Narrowing Down My Networks
October 8th, 2008If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
You see the WTFMO widget on the side of my blog. It’s a scam. For a while there I was signing up for everything like a maniac. Not that that is a bad thing. It is good to stake your claim on a few social networks. In fact, I have heard it said you should, before an imposter pops in and claims your username before you can get it. Not that anyone would want to impersonate me, but it’s a nice pipe dream.
But it got to a point that there was just no way in hell that I could ever be active at every one of these sites, so eventually I had to pick some winners. And don’t get me wrong, these are temporary winners. I am very fickle when it comes to social sites and this list may be different a few months from now.
First I had to figure out what my purpose was in visiting and using these sites. I like the reciprocal effect. I like utility. And I like reading stories that aren’t the same stories I read a few days ago with a few points switched around. I also like new software and concepts of all types.
Digg, for the most part, just pisses me off. By the time you have 25 friends, your inbox is full daily. It is very impersonal. For the most part, here’s the game: Get as many friends as you can. Digg all of their stuff. Then call in your favors when you have your own stuff. It’s a lot of damn work and most of the categories are very vertical. The same type of stories rise to the top all the time despite the new categories. So Digg is kind of on my bad side right now.
I actually came back to Facebook after calling it a spam machine. I just learned to use it more effectively. So I make minor appearances there with some friends who only use it and of course, I find friends from other networks.
Mixx I am kind of checking out. I don’t get it yet and will have to spend some quality time there before I have an opinion.
Now for the networks I really use
If you really want to know what I am researching and even get the gist of upcoming posts before I write them, this is where you will find the most information. I use it as a research archive. When I went from browser bookmarks to delicious, it took a while for me to use tags rather than folders, but I never went back.
Of course. I made fun of this one to. “What are you doing?” “Typing an update.” For the most part, you just have to jump in, follow some people, and just go with the flow. You will get it eventually.
It is were I vent, ask questions that get a quicker response than a forum or even a search at times and notify my followers of the cool things. I also learn a lot from the people I follow. It is like a web shaped forum with post limits.
No friend spammer here. If you want to send something to someone else, you have to pick and choose. More real and less face in the crowd than Digg. And reciprocal stumbles happen a lot if you are in the right place at the right time.
I have heard a lot of people say that they like Twitter better or they like Friendfeed better. Apples and oranges people.
If you have someone whose opinion you respect, there is no better place to follow them than on Friendfeed because you get everything. Their tweets. Their stumbles. Their blog posts. Their diggs. All in a river format. It is faster and easier than a feed reader and it doesn’t slow down my computer like a feed reader can with a few hundred feeds.
And you can comment on or “like” any one of the items that happen to be in your river and join into conversations with other Friendfeed users. Like Twitter, it will take a while before you will “get it”.
I like this one and am not sure why. Maybe because it is new. Maybe just because I like it. One of the features I do like is the fact it does a pretty good job of categorizing your “clips” without you having to add tags or categories. And it pulls unclipped stories out of blue and brings those to you too based on your interests, giving you the chance to be first and lazy at the same time.
A lot of the users here are way above my head. This is where you will find science, web 3.0, philosophy, and a lot of other topics that it takes a few brain cells to understand. And some of the stories I have to read really slow just to barely scratch the surface of the new knowledge. But I like that. It is like a drug at times.
Okay, not a network but a way to send updates to many of the networks I don’t frequent that often. It can be abused. There is no point in spewing everything out over various networks. But I use it every now and then and actually check those various networks to see who bites and if I can get a conversation going.
The Tools
I wrote a post on tools a while back and have narrowed those down a bit too. The shiny, flashy ones for the most part only covered 1-4 networks at the most, but I still use a lot of the tools listed there. But for the most part I use two, that are very simple.
One is SocialAddict which is just a custom browser with links to most of the networks I visit. The other is a userscript that you can add to your Firefox or Flock browser. It is called FFWorkSpace and it loads other social sites inside of Friendfeed as shown below.
An awesome userscript.
So that’s where I’m at for now. Hope to see you there too.
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Category: Social Media | 
Tags: delicious, friendfeed, social median, Social network, stumbleupon, twine, Twitter | 
I did same thing like you. I join all the social networking sites. But now slowly I start to analyze which one is better and more effective to use. Thank you for you input.
It takes a while to choose. My first was StumbleUpon and some just don’t fit me.
Great post! I struggle with this same issue…what to join, what to drop. Then I just get too lazy to update my sidebar!
I’m interested in your thoughts on MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog. You have their widgets, but don’t mention them in your post.
