I was asked  "how do you manage your social networks?". This could be from a number of perspectives:

  • organizational
  • purpose
  • time management

Organizing them

This is probably the least of worries, but I’ll show you what I did with mine. When I switched jobs I totally reorganized my tabs in Flock (so I need to show them off!). Having them all in one place is very helpful & reminds me to visit. About once a week I trip thru them.

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Purpose

What is your purpose? Because our time is limited this is probably the all important question. Here are some of my reasons:

  • Relaxing & socializing is important. I have met so many awesome people by networking & gotten to know them on Twitter
  • Professional networking: Facebook & niche communities have taught me so much. Blogs are included in this list. Find high quality communities where you feel comfortable sharing information

* Remember that what you give is important if you expect to receive in return. PARTICIPATE! People wonder about my networking -  it’s easy – I’m actively involved. … possibly guilty of being a leader but the payoff is huge! Push yourself out of your comfort zone. What can you do?

  • Decide to add x people per week to your network – make sure that they’re interesting!
  • Participate weekly in your chosen networks (not just reading, but contributing)
    • soon it will become a habit (possibly addictive but you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll learn!)

Time Management

THIS is the crux of the matter. I have many articles on networking. And Beth Kanter has some great thoughts on it too.

I’m fairly self-disciplined & I must admit that with my job change this past week was a challenge. So here are some new ideas:

  • Organize your links like I suggested above – that will make it more task oriented
  • Turn off the microblogging sites when you’re working (you can breathe – I promise!)
    • it seems like a reward to pop in during breaks
  • try a service like ping.fm, hellotxt, blogit, minggl
    • I’ve been trying ping.fm (beta code is pingbewithyou)
      • I am updating at 11 sites in one click of a button
      • BUT, use it sparingly – I toss out a question or a specific thought
        • then go into Twitter, Plurk & Identi.ca & interact

Some Observations

What I’m noticing is that my friends are choosing one of those 3. Different people are responding at the different sites. I’ve also noted that I’m gaining Plurk friends from all walks of life whereas Twitter is very heavy on social media. Identi.ca is more on the geeky early adopter side too. Someone made the comment that Plurk has ‘normal’ people using it. (If you’ve tried it, you know that it’s a challenge to get used to it, so I’m not sure how normal I’d say they are! :)  )

Key take away – I haven’t decided on one platform. I know that I will be using LinkedIn more. I’m updating to LinkedIn now & getting a  response from that. *waving at Bill* I was never doing that before. So who knows who I’ll get to know better?

By the way, I find people’s updates intriguing. In Digsby (which is another post soon), I can see everyone’s updates when they’re signed in to Facebook. So that info sometimes causes me to reach out to people. I find it to be an interesting phenomenon.