Social Media and Me

I’ll be frank. I was never really into social media up until six months ago. For years, I have been reading blogs all about anime and manga. That’s all I have been doing, never taking part in the discussion. Sure, I have a friend or two who were relatively prominent bloggers in the anime blogger community. Then it all changed.

Back in September 2008, my good friend, Bjorn Tan, decided that instead of using his own blog, he would set up a team blog that would talk about a new multitude of subject, rather than focusing on a single subject. He roped in people from within our circle of friends to do the writing. This blog became known as nk-ds.org. When we first started out, people were skeptical. Here was a big shot leading a group of unknowns, how far would they go? The site continued to attract hits, mainly due to Bjorn’s advertising and contact.

Then about a month into the site, we received an e-mail from the organisers of Anime Festival Asia. We were invited to their offices to participate in their event’s website launch. After the introductions, the organisers informed us that they would to use our blogs as information platforms for the event. Needless to say, we were shocked. Hoping to gain some exposure, we signed on with the plan. In return, we were given special media accessto their event.

I learned first hand how powerful social media can be when it comes to the promotion of a certain event or product. Because of new technology like RSS, information can be spread around communities at incredible speeds, sometimes even seconds after a post is made. The buzz generated as a result of the posts made could be tremendous. Our site once got a thousand hits in a single day.

Our site has now been recognized as one of the more prominent anime and manga blogs on the Internet, touching from various topics like motorsports and current affairs.

However, I find myself not really into social networking sites like Friendster or Facebook. They claim that one is able to make more friends through these sites. However, most of time, people do not meet these new friends and still stick to those whom they already know face to face.

So on social media, I am divided.