How a journalist can best use MySpace

MySpace is lame, so how come many journalists are on the site and, as I posted recently, I now have a MySpace page too?

In last week’s post, I described it largely as just another front in the world over branding my name online.

Others see it for slightly different purposes.

MSNBC commentator and Philadelphia Daily News editorial board member Flavia Colgan has a page. I can only speculate, but, judging from what she shares on her page, I suspect she sees it as an easy way to help brand her identity – her name, her position and her work.

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My Flickr account reawakened

I joined Flickr in February. But it sat there with just one photo.

That has changed.

I always thought I would use Flickr in a more limited way – just photographs I took with some purpose and others that carry some meaning. I’ll continue to use Slide to collect slideshows of any travel or experiences. My Flickr account will be more selective. Perhaps that is for my own sense of organization, but I like the idea for now.

Does anyone else do something similar?

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Yelp, I'm on Yelp

Join me in reviewing food. As of Aug. 28, I am on the popular Yelp.

Thus far I have only reviewed three places in Harrisburg, but hope to get into the habit of doing so for all restaurants. Join and let’s share places we like and those we don’t. It’s a great tool to find the best places in the best locations anywhere, particularly because the site is known for its fine community.

Internet Vacation: Because sometimes you need an IV

I recommend an occasional IV for everyone.

Yes, the Internet vacation is a necessity. Through the magic of forward posting on this site, RSS feeds of this blog on all my social utilities and a reckless abandon when it comes to e-mail, I can do that with some regularity now that I am in between my post-graduate internship and an upcoming trip that I’ll post about in coming weeks. -I haven’t checked my Google Reader in a week or more – oh the horror!

The Internet vacation certainly isn’t new, even if my pushing the IV for short on Twitter and elsewhere may be.

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Check me out on MySpace: why I am selling out

As of last week, Chris Wink is on MySpace.

The first comment I got came from one of my oldest friends: “Wow, you are Sellout Central recently!” Surely noting my July foray into Facebook and other social networking experiences of late. I was a long hold out, interested in their function but critical of their effects and bored with their benefits.

Brian James Kirk, a journalist I know, has a MySpace page that ranks higher in Google searches than his Web site or other professional work. Such a frustration can cause “brain hemorrhaging.” That’s for sure, which is why many people hide or at least veil their identities, particularly on MySpace – the creepiest of all social networking for anyone over 16.

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I have 400 Facebook friends: What I've learned

On July 3, I finally succumbed and joined the movement that is Facebook. Six weeks later, I have 400 “friends” – yeah I am that popular.

But, from when I first started thinking of giving into the social networking movement back in March, I took the decision way too seriously – wanting it to benefit me professionally, rather than become a waste of time. I wanted to improve my name searchability online – so employers, friends and stalkers can find the right Christopher Wink.

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A recent addition to Couch Surfing

I HAVE GIVEN IN ON ANOTHER HOLDOUT OF MINE, THIS one on CouchSurfing.com, after catching a lot of flak for recently joining the Facebook, having avoided it throughout university.

One signs up, offers up a couch or a place to sleep in exchange for the same treatment elsewhere. Avoid hotels and even hostels and get a local view of wherever you’re visiting. The most frequent concern is one with safety, and, like I’ve seen with hitchhiking, there is some truth to it, but, more often, there is the opportunity for cheap travel and profound interaction.

In preparation for future travels on a limited income, I thought now was the time to finally get on board with another social networking device online.

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The end is here: Christopher Wink joined Facebook

Today, nearly four years after it launched, I have joined Facebook.

The site itself launched in September 2004, and during that summer, while I readied to begin what would be a transcendent tenure at Temple University in Philadelphia, founder Mark Zuckerberg was watching his baby explode. From its Harvard roots, through other Boston and Ivy League universities to Temple and much of the rest.

I can remember first hearing about it in late August 2004, on a porch of my college dormitory. From the very start I ignored it.

I can remember hearing it roll out to other, smaller universities and then excitement because friends from community colleges could join – with institution e-mail addresses. I continued to ignore it.

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Chris Wink: what's in a name?

In today's climate, your name is your brand. Own it - or else become Mark.
In today's climate, your name is your brand. So own it - or become Mark.

The Internet is changing what it means to have a name.

I have already posted that this very blog that so begins the great push to lay claim to Web real estate, the most valuable of which lies on your name.

Your marketability, your presence, particularly as employers, friends and intimates increasingly go to Google or other search engines to better understand or know about us, will only become more dependent on your space online.

Chris Wink is original enough name that I cherish it, but I am hardly alone. Take a google search of my name and you see others, particularly, as previously posted, the founder of the Blue Man Group. But it goes deeper. Beyond confusion, you can become guilty by name association. Today, a friend forwarded me something, news from abroad that is accessible now as only a local paper was as recent as 15 years ago.

A namesake of mine arrested for a few thousands of dollars worth of vandalism. It’s a small enough a crime to warrant an employer to confuse his actions with my own.

A 17-year old youth has been arrested after about £5,000 damage was estimated that could have been caused in another school break-in.Police named Christopher Wink as having been charged with burglary at Bayside School between Sunday and Monday. “Entry was forcibly gained,” said a Police spokesman.

It is only another reminder that I need to make apparent who I am, branding my own name as I would any other product.

Why I am everywhere online and you should be, too

smashed-cell-phone.jpg

Understand, I take relish in few things as much as I do in being an old head, knowing little about technology, what is new and fresh.

The trouble is that I am modestly pursuing a career in media. I graduate from Temple University in less than three months, with no job, little direction, and few goals. My chances for success just got smaller.

So, it was in early December 2007, with my fears and worries just beginning to rumble, that I launched this Web site. It was, as I first described it, a modest foot print in what, I assumed, would someday require a great deal more structure. The world’s dependent on the Internet is not lessening. This is the best, most effective way to market oneself.

I wasn’t going to blog. I promised myself I wasn’t going to blog. But then, there wasn’t much chance I could keep steady readership to develop a community (hello!) but also to increase my searchability on Google, (currently tops for “christopher wink” and second for “chris wink“) -It doesn’t help that someone of quasi-fame shares my name, as Chris Wink is the founder of the Blue Man Group.

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