I am now easing into a new life as a digital copywriter for a major advertising agency. As I like telling people, “What else do you do with someone who wastes a lot of time online?”
But well, it’s still an office. I settle in and find out that facebook is banned on most of office’s premises. It poses new challenges, and new frustrations to this vocation. I mean, we do facebook pages with limited access to facebook.
For the first few days, as I was given the grace of waiting for a job order. I was baffled on what to do with my time. The “sparklies” of tumblr can be blinding after awhile, the overabundance of pictures and posts make it the digital equivalent of pixie sticks.
On the other end of the spectrum is G+, but with limited users, there’s only so much you can take in from the chronicles of the social media wars.
Yes, there is twitter, and in this event: thank god for twitter brand accounts, up until they post a facebook link.
So-called “free time” has become my nerd time. I caught up on online reading in between pages of the copy workbook.
Anyway, other sites you can use, rather than waste time on:
Trendhunter – Think of it as social-anthropological tumblr. It’s a crowdsource determining what’s buzzing in real life and online, with some very interesting results.
Mashable – The news source for tech, social media, and more.
Blogherald – More news, and compelling editorials on consumer behavior online.
I realize that while I am a copywriter at heart, I am also nurturing an inner semi-frustrated digital planner. That’s what I get for socializing better online than in real life.
And of course, I get my dose of features on music, art, etc at Salon and The Rumpus. If I feel a little silly, I check in at Cracked or McSweeney’s.
If there’s anything to thank the great facebook ban for, it’s for reminding me that there’s a life outside of facebook. WWW still applies, it’s a world wide web after all.