Social media tools for travel

A road trip used to just be a road trip: Go out, get lost, come back, tell everyone about it.

Now it’s more like: Go out, get lost, but tweet every step of your adventure to your friends back home.

People don’t simply “vacation” on their own anymore. They take along an entire Facebook posse with them. Or they use Yelp to check in with friends back home from some fried-chicken joint in the middle of Nevada.

With a box full of live-blogging tools, I decided to produce a live and spontaneous Digital Travelogue Around Silicon Valley. Here are the highlights of my app-assisted road trip:

9 a.m.: I come into work to assemble my tools: Twitter and Facebook will be my main conduits for posting content. I’ll use Instagram to share photos and my iPhone 4S camera to do video interviews. I’ll use the Viddy video app to produce colorized 15-second clips. The SoundCloud app will let me bring the audio side of the Valley to my followers. And Foodspotting will help me share photos of whatever I put into my mouth.

After posting to my Twitter and Facebook followers the various handles I use for these apps, I post a Viddy clip of me fleeing the newsroom and heading for the exit. Driving downtown, I tweet that in a few minutes I’ll drop in on San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed (who, better to get Valley tips from?).

9:45 a.m.: Going up to the mayor’s office, I do a Viddy inside the elevator, videotape a Q&A with Reed on an 18th-floor balcony, post it while he waits, then do a SoundCloud clip of his top must-see places in San Jose.

10:10 a.m.: Using Diptic, I compile a photo collage of restaurant exteriors along San Pedro and post it to Instragram. I click shots of Togo’s headquarters and the nearby San Pedro Square sign, as well assorted street art.

10:40 a.m.: Up go Instagram shots of HP Pavilion and a driver’s-view Viddy of Santa Clara Street with a Linkin Park soundtrack. I walk around Plaza de Cesar Chavez and send up a SoundCloud clip of ambient noises and a quick video about the museums around me.

11 a.m.: I take a seat at a cafe outside Grand Century Mall in the heart of Little Saigon on Story Road, where I consult Foodspotting for nearby eateries (“fried quail at Saigon restaurant”) and upload a Viddy of a group of men stirring their Vietnamese iced coffees in a studied ritual. I do a quick iPhone-video interview of Eric, the cafe manager, and post pictures on Instragram.

11:30 a.m.: At nearby Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, I tape a quick interview of park publicist Vanessa Rogier, then post a SoundCloud audio of the little roller coaster, complete with screaming 5-year-olds.

1:15 p.m.: I head for nearby Chez Sovan, an under-the-radar Cambodian restaurant that should be on every visitor’s itinerary. From my table, I fire up Foodspotting, check in, and upload a photo of my steaming fish stew.

1:45 p.m.: On my way to Winchester Mystery House, I live-blog a bit about some of San Jose’s lovely neighborhoods. I do a driving video of Naglee Park, but somehow lose it in my iPhone by the time I get to Japantown. I do an Instagram collage of Jackson Street, then a short video interview with Rodney Takahashi inside his second-story classroom at Ukulele Jams.

2:35 p.m.: Outside Winchester Mystery House, I create a Viddy of the haunted mansion (“This Place Scared The Hell Out Of Me As A Kid” is the title I tweet), and then creep it up with a blood-red filter and eerie soundtrack.

3 p.m.: I videotape a bit of the fast lane on Interstate 280 from behind the wheel, explaining in a voice-over how freeways are such an integral part of the Silicon Valley Zeitgeist.

3:25 p.m.: I drop by the retail store at Apple (AAPL) headquarters, assuming security will make me turn off my iPhone as I walk in and videotape the merchandise. But the guardians of this ultra-secretive redoubt don’t seem to care. Later I realize the video won’t upload to Twitter. Maybe Apple DID figure out a way to thwart me.

4:15 p.m.: From Hedding Street, I wait for a plane to land at the San Jose’s airport. I post it with a voice-over, but it ends up upside-down when I click on it in Twitter. Was it Winchester or Apple that’s put a hex on me?

5:00 p.m.: Wandering an industrial wasteland near the Flea Market, I do one last Viddy of a bustling recycling center. I stop at a Mexican food truck, another Valley icon, and send up one last Instagram before and tweeting farewell to all those virtual “folks back home.”

Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689 or follow him at Twitter.com/patmaymerc