Social Media Contest == Buying Friendship?

So I decided (on a whim) to have a contest and give away my Macbook Pro at the end of my month of mac experiment.

What's a grand (or more) between (virtual) friends?

On the one hand, I hope it will get me exposure and feedback to help me really learn about social media, online communities, and maybe even a little marketing.  On the other hand, I'm setting myself up for failure and skewing the results.

I guess I'll see if my little experiment pays off more than if I just hired an experienced social media marketer for a couple thousand dollars.

Social media platforms I'm using:

Blogger
Wordpress
Facebook
Twitter
Google Plus

Social media platforms I'm not using (yet):
Tumblr
Pinterest
LinkedIn

LinkedIn is probably irrelevant for this project, but I might mention it on my personal feed.  Tumblr and Pinterest are mainly for pictures, and I don't feel like I can do much of that -- maybe a screenshot or two and a picture of my workstation.

I should probably also reach out to Mac user and developer forums.  With outbound links to them (as resources) since I probably don't want to directly spamming those sites.

Other niche sites around social media marketing might be interesting.  Maybe I could find someone who is savvy in that field to help mentor me, and maybe do a guest post describing what I've learned.

Tech oriented sites like Reddit, Hacker News & Slashdot might be a possibility, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that level of scrutiny and social ...(I'm looking for a word that means awkwardness & potential hostility)

A note on this blog (and blogger)

Hi, I'm Fijiaaron.  Aaron Evans, that is.  This is my blog about using a Mac.

A long time ago, I started a blog (fijiaaron.blogspot.com) when I moved to Fiji.  It started as a travel blog to save on sending separate emails to my mom and girlfriend.  One day, I abandoned Blogger in favor of Wordpress (fijiaaron.wordpress.com).  I still blog over there, but it's mostly a technical blog.  "Fijiaaron" has become my moniker, not just on my blog, but on twitter, stackoverflow, github, and just about everywhere else I'm online.

I'm a software developer specializing in test automation and cloud testing solutions.  I have my own consulting business, One Shore and work remotely from all over the world.   I'm currently in Utah, but thinking about moving again.

This morning I pulled my unused MacBook Pro off the shelf, and tried to start it up -- so I could play videos on YouTube for my kids.  But it wouldn't boot.  It wanted to restore from backup -- or reinstall OS X "Mavericks".  I eventually got it started (hint, you need to make sure the system date & time are correct), and decided I should give this little mac a chance.

And then I decided I should write about it.  But I didn't want to clutter up my main fijiaaron blog.  So I did what any sane person would do.  I registered a domain (monthofmac.com) and started to setup Wordpress. But, frustrated to get started, I went ahead and started typing on Wordpress (monthofmac.wordpress.com.)

Ideas started flowing, but I wanted to try to experiment with SEO, keywords, and other marketing techniques that I've been reading about, so I figured what I would do is keep my main site, use Wordpress for actual user experience, and use blogger for more freeform posts, including unfinished ideas.

So, not only am I going to use a Mac for a month for my development work -- as much as possible, I'm going to spend a month learning about and experimenting with web traffic, analytics, etc, and interacting with a community I don't normally interact with.

This (monthofmac.blogspot.com) will be my blog about those experiments.

Trying a Mac for a month

I'm a developer who is comfortable using Windows & Linux, but I've shied away from using a Mac.

There are several reasons.

The first is that I'm fairly happy with what I've got in an operating system.
A close second is that it it would cost additional money and time to retrain myself.
There's also the simple desire to buck the trend and stay away from what's "hip".

Addressing these points:

1. I'm not going to lie, life isn't perfect under Windows or Linux, or even a dual boot hybrid with cygwin, gnu tools, msys/mingw, putty, WINE, rdesktop, etc.

I don't think OS X is the solution to all my usability woes -- in fact, I think the UI for Macs is terrible.  But I know several people who love their Mac, and it has overall positive feedback.  This will be my honest attempt to "get it".

2. I happen to have a MacBook Pro sitting around.  I bought it for an employee who is gone.  It's been literally sitting on the shelf since January.  Regarding the time factor, I do have some limited experience with Macs.

I also have a Mac Mini that I use occasionally, for cross-platform testing and iOS development experimentation.  Also, when my other computer needs a rest (installing new software, etc.) or when I need to lay down because of my bad back, I switch to the Mac Mini.  But I'm not comfortable using it as a full time operating system.

I think it 's worth a try.

3. Hipsters and Grandmas are a pretty big intersection in this Venn diagram.  So I think it's safe to say using a Mac isn't "cool" anymore.