We're Back in the Blogosphere! Ship On!

Eek!  Somehow we let ourselves be stolen away from our wonderful blogs!  No worries.  As we are sure you have seen through our posts on Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, and Pinterest, the nominations have been rolling in and we've got more wonderful works of art, videos, and fanfiction to keep you all squeeing for days and weeks to come.  You can check out our website for the newest nominations in your favorite categories.

And now a look behind the scenes...

We've told you a little bit about ourselves and why we've become a part of the Sam and Jack Multimedia Awards this year, but you might not have realized what the committee has had to do in order to make it possible for us to work together on this amazing project.

We will be the first to admit to not being the most tech saavy folks on the internet.  This awards experience has offered all of us the opportunity to expand our knowledge of all things techie.  Most of us have been on Facebook or have a Twitter account, but in order to bring people together from all over the globe, we've had to come up with ways for each of us to be able to post, preview, and give feedback regarding blog posts, tweets, artwork, and nominations.  

A lot of our nomination organization is done through Google and its applications. Google Drive makes it easy for us to create and share artwork and documents, in real time, with just the click of a button. We've also learned to use an online bulletin board and project manager called Trello that helps us coordinate our notes and ideas and submit files for the approval of other committee members. 

While most of us were already familiar with one or more areas of social media, HootSuite was pretty new to us and has been a godsend!  Without it, managing and scheduling tweets and posts would have been a lot more time consuming. So, we've all employed a huge learning curve as we've tried to figure out the most efficient and least complicated tools available.

Here's just a few of the things that we've learned.

• Building a website from scratch!
• Creating and editing a blog.
• Coordinating and managing a social media presence.
• Setting up and organizing an online base of operations.
• Collaboration across continents.

It's a good thing we have all of these online options available, otherwise just imagine the size our phone bills!

Before we go...

I have to mention we are getting back in the swing of things here on the blog just in time for the 12th Annual Ship Day celebration over on Gateworld's Character and Relationships Forum.  The wonderful Nynaeve (whose story Infinite Possibilities was nominated in the Alternate Reality category) created the beautiful invitation seen below. 

Come join other shippers beginning Monday, July 28 at 12:00am EST and revel in the shippyness.  You do not have to have an account to enjoy the party, but we want to encourage you to create an account so you can post with us on the forum!   Who knows, perhaps there will be cake!

KEEP ON NOMINATING!

Nominations for the awards will be accepted through August 31, 2014.  And don't forget to register to Vote!  Deadline for Voter Registration is also August 31, 2014. Check out our website for full details.