Notes from Nothing

Do you have a social networking strategy?

Better devise a strategy soon, else you’ll fritter away a lot of your time on social networks. Yesterday, I blogged about social networking tactics, in particular the habit of updating your status on social networks. Today, I happened to stumble upon a couple of posts on social networking strategy that is worth sharing.

Too many social networking sites
[Image Source: Shefaligur]

The Dissipation Strategy

Mike Gunderloy from Web Worker Daily, a productivity blog, asks his readers for their social networking strategy. Most readers don’t seem very particular and suggest that they dabble in quite a few. Take Roberto for e.g.:

I use clipmarks, twitter, facebook, linked-in and hi5 for social networking. I use each of them with different audiences in mind. For examply, hi5 is exclusively for close Spanish speaking friends and family, facebook for coworkers, non-Spanish speaking friends and more casual acquaintances.

Solution: “Social Networking Trinity”


[Image Source: Canon Snapper]

While that may work for some, I doubt they’ll be able to sustain their interest in a plethora of social networking sites for long. My strategy lies closer with this blog post that I read earlier today.

It’s the “perfect storm” for online social networking, isn’t it? You have a place to stay connected (and find) family and friends, a place to hang out that keeps you “in the loop” and a place to connect with those who can help propel your career forward.

While, Mitch doesn’t use Facebook I think he’s just broken down his usage into two kinds – social and professional and IMO the twain shall never meet. But this is far better than the long list of sites some of us try to manage.

Also, in my case, I’d replace MySpace with Twitter, since that’s what helps me to be “in the loop” so to speak, but otherwise this is a succinct definition of what your social networking strategy should be.

Given my personal affinity for LinkedIn (please read my job description on the right), let me leave you with Mitch’s definition of LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is all about building your professional stature. It’s all about making the right connections, so that your future can be brighter than your past.

LinkedIn is all about establishing initial contact, building that trust over time and being able to connect to those business people more effectively in the future.

Exactamundo!

What is YOUR social networking strategy?

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10

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  1. Burak

    In my opinion, there are some important facts about social networking.
    They keep collecting information in every detail they can.Privacy is beeing harrassed and damaged, and in the near future people can face with really serious problems… (not just simple spams, more serious than that)

    Check out this article what I mean is really clear :

    http://www.buraak.com/2008/09/16/is-your-information-safe-with-social-networks/

  2. Mario Sundar

    Well, I guess that explains a user id – wonkydonky.

    Anyhoo, look at it from the point of view of building a strong brand for yourself on the web. It’s inevitable trust me. More and more employers are going to search for you on the web during the hiring cycle for e.g.

    Sites like LinkedIn allow you to build that brand without spending much time, unlike a blog which is quite time intensive. Trust me on that one 🙂

  3. wonkydonkydotnet

    I worry about a lot of ~personal info being out there.
    ie: privacy?

  4. Mario Sundar

    @Joe,

    Glad to see you’re keeping up with past colleagues via LinkedIn. Answers is probably what you use mostly on LinkedIn.

    Twitter is increasingly become a must-join network for most techies but is giving us quite a hard time with all its technology woes.

    Feel free to follow and chat with me on Twitter.

  5. Joe

    I’ve found Twitter to be really helpful in keeping in touch with my techie friends. They’re the type of people who are hard to reach on the phone and are swamped in email. Yet, they update their Twitter feeds and respond right away to questions.

    Like the quote above, LinkedIn has been most useful to me for tips about new jobs and other opportunities. And for the schadenfreude of seeing what past colleagues are now up to 😉

  6. Social Networking to destroy email? « Marketing Nirvana

    […] networking early adopter (being the community evangelist at LinkedIn helps) and I’ve finally narrowed down my social networking choices to LinkedIn (d’uh!), Facebook and Twitter (with Friend Feed adding to this Inbox multiplicity […]

  7. Mario Sundar

    @Mitch, in which case you and I probably use MySpace and Twitter as our relevant networks to stay in the loop.

    Are you on Twitter?

  8. Mitch Joel – Twist Image

    thanks for the link. I actually use Facebook a ton… just not to connect to old friends from High School… but maybe I wasn’t that clear.

    That being said, feel free to connect 😉

  9. Mario Sundar

    Hi Susanna,

    Have I seen you on Twitter? Maybe?

    I believe a professional network (as Mitch rightly points out) is about

    “establishing initial contact, building that trust over time and being able to connect to those business people more effectively in the future.”

    And, I’d say that’s important for every professional on the planet.

    You may also want to check out my earlier post on how to find your dream job on the web: http://tinyurl.com/2aml5o

  10. Susanna Cesar Morton

    Hi Mario,

    Thanks for writing this.

    I am a fairly new user of social media, but have some up to speed very quickly in the past six months.

    I mainly use Linkedin (business) and facebook (friends) and recently started experimenting with Twitter.

    I was a skeptic about Twitter’s value at first, but you encapsulated it very well. It helps to keep you “in the know”.

    What most people have against social networking is that is can be a drain on your time. What is a sensible way to manage the time you spend networking?

    Like you, being on social networks is part of my job – but what if it isn’t?

    -Susanna

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