Adventures in Social Media

I've been playing around with a few new social media sites recently, namely: twitter, tumblr, sk*rt, sugarloving, storeadore and stylehive. I feel that each of these networks has it's own niche and benefits, and I'm trying to decide which ones will most benefit Chic and Charming and my community of readers.

First impressions:

• Twitter: I'm liking twitter currently. It has allowed me to correspond with some of my frequent readers (and frequent reads) much more intimately than through trading comments on our respective blogs. Most people use twitter for two purposes: to provide a running commentary on their life or to promote something. My use of twitter is not entirely traditional. I have a wee bit of life commentary and a wee bit of blog promotion. I primarily use twitter to send out links to my favorite blog articles of the day, so that people with similar interests can share in my interesting finds. So far, I feel like this has resulted in mixed results. I think the thing I like the most about twitter so far is networking with other bloggers.
• Tumblr: While I use twitter to share links to my favorite articles, I use tumblr to share pictures from my favorite onilne articles. I think of these as "visual bookmarks" and an online inspiration journal. Personally, I would be much more likely to follow up on links from my tumblr page than my twitter page because the pictures on tumblr really draw me in. My tumblr page reveals that I am actually mostly obsessed with following decorating blogs online, despite the fact C&C has very little decor/home design. Here is my tumblr
  
• Sk*rt: Sk*rt is essentially digg for girls. It takes a long time to reap the rewards of digg, and sk*rt maybe similar, so I am reserving judgment. I did make the front page with one of my first submissions, but subsequent submissions have been buried.
  
• Sugarloving, also like digg for girls, except I think it is even more difficult to get something promoted than on sk*rt. Again, I am reserving judgment until I've been on it for a month or two. I am disappointed by their lack of bookmarking widget for my toolbar. I signed up for the Sugar network a few months ago, and have never spent much time there. Sugarloving might increase my time in the network. My previous experiences with Sugar were mixed. The network makes it difficult to promote external websites, and many users don't seem to link out of the sugar network.
• StoreAdore: StoreAdore is a brand new site that allows you to search for the hottest shops in your neighborhood or in a city you are planning to travel to. Their listings are pretty extensive. I am planning a shopping expedition to New York City this summer using StoreAdore to test the website's user friendliness, accuracy and recommendations. I will definitely be writing a longer post letting you know what I think sometime in July.
• Stylehive: A e-shopping community. Still trying to figure it out. I did start a Chic and Charming hive (you should join!)
  
• Stumble, ShopStyle, Polyvore, ThisNext: Other options that I am not currently examining.
• I am also not testing Coutorture. Back in the day, when C&C was young, I submitted to be included in the Coutorture community, and was not accepted at the time. They did offer some suggestions on how to make my blog a bit more about fashion in order to be accepted, but ultimately I decided that I like my content just the way it is. I totally respect their commitment to keeping their fashion community about fashion. I know many of my readers are part of this community, so I just wanted to let you know I did not leave you out :). If you would like to be part of the Coutorture network, which is a network of fasion bloggers, you can email them, their emails can be found here: Staff.
  

Do you guys have any experience with these networks? Especially the ones I am not covering? I'm going to spend the new month or two giving them a solid test run, and then I will report back!

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