A work at home mom discusses social media and networking.

Happy 4th to all the readers of Social Media Mom! Enjoy your holiday and celebrate your freedom.

One of the things I love doing on Plurk is posting song lyrics. Nothing brings more people out of the woodwork than a familiar song, tune or lyric.

Music gets people excited, stimulates the brain and is just plain social. The Internet is definitely the most utilized tool when it comes to music and social networking and Brian Wallace, over at Nowsourcing, has put together a great list of websites that offer the most unique features, have the biggest audience, or mix both aspects together most effectively.

My favorite is Last.fm………..

is a great music social networking site because it truly brings music and socializing together. It helps you find friends based on musical tastes and helps you find new music through your friends. Its hard to tell whether its more of a website for socializing or a musical haven. A great indicator of compatibility between friends is music, so why not make it one of the first factors when meeting new people. Last.fm is the best because it makes music the first part of your social networking experience and can link people with similar tastes as well as help you find new acts.”

Music is the one thing in life that breaks down barriers and connects mankind in a way that nothing else does, so check out the rest of Brian’s post and let me know what social music sites you prefer and why.

Every so often someone will start a thread on Plurk regarding social media and last night was no exception. Amber Naslund, from the Brandbox blog, started a “Plurkshop” thread about managing conversations, and after close to 700 comments the overall consensus is that it’s all about community………

“The spirit of community conversation is more important than trying to control it. And controlling it is futile, anyway, so it’s best to embrace it. Listen and engage as best you can.”

The value exchanged in online conversations are so worth finding the right tool to manage them. Amber has a great list of sites that allow you to manage your conversations in a way that still enables you to listen and participate.

I did not participate in last night’s Plurkshop thread but I did listen and the value gained from following the conversation led to this post. If that’s not a good enough example of how important it is to join, listen and manage your conversations, I don’t know what is!

It’s official. I’ve been so distracted by Plurk and just life in general, I’ve done something I never thought I’d do…..I let my blog go. Evidently, most bloggers go through some sort of issue where their writing stalls and lack of posting becomes the norm but if you want a vibrant blog, and I do, then you have to post on a regular basis. At least that’s what Problogger, Darren Rowse says……………

“I know it’s not easy - all successful bloggers go through patches where it’s challenging to keep things rolling - however if you put your mind to it you can definitely get things back on track. It is never too late to get your blog rolling again!”

So, as I get my blog back on track and start posting fresh content on a regular basis, I will be tapping into some of the great ideas Darren has on how to get your blog posting frequency higher. I might start by “Declaring War on Blogger Apathy“. With everything going on in my life, as of late, I have had no motivation, passion or drive and it’s time to take blogging back! By starting a new series or simply moving forward with some familiar topics I can break through the apathy and get motivated.

Darren also recommends finding a blog buddy so I have been tackling some great ideas with my dear blogging friend Shana Albert. I must say, if TheNanny612 can’t motivate you, ain’t no one can, and there may be some fun things ahead for the readers of Social Media Mom that includes podcasts, videos and interviews, so stay tuned.

Finally, Darren says “Just Do It”! Okay, he didn’t really say that, but essentially that is his ninth tip to get your blog back on track; “step away from the distractions that might be stopping you from blogging and go and do it.”

I’m slowly learning how to capture the things in my daily life and re-purposing them as posts, and it will be interesting and exciting to see which direction this blog takes as I do so. For some reason, I have a feeling it will have to do with kids but I don’t know……. Have you let your blog go? What have you done to get back on track? Leave me a comment with some of your ideas and ways to keep your blog fresh and free from bloggers block.

photo via Problogger

This guest post comes from Chris Brogan. Chris is the author of ChrisBrogan.com and the eleventh in my series featuring social media dads.

Being a Social Media Dad

One of the frequent questions I receive is, “How do you find time for your family?” People see my hectic travel schedule, my rigorous blog posting and other writing projects, my conference attendance and speaking gigs, and they imagine that my family has no idea who I am. The thing is, social media has done more to bring my family closer together than one might think.

