Part of the fun of my maternity leave has been that I have finally had time (between naps) to really explore some of the social networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, to determine how I can leverage them for clients.
I have about three or four posts rattling around in my head from this exploration, but it will be a few days before I can get to them.
A week ago I was unexpectedly thrust into a partial vacation from the Internet, or at least from my semi-mobile routine.
I am admittedly in somewhat of a rut with my approach to my online life. I generally check my e-mail, then look through my feed reader. I then pop into Twitter, my virtual water cooler, to see what is up, then fire up Microsof Live Writer to compose a post. All of this is done on my HP Pavilion laptop.
So imagine my horror when last week my laptop's computer screen only showed a series of flickering vertical lines. Of course, it is one year and three months old – just outside of warranty. Since my entire business is run from this laptop (backed up of course), I scrambled to find somone to fix it.
Suddenly I was in the land of Internet silence.
The first day was hell.
The second day felt like a little bit of freedom. Of course, that was also the day that I realized I could do most everything that was essential on my Treo. In fact, I am typing out this post from the Treo (I don't recommend it).
What I am finding is that once in awhile it is a good thing to disrupt the routine. Mostly because it forces one to new things.
For instance, I had been resisting text messaging and now, just one week later, I can do it with the pros. Also, I am learning first hand how mobile computing has become. Admittedly, hacking out a post on a Treo keyboard is somewhat less than elegant, but it gets the job done. And it turns out Blogger has a moblog feature that makes posting as easy as sending an e-mail. If you are reading this it means that I figured out how to do it.
I have also had more time to interact with individuals, mostly through Twitter. I am really learning the value of that application as a tool to stay really connected with a smaller group of people in a much more informal setting than this blog.
I also learned that both Twitter and Facebook have mobile versions, though they have their limitations. I have been using both extensively this past week.
So, while I await my laptop repair, which should be complete sometime early next week, I will be taking notes to share with you right here when I am fully "plugged" in again.
In the meanwhile, I will catch you around the mobile web.
