Help! One of Me, Dozens of Social Media Sites

I posted here yesterday about the landrush problem of social media, which is my phrase for what happens when user feedback systems are subverted by vendors seeding reviews.

Another social media trend that worries me is the proliferation of sites. How do I deal with all the different sites I’d like to join?

Currently, for me it’s Twitter first, then LinkedIn, and then Facebook. But I haven’t figured out what to do about LinkedIn connection requests from people I’ve never met, or Facebook friend requests from people who are business acquaintances. So that’s a problem.

But there’s a bigger problem brewing for me. I want to participate in another half dozen or so social media sites … but how? Do I log into each one to check messages? I’ve already joined a social network at Entrepreneur.com, and the Business Exchange for Business Week, and the American Express OPEN forum, and the new business.gov community site, and the SBDCNet community site too. And I like every one of them, but I don’t manage to log in and participate that much on any of them. And I don’t like the idea of having my tweets or updates from LinkedIn or Facebook automatically go anywhere. I have different kinds of information for the different sites.

And if that isn’t confusing enough, I’m enjoying the #ageop chat for 50-and-up people on Twitter every Thursday, which has led me to join the Growing Bolder social site; but I can’t seem to log on and respond to messages there. And I’ve got another social media membership for our local Eugene OR smartups business startup interest group.

Argghhh! What to do about all of them?

Comments

  • Kelly says:

    Tim,

    Exactly the quandary I’m in. I (think I) see the value, and I’d really like to be on Twitter, at the least, but between blogging and “real” work, I already have zero free time, so I sigh and accept that some parades must pass me by. Can’t give up t.v. for social media when I did that to write a blog 2 years ago, and yeesh, at some point I have to sleep and eat and see my kid.

    Heh. That’s not terribly helpful, is it? I feel your pain, is about all I can say!

    Regards,

    Kelly

  • Team The Rise To The Top says:

    Tim,

    All of these sites can be useful, but if you’re notable to utilize them to their full potential then what’s the point. I agree focus on the 2 to 3 sites that will yield the most positive result that you are searching for instead of using every single on but not being able to maximize their tools. Businesses can also hire interns who are interested in social media marketing to help get a handle on these sites. Good luck!

  • Strategic Growth Advisors says:

    Hey, Tim. This is one dilemma most active social media enthusiasts can easily relate to.

    In my point of view, I think that you can solve this by choosing only the best social media platforms that you believe can help you the most. Stick with 2 or 3 (or even 4, if you like) and you’re good to go.

    It doesn’t mean that you have to own an account in every social media site developed almost daily just to make your own niche.

  • Patty Reiser says:

    Social Media can be overwhelming. My thought process is to prioritize which ones I am involved with and which ones will give me the most ROI of my time.
    Wishing you a scent-sational day!
    Patty Reiser

  • John Caddell says:

    Tim, this one is easy–tell your colleagues at Palo Alto software to add support for these social networks into Email Center Pro. That way, you can deal with receiving and sending from all those networks with one interface, and integrate your communications from each sender, no matter if they use email, Facebook, Twitter, etc., or all of the above.

    I blogged about this a few weeks ago: http://caddellinsightgroup.com/blog2/2009/07/desperately-needed-a-killer-front-end-to-integrate-all-online-comms-channels/

    regards, John

  • CJ Boguszewski says:

    I saw @fredwilson post Tumblr yesterday and it looks like the most mesmerizing time-waster on the internet yet.

    I’m all for the benefits of entropy, but as you point out, Tim, this is a serious problem. What to do? Where to find stability?

    I, too, wish I had some answers…

  • Josh says:

    This is an issue I am working on as well. I’d love to here other’s thoughts as well. What I’ve found so far is that there are “dashboards” that you can use for the general social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) they allow you to see all your messages/updates in one place they also allow you to post your updates.

    For forums, many of them have RSS feeds I like to add them to my bookmark toolbar this way with one click I can get all the headlines and only visit the site when I have something to add.

    Along those lines many smaller networks have “Javascript bookmarklets” that let you share right from your browser. If they don’t you might be able to suggest it or read a few tutorials and build you own.

    Hope this helps,
    Josh

  • Dan Levine says:

    Tim, great question. Check out this from @harvardbiz — “Social Media is Fast, Cheap, and Easy. Well, Not Quite.” https://bit.ly/eLDKZ

    It’s incredibly time-consuming to be on 6 different sites — Tumblr, however, seems to combine the best qualities of Twitter and Facebook. Will be interesting to see if it takes off …

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