Once upon a time, I told my friend that I was going to work out before I was heading over to drink with him. He responded that working out was “vain”. Of course it is, along with many other things: an outlet, a survival mechanism, a pickup line, a lifestyle, a metric…

So, I’ve thought for a while now that social media is primary a vanity outlet. I’ve considered how to utilize that notion as:

1) a method for gaining adoption for any given web product. I have not come up with a good answer – it’s really just been a thought exercise of playing to this banal hard-wiring that we all carry with us.

2) a jumping off point for new product ideation. One of those I called Mall Wars. Basic idea is to gamify tween shopping and disintermediate trips to the mall (pre-Oculus existing). I never did anything with it; however, feedback is certainly welcome, and I’m happy to share my thoughts at a deeper level. I am attracted to the blend of gamification / vanity / the target demographic’s (and it’s enablers) ability to throw cash at it. If someone executes on this idea, please wrap me in to some degree 😉

3) A baseline for research on human behavior. I’m inherently interested in how our minds work and what drives us at our cores as individuals.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and a problem surfaced, not related to social media whatsoever, but we got to discussing it, and I got to thinking…and wanting to ask questions / posit my own thoughts.

Then, I realized I hadn’t eaten dinner and the likelihood for exploration was de minimus.

“I’m not going to sit down write now and research and think and create…And, I was right!”

So, I thought, how can I just talk about this and socialize it while I’m home alone… I searched “voice blogging”, and, voila, Bubbly. bubbled to the surface. Fucking great SEO Bubbly! You’ve been around since May 2011, so you’ve got some juice built up. I literally just found you 30 minutes ago.

Now, obviously I’m writing this, so I’m excited, which to me, means something. Bubbly could be a great outlet for me go forward to spitball ideas, thoughts, opinions, problems and get feedback without having to:

1) send an email

2) call anyone (much less multiple people)

3) write anything down…

They might just have a rabid fan.

Now, I might churn out of Bubbly tomorrow, but for the time being, it has certainly played to my vanity. I have things to socialize, I face friction from a text editor, I like to talk, I am interested by how others will respond to what I have to say.

Bubbly seems to address all of that for me and my Ego.

Plus, I think their distribution options of posting to FB (pure vanity – which I did not uptake) and Twitter (a medium I respect) are spot on. Guess what, I tried to type that on Twitter and got cut off! Had I had the foresight to Bubble it through my first, most natural form of communication, I would have gotten my point across, which is effing solid distribution strategy. I understand why you’re focused on footballers and celebs, REACH!

Allright, Bubbly – you got me to write tonight, well done! Looking forward to future Bubbles. Of course, I already have feature requests. If you’re remotely interested, hit me up on Twitter and we can touch on them.

Btw – I’m in the new WP editor for the first time (again, I’m horrible about blogging regularly…), how the eff do I preview? I’m sure it super-simple, but I’m impatient and impulsive at times.

Edit to last sentence: just realized I had my browser window hovering too low on my laptop and obscuring the preview button you see here

whoops…Man, I guess I actually can crank out a post when I’m fueled with something to say. That took 14 mins. start to finish.