My “Electronic Water Cooler” #10

I would be kidding you if I limited my outreach to friends and community through one social platform or tool but Facebook has been my strongest lifeline to the influencers, water cooler participants and fellow bloggers.  While Foursquare tells me where the who’s who are located and Twitter tells me what they are thinking about moment by moment, Facebook does it all for me.  From status updates to interests to likes and dislikes, even timelines and storylines that go on for miles.  Of course that listing is a broad generalization of every social networking site, but it is this same gerneralized structure that keeps me on topic and allows me the agility to foray deeper into communities that shape my thinking and blog writing.  For instance, Bill Simmons, viewed by many as a “Godfather of Sports Blogs”, lives on Facebook and provides endless content to pick at and draw from at will – as does his 79,000 plus following.  If only more of my friends were so open with their feelings and rants. But of course, that’s what makes my community so special — if it is a critique that has some legs to it, it might crawl at first but will soon fly if given the wings and momentum.

When reading about  how sports social media platforms have taken off, they all list Facebook as their “mothership” for engaging users and users.  Most of the popular writers of sports blogs have individual Facebook pages: Drew Magary, A.J. Daulerio, Jamie Mottram.  But of course, they link their websites and give the reader a taste of how they reached the pinnacle of their sports-watching careers — blogging about what people care about in the world of sports while adding a comment thread to allow the “content tail” to waggle and evolve at the “electronic water cooler.”  After all, what makes for a good blog without a myriad of comments to build upon and use for future subjects. While Facebook may be one of the many ways I engage my fellow sports nut friends and community colleagues, it has given me the wherewithal to keep pushing the boundaries that might one day lead to a following and a permanent spot at the water cooler.