So, after my video tutorial and post last week Claire was persuaded to give StumbleUpon another go. She'd bought my argument that it was a good way to connect with readers, to share information on other sites you enjoy, and to learn more about people who are stumbling your stuff.
But how would she get on when she signed back into the site and attempted to start stumbling?
Well she was thoughtful enough to capture the experience on video as she went along, so we can follow, live, what turned out to be her Stumble Struggles...
And if you've ever attempted to navigate your way through a new networking site, to sign up (or sign back into) a social media site, or some bit of software you haven't used in a while - well I guarantee you'll identify with the frustrations she shares with us. You can watch the video (9 mins 05 secs so takes a little while to load) by following this link.
I did feel a bit guilty when I was watching the video, because it brought back my own initial frustration at using the site - not being able to work out what to do, what the toolbar was for and if I'd downloaded it or not, how to respond to multiple friend requests via Facebook to start stumbling with them. (Funnily enough they didn't know what the messages meant when I asked them either!)
The only consolation I can offer with StumbleUpon is that it does get easier once you're (a) signed in (b) got the toolbar downloaded (c) using your own pic not the default version of a purple dancing girl (d) starting to rate and review sites. The last part is where it starts to get interesting (and what I covered last week) - and once you start reviewing other people's stuff you'll soon work out how to track down reviews that others have written about you.
But that's still a long way around for a shortcut, and Claire's experience is a good reminder of the what it's really like using so many of these sites. Here are 10 of our top gripes, 'inspired' (!) by her recent struggles:
- Navigation is not intuitive - this stumbling experience is a prime example of how easy it is to get lost
- It takes time - to work out how sites function and how best to use them. How many of us have that time to spare?
- Signing in can be complicated - and if you don't pop in regularly it's easy to get locked out and forget how to get back
- You need to be persistent - things get easier over time, but it's often not obvious how to use sites at first
- There are too many rival sites - we might be able to put the time into one, but three, four or five...?
- It's boring - okay Claire, I have to agree with you here, time spent trying to master a new site is not fun :-(
- They add to the e-mail load - if you're not careful with your settings you can end up with a load more messages coming into your in-box.
- Password management - we end up with multiple identities, different log-on ids, and complex arrangements to try and remember or safely record them
- The trail we leave behind - I guess most of us have half opened, half used accounts on different sites, with our name and business linked to them. Does that matter? Are we better going in and deleting them rather than leaving them half-done? But how much work would that take?
- New sites keep springing up - no sooner have you mastered how to network in one place than you find everyone's moved on and it's time to learn something new...
Sound familiar? What else would you add to the list?
