How I use my htc EVO for social media – Jim Says

Be sure to join us on Twitter tonight at 8 p.m. CST for our #shehechat! Topics are listed below.

Tonight’s #shehechat topics

1. How do you use your smartphone for social media?
2. How has the growth of social media networks changed blogging?
3. What’s your emoticon vocabulary? How often do you use them and what do you use most often?

Yesterday, Shelby described her social media evolution with her iPhone 3GS. Today, I’ll tell you how my social media experiences have evolved with several different cell phones.

I’ve owned a cell phone since about 1988 and, when I say cell phone, I mean a bag phone that had to be plugged into a cigarette lighter to work. Yes, back then we still called them cigarette lighters and not power ports. I owned a bunch of cell phones between ’88 and the early 2000s when, like Shelby, I discovered texting. Of course, we didn’t really think of texting as social media back in the day but it was and still is.

My first text message

Sometime around 2001, a friend sent me a text message. The concept of text messages was not completely foreign to me, as I’d previously owned a SkyTel pager capable of two way messaging. It took a couple of years, but I was soon hooked on text messaging. I’m pretty sure the hook was deeply and permanently set when I upgraded to a Treo600 smartphone. Now, I had a full keyboard and honestly I never mastered or liked T9 for texting very much.

The Treo and Twitter

By the time I signed up for Twitter in early 2008, I was using a Treo755p, which was one sweet smartphone for its time. I had a few Twitter friends set up so their updates came to my phone via SMS. Plus I could visit the Twitter website to just check out the stream. From there, I moved on to a Blackberry and the still pretty cool UberSocial app for Twitter. I also discovered access to Facebook via smartphone. So now we’re in about April of 2009.

Social media becomes part of my routine

I end up being pretty mobile for extended periods of time. During these periods, social media is my link to friends and family as well as a resource for finding local points of interest wherever I may be. Throughout 2009 and early 2010, my social media network grew dramatically. I began developing a smartphone strategy with my Blackberry, but that changed quite a bit in June 2010 when I acquired the htc EVO Android.

When I wake up: I check Twitter, a few email addresses, Google+, sometimes Facebook and then I read. The htc EVO has a pretty big screen for a “phone” and I use it like a mini-tablet. There are some blogs I check out as well as news sites and even a fun site or two to start my day with a laugh.

Throughout the day: I’ve found I get a great deal more work done when I keep all social media sites closed on my computer. So when I want a social media fix or just need a short mental break, I’ll turn my phone over (I keep it upside down to remind myself I’m supposed to be working) and see what’s going on in social media. I normally respond to conversations going on if it doesn’t take more than a few minutes.

Lunchtime: If I’m on the road (or at home or that matter) eating alone I normally scroll through social media timelines and read blogs. If I’m with someone, I try really hard to keep my phone off the table or at least upside down.

Afternoon: As I look back at my timelines over the last few days, it looks like I don’t post much in the afternoon. I suspect I’m pretty focused on work during this portion of the day.

Wrapping the day up: As the work day closes, I try to catch up on conversations and see if anything interesting is going on in social media. Then while watching TV with my family in the evening, the htc EVO is never far away and during breaks in the action I check what’s going on.

Here’s the thing: The htc EVO is more than just a mobile device or a smartphone. It’s an honest to gosh computer. It’s very powerful and often times is a quicker and more efficient way to utilize social media than my MacBook Pro.

So the shocking thing is that I’ll probably be switching over to the iPhone 4S in a couple of weeks. It’s not that I don’t like my Android device. It’s really more about seeing what the other side looks like. Well, that and Shelby showed me this really cool word game called Moxie and I can’t find it for the Android.