Express yourself! Make a space online
Use Windows Live Spaces to present your personality to the world
By Jennifer O'Connor
Want to post your baby’s pictures for friends and family to see? Promote your business and engage with clients? Find other people who share your love of scrapbooking?
Then, like me, you might want to consider setting up your very own Windows Live Space.
Social networking sites, such as Windows Live Spaces, says Rob Cottingham, president of Social Signal, a company that helps clients create online communities, provide a simple way to keep in touch with people you already know, and discover new relationships.
With a Windows Live Space, you can
- upload photos (up to 500 per month for free) and stream Windows Media Player videos;
- write a blog (Muse, a bespectacled cartoon character, is there to help you through writer’s block);
- create a profile where you can share info such as your occupation, e-mail address and interests;
- stay in touch with friends through Live Contacts as well as form new relationships through the Spaces Friends Explorer; and
- receive “gleams” each time a contact updates her space.
Getting started
Setting up your space is as simple as going to the Windows Live Spaces homepage and clicking on the Create a space button.
Once you’ve logged in and entered the title of your space and the name of your Web address, select Create. After you set your permissions (e.g. choosing “everyone” allows anyone on the Web to view your space and profile; “messenger”—the option I chose—will let only people on your “messenger allow list” to do so), you’ll be taken to your space to begin adding content.
The ease of use of social networking sites, says Scott Allen, the entrepreneurs’ guide at About.com and co-author of The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online (Amacom, 2005), is one reason why they are so popular. Even those of us who aren’t that Web-savvy, he says, are able to create a space and start connecting.
Because of this ease, he adds, people will try to find others who share their interests instead of using the Internet to look for “the one or two things that they are most passionate about.”
Making your space unique
How do you make your space stand out from the spaces of the other 130 million users around the world? There are lots of options, but to customize my space I created a list of my favourite films to make sure my friends know which Audrey Hepburn movies they absolutely must see. I added the Quote of the day gadget so there would always be something new on my space. I also changed the background, the text colours (they’re now blue and green—two of my favourite shades and an appealing combo) and the font.
“The more you can personalize and individualize your space,” says Allen, “the more real and human relationships feel.”
When everybody’s profile looks the same except for the words on the page, Allen says it’s like walking into a room and seeing everybody in a navy blue suit, white shirt and red power tie. That doesn’t feel warm and inviting. But “the more you can express yourself and create whatever image of yourself you want, the more human it is from the instant that people lay eyes on the page,” Allen says. And the more success you’ll have at creating relationships.
Updating your space
When you’d like to update your space, click on Go to your space after you log in to add content as well as to edit or delete what you’ve published. You can also instantly update your blog and photos with a mobile device. To take advantage of this option, either go to the e-mail publishing options page on your PC or connect to http://mobile.spaces.live.com through your phone. (Go to this address as well to check out your photos as soon as they’re uploaded.)
One Microsoft survey found that making regular updates to your blog is the best way to keep people coming back. The second-best thing? Ensuring you have well-written entries and interesting pictures. Muse’s suggestions for coming up with content include
- writing a straightforward journal entry,
- describing your day,
- telling people about something that happened in the past,
- coming up with a fantasy, and
- describing how to do something.
Creating community
Of course, you don’t want to be the only one looking at your space. To get in touch with others, send an invitation with your Web address to a select group of people, says Cottingham. Or, if you’re ready to share your site with everyone, consider putting the Web address in the signature of your e-mail. No doubt you’ll soon have a list of friends who share your interest in babies, business, scrapbooks or whatever it is that evokes your passion.