I like them both for being able to see who came by for a visit and for spreading my reach. I also like the instantaneous stats that MyBlogLog has. But if Digg is a spam machine, MyBlogLog is the Spaminator3000. I built a lot of friends there and then they added the spam tools and I was out because there was just too much noise. I do visit the forums at BlogCatalog every now and then but the topics for the most part are a little like fast food. And I get a isolationist vibe from BlogCatalog. But that is just my opinion. Plus they won’t let one of my other blogs in and won’t explain why, so I may have some anger issues, LOL.
I also forgot Entrecard, which I use a lot, but really not in a community sense. It does help with traffic a bit and again, spreading the network of readers wider.
Yep, done that as well
I realized that I couldn´t possibly keep up with every site so I dumped most of them and nowadays have a few core sites that I use daily/weekly.(StumbleUpon, Twitter, Mixx, Propeller,MyBlogLog and Blogcatalog).
Damn it, you had to mention Propeller. I was interested in that site a while back and forgot. Off to check if I have an account. LOL.
I’ve been looking for a post like this. Seriously. Some I use. Some I will have to try. I do get a lot of DIGG spam but it also helps in getting the word out a lot. I just want to make sure I use networks that work more so than don’t work.
For the most part, I don’t see stories related to the one’s I write in my blogs getting anywhere near the top. So I am in a holding pattern at Digg.
Ah, yes, the social networks. Time suckers, for sure, and I’m still working with trying to figure out what’s working the best for my site.
It’s taking more time to keep up with all of the networks than it does to write, which is irritating. Still, without traffic you got gertz.
I’m nowhere near as active as I should be, and I’m thinking it might be more because of the Writer’s Isolation Syndrome then it is all the work involved getting involved — but, it’s a work in progress.
Thanks for the input — I’ll be checking some of these out.
The time is coming very soon when I will also need to narrow down my networks - there’s just not enough time in the day, and I need to figure out which are productive. That’s why the title of this post caught my eye in my feedreader.
However, rather than coming here and being inspired to cut down on my social networking, I am going away with some cool new networks I feel I must try out (oh, hi, hello Twine :D)
Thanks a lot!
*melanie
Yes, no doubt! That’s the smartest thing to do.
That is how big marketers are using google analytics and calculate their ROI and traffic stats, then they’re focusing on those providing the greatest results.
Just think pareto principle — 80/20 rule!
@Stephan: I agree about MBL and BlogCatalog. My biggest complaint with these communities (especially BC) is that anyone can add you as a friend without your approval. I totally agree with the first amendment and a person’s freedom to blog whatever they want. I don’t, however, want bloggers whose blogs I find objectionable listing me as a friend. And to clarify, it’s really hard for me to find content I find objectionable.
There have been 2 blogs that have fallen under this “category” at BC and both of them were professional enough to remove me from their friends list when I asked. Which actually made me revisit their blogs.
I wonder what in the world your other blog is about if even BC won’t approve it.
@netta
I always try to kill two birds will one stone. When I started at Stumbleupon years ago, I used to be a top stumbler. I didn’t aim for this. It just happened. I “liked” things I really liked and learned new things. Every time I focus on the ulterior motive of getting reciprocal stumbles, I miss out. But when I do it to learn, things happen. Find multiple uses for your networks and you can never go wrong. Ditch those that seem like time suckers, because they most likely are.
@Melanie
I know what you mean. I just rediscovered Propeller. The good thing about Twine, Friendfeed and Social Median is that you get a daily email digest of the best of the best. It does save a lot of time and when I don’t have much, I stick to the emails.
@Codrut
Plus preference is involved too. I do these things online because I enjoy them. Once the joy is gone, I should walk away.
@Web-Betty
It’s an affiliate marketing blog. Not really sure why it wasn’t approved.
I like social networks very much, beside we can do blogging , we can also make long time relationship with other blogger throught this networks
Damn Stephan, talk about “great minds” LOL, 2 days before this I posted on the same thing (me narrowing down).
I’d love it it you could leave your thoughts as well…
http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/knowledge-link-love-1-what-are-your-favorite-social-networks-and-why/
Lots of linky love there for ya, and of course your readers are invited as well
Sorry about the long link.
That’s OK.
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Your article is spot on with the number of social networks growing everyday it seems. What I’m looking forward to are better tools or sties that aggregate all the information from many of these sites. That way I can be “on” multiple sites yet only actually be on one main site. The day will come, hopefully soon.
It seems time lately has made me even trim down this list a bit to StumbleUpon and Social Median.
Digg can be very tricky sometimes, but in the other hand, its just the same like the link exchange. Its free, its legit, but its an exchange anyway. I think there’s a lot of benefit that we can get from the social network, but that will require an extra work
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