Connectivity

When I’m away on a trip, I’m not relegated to my cell phone. I can use iChat, Skype Video, or ooVoo to reach home and share a visual of where I am and what’s going on with my children and wife. If not live, I can at least shoot video using a Flip camera and share that with them later. I’m more connected to my kids now, which is nice.

Collaboration

My daughter has grown up using social media tools. She was my intro voice for my first (and second and third) podcast. My son and my daughter both use my Mac’s photobooth software with reckless abandon. (Sometimes, I have to remove some of these photos, because one of them loves to put up pictures of one’s bottom). We do some of this stuff together, and we have fun doing it. I recently wrote my daughter a Happy Birthday blog post, sharing my feelings with her to the web. I shot a video for my son’s first birthday. So it’s a way to collaborate.

Knowing When

But the truth of the matter is, what people don’t know much about, and what can’t be accomplished by software, is that when I’m home, I’m really home, and I spend a lot of time and affection and attention with my children and wife. I’m not nearly as fidgety as I used to be when I didn’t work in social media and when I didn’t travel around sharing my dreams and aspirations with the outside world. I LOVE spending time at home with my family, and they get a lot of tickling, tumbling, imagining, playing, and story time from me when I’m there.

I hope this helps others who are wondering how it all blends. It takes work, but you can definitely maintain a creative and media-filled life while raising a family. I’m grateful that I have a job that allows me to spend as much time with my family as it does, and further thrilled that I get the best of both worlds. Here’s hoping you’re every bit as fortunate as I am for that.

Follow Chris on Twitter here or on Plurk here.

I have been featuring a series of posts written by some fantastic social media dads. So, in honor of Father’s Day, I want to honor those dads that have contributed to this blog as well as those dad I am hoping to feature here.

Happy Father’s Day Guys!

Brian Wallace

Darren Rowse

Tim Jackson

Jeff Quipp

Jason Falls

Doriano Carta

Mark Dykeman

Marty Weintraub

Jim Stroud

Scott Monty

JD Rucker

David Harry

David Armano

Jeff Tippet

David Wallace

Matt McGee

Derek Semmler

Brian Clark

Chris Brogan

Alex Iskold

Please forgive me if I did not include every social media dad in the blogosphere. Leave me a note if you are a social media dad and of course, Happy Father’s Day to you too!

Everyone is talking about Plurk, the new microblogging platform that has all kinds of special features that Twitter does not have. Yesterday, Brian, asked if I had checked out Plurk. Since my answer was “no” he went ahead and sent me an invite; he wanted to know what I thought of it. At first I was a bit overwhelmed and did not see the attraction. It was not love at first site, as it was so very different from Twitter. I really did not do much with it at first other than get registered and set up my account. As the day went on, the friend requests started coming in and I was forced to spend some time on Plurk.

I accepted a few friendships, read a few updates and noticed that some friends from Twitter looked to be having a good time “plurking” so I started to chime in. Needless to say, 3 hours later, I finally said goodnight to all of my new friends and was determined to write about Plurk today!

The jury is out, when it comes to the question of whether or not Plurk is unique or just another Twitter clone. But the buzz, speaks for itself………

“Yesterday I spent an absurd amount of time exploring a new social media site called Plurk. The buzz started a couple nights ago when Leo Laporte tweeted out that sites like Plurk show that there is a lot of opportunity for innovation in the microblogging space. The end result was that thousands of users flocked to the site. Robert Scoble then popped up in my FriendFeed and I suddenly knew that there would be a bunch of people checking it out.”

I am totally hooked. Plurk is by far, more fun, more colorful and more interactive than Twitter and since Twitter has had so many technical issues lately, I’m really starting to think that Plurk might just be my new addiction. There is a great tutorial that I found, that does a great job explaining how to get the most out of Plurk. I sincerely suggest you give Plurk a try and by all means, let me know what you think of it!

The guys over at Common Craft have done it again with their clever and informative video analogies. Recently, I had a chance to watch their newest, “Social Media in Plain English“.

Take a look:

What do you think? Does Common Craft do a good job of analyzing how social media works? Does it show, in plain English, how businesses are using social media to improve awareness and open communications? Does this video do a good job at explaining how the sharing of opinions and ideas lay the foundation for success in business today? What say you?