What does one make of social media.

I feel that I have a good grasp on the various aspects of social media and have a good idea how to navigate it.  Over the last week though I have had two experiences which have me a little baffled.  The first is how Google+ works and people adding one to their circles.  I have mostly used Facebook but have been more active on Google+ for the last four months or so.  About 5 days ago I had a large jump in activity where I suddenly added over 350 followers.  Normally I would welcome this but as I look at those who added me I find that I have nothing in common and that none of them have actually liked or commented on my work.  In a previous rant I mentioned that I find this type of behavior odd and in this case it may make me rethink how I use Google+.  Since anyone can add one to a circle with out asking permission to do so I may not share as much on this social media or may not post some items publicly but only to select circles.

The other observation I want to share is more to the subjectivity of photography. While I do share to a number of photo sites I have one which stands out from the rest.  This is Mobli.  Unlike all the others where results are more consistent and predictable, Mobli tends to have a very different life of it's own.  Considering that I only have 107 followers it makes the numbers I will share below with each of the past five day's photo's more incredible.

January 24.  I shot this iPhone capture of a Hugo Boss perfume bottle as my photo of the day.  On Mobli it gained 157 views and 7 likes.

I had shot this photo earlier in the day out at Kamp Kiwanis of the camp cat.  It garnered 235 views and 9 likes.

January 25.  We had a gorgeous day in Calgary so I took my class out side to work with some subjects on locations.  There are six photo's here. This one had 247 views and 11 likes.

This one 374 views and 14 likes.

383 views 12 likes.

187 views 9 likes.

382 views 15 likes.

380 views and 11 likes.

January 26.  My Sunday self-portrait for this day was concentrating on my hands and one of the tools of my trade.  This one had 178 views and 8 likes.

January 27.  I received a new camera today courtesy of the Airmiles rewards program, a GoPro Hero 3 black edition. I am looking forward to experimenting with this baby and see what I can achieve.  Although classified as a camcorder the still camera is 12MP and has an awesome wide angle of view.  It has a remote control function which can work from either the provided controller but also an app for the iPhone/iPad.  344 views 9 likes.

My photo of the day of some orchids at St. Stephen's Anglican Church. An iPhone capture which garnered an addition to the popular page and 919 views and 19 likes.

January 28.  A last minute idea for this photo of the day, I took an apple from the fridge and placed it on some blue tiles.  This also made the popular feed with the result being 3046 views and 36 likes.

January 29. A quick stop at Safeway this evening and found a few items to grab some iPhone captures of.  I just posted these so the numbers are still climbing and I really don't have a handle on how come some images get picked up and made popular but I will have to see how these ones do.