Historically speaking, PiercingMetal.com which was launched back in 2005, has gone through what I feel are many interesting changes. Initially, this was a pure HTML website that only did reviews and somewhere around 2008 we launched a connected Blog for it called “PiercingMetal Musings” which used WordPress. That blog expanded the ideas of the brand and all along the way we used whatever social networking tools available to help make this voice a bit louder. There was a PiercingMetal MySpace and while I had a personal Friendster account, I talked about my journalistic adventures on it all the time. In 2010 we learned of Tumblr which was a micro-blogging medium and connected it to our branded Twitter and would occasionally share our website posts to the network. For the most part I left it alone and when I made PiercingMetal and its Musings Blog into one bigger voice, I always tried to remember to check the box that allowed sharing to the Tumblrverse of Followers. This brings us to where we are today and the new announcement. Continue reading PiercingMetal’s Tumblr Is Now The Ken Pierce Media Tumblr→
Here we go again with one of the many mediums in the Social Networking realm that are there to choose from and how I am applying them to my own reach as a creative running a brand like PiercingMetal.com – This one is called Tumblr.
Similar to Twitter, the Social Networking tool of Tumblr is considered a micro-blogging site but it let’s you post a few more things to get your own personal message out. It also let’s you use more than 140 characters which appealed to me. When I first signed onto it, I was not sure how to use it to help the site as we already had a Blog of our own and a PiercingMetal focused Twitter account. With this being the case I had to admit that I was not completely sold on Tumblr but I created an account to “lock out the branding” ID of my site. I then connected it to these other accounts and pretty much left it as is. That works for me since I am not posting new writing to this as opposed to the main websites blog or core site. The cool aspect of it is loading in little videos and audio stuff if you so desire and its a nice added choice to the mix for those who for whatever reason do not like WordPress or Blogger accounts. Some of my friends love it, as it lets them be a little more creative than a Facebook or Twitter profile does so that is good since it works for their needs. As far as PiercingMetal is concerned its more of a “catch all” feed of existing things. If you are digging what we’re tossing out there we welcome your adding us to the people you follow. As the RSS feed gets a lot of different things on it, you should see new PiercingMetal site content on a very regular basis. At least that is what I think it will do. Continue reading PiercingMetal & Social Networking: Tumblr→
Continuing the series on the existing Social Networks and how they are being used by the PiercingMetal outlet. This is Twitter.
Twitter is the newest craze that people are using lately and this micro-blogging community allows you to let fans and friends know what you are up to at a moment’s notice. For instance “hey friends, I am at the Nokia Theatre watching Iced Earth” or “Damn, do I have too many CD’s to review”. Get the picture?
I created one for the PiercingMetal brand ID to keep up with the Jones’ and plan on informing you about things that relate to being the Metal Media guy as opposed to the super personal and often unnecessary things that I see people posting on their own account. One does not need to know that I am in the bathroom, eating a pizza or folding laundry. The way the medium works is that you “Follow” those who do and say things that interest you. Sometimes they follow you back and other times they do not. One of the main things that people do in Twitter is “Retweeting” and that means they re-circulate a Tweet that you did. I find these are helpful when we post review articles or concert pieces. Below is a graphic of the very first tweet that PiercingMetal sent out. It was almost a year to the time when this narrative went online.
Fans of PiercingMetal that use Twitter are encouraged to “Follow Us” if they would like to see what is happening in our world at the exact moment that it happens and they are welcome to Retweet whatever we say if they want to share it with their friends. I’ve been using it to some extent from the photo pit and the clubs as bands take to the stage reporting on what is happening as it happens. Especially if something exciting happens. It’s fun to type the shenanigans into the phone for Twitter postings as the crowd surfer bodies fly over our heads. We have also connected this to our Official PiercingMetal Facebook page status. Hopefully we will build up a nice support for the website with this network. I will be doing a lot of links to the actual website content in Twitter and that means you will know about it straight away which is cool.
Some Twitter Tricks:
1. To mention someone in a Tweet you type a message and use “@username”. They will see your mention in their own page. When I remember to do it, I might mention something like this “Just reviewed “Explosive Album” by @thatmetalband care of @thatrecordlabel – Great stuff!!!”
2. “Follow Friday” is a big deal to most Twitter users, so every Friday you Tweet that “#FF @username @username @username” so your friends know to look into those other usernames for potential interest. I tend to mix up my own #FF with brands and people I most admire. If you wish to include @piercingmetal in your #FF tweets please by all means do it, we don’t mind at all 🙂
Click the logo above to be taken to the PiercingMetal Twitter account and if you want to learn more about the company as a whole, just read their Wikipedia entry below.
