Plurking for Freelancers: Tapping Social Media Conversation

Those of you who converse with strangers daily or who work from home will probably “get it”: there’s more to social media than just voting for an online friend’s article or broadcasting something on Twitter. What is that “more”? Social media conversation, thanks to web applications such as Plurk. Plurk takes Twitter’s communications paradigm in a more complex direction, adding in a host of features, an interesting interface, and the opportunity to build professional relationships.

So much has already been written about Twitter and its value to freelancers, marketers, artists and more. But Plurk is a new addition to the growing number of “my day in 140 characters” web communications applications such as Pownce, Jaiku, and Hictu. (Though Hictu differs from the group by offering the choice of text, audio or video messages and responses.)

Some people have likened Plurk to the MySpace of microblogging. While there seems to be a far more casual atmosphere in Plurk (at least in my stream), there is still much professional value to most people who utilize Twitter on a daily basis. It’s a matter of deciding what you need from Plurk and finding it.

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