or by contacting them through their blog. I, for example, am happy to
answer a quick tweet — and maybe even use it as inspiration for a blog
post — but I find myself unable, unfortunately, to answer long emails that
bring up a lot of issues from people asking me to fix their code.
Social networks are great for sharing successes and ideas. Upload sketches
of your products to Flickr, share an office outing on Facebook (only the
photos you could show your mother, of course) or create a screencast of
some of your tricks and upload them to YouTube. Whatever you put out
there can potentially be sent onward by millions of people. If your
productions can be found only on your website, most people won’t ever
see them.
Be yourself on social networks. Write a truthful bio and list your name,
location, interests and other ways to find you on the Web. I get a lot of
traffic from my Twitter profile and that wouldn’t be the case if I just had a
cartoon dog there and didn’t list my name.
Write a (Micro) Blog
On a blog, you can quickly share thoughts, finds, photos, anything. Not
every blog has to be the refined and inspiring output of a Web expert. In
the same way, a blog should not become an endless stream of boring
anecdotes (like sharing the joys of having bought a new doormat this
morning). My own blog, wait-till-i.com, has always been a personal scratch
pad if nothing else. If I manage to code something that has always annoyed
me in a new way, I’ll write a quick post. If I find someone else who has
written something cool, I do the same and give my commentary on it.