? I have 2 blogs under the same sign in name.. but its automatically posting to the one I dont want it to post to. I can’t work out how to send it to the other one!!

Previous post:

Next post: