Those of you who follow me on Plurk or Twitter probably saw my rants recently about the corporate decision to block Plurk.com on our network at the office.  While nothing was officially passed down, I am sure they felt it would help those of us who use it be “more productive” with our day.  The irony of this change is that the decision to block Plurk came shortly after the return of (The Gypsy) David Harry’s SEO Plurkshop; a clique which I frequently reference and pass on links from at the office.  I can understand blocking social sites like Plurk from departments that don’t NEED social media, but does it make sense to block something like Plurk from website marketers?

I get that social media isn’t always a business venture, and I know that those of us in the office that were using Plurk were not doing so on a strictly business basis.  I’ll be the first to admit that my use of Plurk was not always for the harvesting SEO information and news.  However, the time spent on Plurk outside of those tasks was used to develop relationships with others in the industry.  Relationships that have often provided me with useful and relevant information related to my work here in the office.

I think the problem is that most people still don’t understand social media and the value in it.  Sure there is A LOT of random banter and back and forth on social networks, but those interactions are what build relationships.  And out of those relationships you build a network of people who share their knowledge, their information, and their thoughts on subjects that in many cases may inspire your work or even give you a new idea or concept you might have never considered.

When the threat of a plurkless office was brought up a few months back I quickly tried to show the value in social media by openly passing on links and information from social sites that I felt would benefit my colleagues and our clients that I found on sites like Plurk and Twitter.  I would share links 2, 3, sometimes even 4 times a day with information that was relevant to the work we do.  These articles and ideas all came from social media and I would not have been aware of them had it not been for these sites.  There is always someone else out there who follows different people, reads different blogs, or has their own SEO experiences to share, many of which will never show up in your reader or during your personal research.

I feel that social media and website marketing go hand in hand.  I am a strong believer that social media can change the way businesses interact with the general public and other businesses in ways never imagined.  I also believe that the diversity of ideas, points of view, and information provided on social networks is a great way to help businesses and marketers alike stay on top of their industry and build a network of resources often lost in the sea of information on the internet.  Sure, social media might take a few minutes away from client work off and on throughout the day, but I think that the overall rewards outweigh those few minutes of “productivity” that are lost.  By blocking sites like Plurk in a marketing environment you are separating yourself from another avenue of valuable information that might not only benefit your employees, but often your clients.

UPDATE: If you are here looking for a review or information about the New Moon Soundtrack I have written a New Moon Soundtrack review over at Where Is Edward Cullen?

Though I finished the book over a week ago, and created the actual mix on 16th I have yet to provide a full track listings for my New Moon soundtrack.  New Moon is the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, and continues the adventures of Bella Swan a teenager in Forks Washington who has fallen in love with a vampire.

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the reasons I started reading the series was because I wanted to create soundtracks to the books.  As I finish each book I will create my interpretation of what the soundtrack to the book would be.  I will list a complete track listing here on my blog, and will compile a “mixtape” version of the soundtrack, with as many tracks as I can find, on Mixwit.com.

Regular readers and friends will tell you that many of my mixtapes are lyrically driven.  This applies to these mixes as well.  The majority of the tracks you will find in my Twilight mixes will feature lyrics or themes that somehow tie in to different parts of the book.  I was able to capture the majority of my New Moon soundtrack on an imeem playlist which you can listen to below the tracklist.  Death Lies Bleeding’s cover of The Cure’s A Forest is not available on imeem, however you can find the track on 100 Tears: Tribute to the Cure.  I hope you enjoy this mix as much as I enjoyed creating it.

My New Moon Soundtrack

1. All Time Low – Running From Lions
2. Blutengel – No Eternity
3. Death Lies Bleeding – A Forest
4. The Birthday Massacre – Black
5. Stabbing Westward – What Do I Have To Do?
6. The Cramps – I Was a Teenage Werewolf
7. Bullet For My Valentine – No Control
8. Secondhand Serenade – Suppose
9. Rise Against – Blood To Bleed
10. Lullacry – Love, Lust, Desire
11. In This Moment – He Said Eternity
12. HIM – Right Here in My Arms

My New Moon Soundtrack

As some of you regular readers and friends will know I had an extensive collection of online mix tapes on Mixwit, nearly 50 to be exact.  You’ll probably also know that some close friends of mine have surrounded me with the craze of the Twilight Saga.  I fought the craze for a while, but then when I found out the author had created a playlist for a book I was intrigued.  Then when I discovered that a close friend had created her own soundtrack to the book I became that much more intrigued.  I finally gave in and decided to read the books on the premise that I would also create my own soundtrack for each book as I completed it.  Earlier this week I finished the first book in the series, Twilight.  I had originally hoped to use my favorite mixtape site Mixwit to generate a soundtrack that I could share, but sadly I couldn’t find all of the songs I wanted to use.

Most of the songs I felt capture emotions from the story and parts of the storyline really well lyrically.  A couple of them were used solely based on the feel of the song and pieces of lyrics.  But I tried to pick songs that were lyrically driven since that’s how many of my mixes are created.  I hope to eventually be able to present this in a full audio format, but for now this is the best I can do. I’ve put together a Twilight Mix with imeem which includes all of the tracks that I could find, and I have listed a full track list below.   Regardless I hope you enjoy!

1. Ludo – The Horror Of Our Love
2. Enigma – Gravity Of Love
3. Kirsty Hawkshaw – Beautiful Danger
4. Secret and Whisper – You Are Familiar
5. Evanescence – Listen To The Rain
6. In This Moment – When The Storm Subsides
7. Flyleaf – All Around Me
8. Plumb – Always
9. The Cure – This Twilight Garden
10. Juliana Hatfield – Close Your Eyes
11. Nine Inch Nails – We’re In This Together
12. Matchbook Romance – You Can Run, But We’ll Find You
13. Thrice – The Red Death
14. I Am Ghost – This Is Home

UPDATE 10/06/08:  I have posted the Twilight Soundtrack here for those of you whoe are looking for the official movie soundtrack.

My Twilight Soundtrack