Loyal USPA blog readers may have noticed the lack of recent posts lately. We’re not abandoning the blog, and we certainly have no lack of news! We have recently spread our online wings to include Twitter and Facebook, and are still on MySpace and LinkedIn. Those sites, especially Twitter and Facebook, have been more conducive to the kinds of news we’ve had lately – short, quick updates not really worthy of too many words–140 or less, in fact (that’s the maximum number of characters a Twitter update, or “tweet” can be).
It has been great for things like letting people know the SIM pdf is now updated with bookmarks (www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Man_SIM_2009-2010.pdf), that there is a new job opening at USPA (www.uspa.org/aboutuspa/employment.aspx) or that Safety Day reports are online (www.uspa.org/USPAMembers/Safety/SafetyDay/2009Reports.aspx).
Those sites also get more activity and response than the blog has, so we’ll spend a little more time there. We will still be blogging when there is a major story that requires a little more behind-the-scenes, personal explanation, or if inspiration strikes! Let us know if you want to read about anything in particular, too – either comment here, or use the “Why” post (skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/why/) as a forum to ask your questions about why USPA does some of the things it does.
Here are all the places you can now find USPA online:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/skydiveUSPA
Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/US-Parachute-Association/55722708148
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/_USPA
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=41846
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SkydiveUSPA
April 23, 2009 at 12:33 pm |
Why don’t you get a wordpress plugin that streams everything from twitter to your blog? I haven’t looked into them myself but alot exist.
April 23, 2009 at 12:36 pm |
That’s actually a great idea, thanks Jeremy!
Sillily enough though, we set up the blog at wordpress.com instead of self-hosting. We’re looking at bringing it over so that we can take advantage of the cool plugins and make it a little more useful. One of the many projects on the docket, though – and a great one for a future new USPA webmaster
April 27, 2009 at 11:01 am |
Luckily a self hosted WP blog is extremely easy to setup. I didn’t even look to see if this was self-hosted or not before I made my suggestion. Take care.
April 24, 2009 at 10:29 am |
Another idea would be to blog a Tweet (or status) digest. If you have 5 Tweets throughout the day, at the end of the day, just make them a blog post. Who says a blog post has to be a mini novel anyway? 2 or 3 sentences can sometimes be refreshing, especially when it can be packed with information that is normally in 5 Tweets. For those people who only follow the blog (not me), even a little information is better than none.
April 24, 2009 at 10:41 am |
Another really good idea; this might be a great solution. Thanks to you both!