To prevent social networking overload, you first have to know why you’re engaging in it at all and what it can do for you.  Secondly, you have to avail yourself of the top ones out there and narrow them down to actively participate in the two to three sites you’ll create a profile on, that best suit your needs.  Since this is both a life balance issue and a career and business development choice, I’m writing on this to share a few things I’ve learned:

1.  If you’re wondering if it’s worth it, it depends on your need to be in touch with others and build a “network” or community, make the right connections, and be productive with your time.  A recent article in Computer World said that “more than half of all adult Internet users in the United States either visit or maintain a profile on at least one social networking site.”  

2.  What kind of site should you join?  First, decide if you want to connect with others for personal or business needs.  If you want pure “social” networking – that is, an online community for fun and enjoyment then I’d advise that you look into sites like MySpace and Facebook.  MySpace tends to attract a creative crowd and often a younger crowd.  Facebook is both for pleasure and business by a wide-range of users.  For sheer fun it has lots of applications, games, etc. you can play with your friends there as well as upload favorite photos to share, a good way to stay in touch with computer savvy family and friends.  

3.  Linkedin is still considered best for business and I use both that and Facebook for that purpose.  Mostly because currently Twitter (which I use twice a day, M-F), only links with Facebook and I happened to start with both Li and FB simultaneously to be able to gauge where I’m getting the best results for referrals and potential client interest and both have proven moderately beneficial.  My decision to Twitter was based on my availability to send messsages quickly and have them be value-added alerts, updates or offerings that could reach a wide audience.  I’m still in the investigative and learning phase with this in terms of my ROR and while high-profile people in every industry use it for news alerts, my view is that if you’re not looking to build your business, then you don’t need to use Twitter.

4.  Even if you have a Linkedin and Facebook (fan or friend’s page) that you use predominately for business, video is a marketing medium that is gaining popularity and these sites are learning to take advantage of it, which is another reason to use them for business.   (Additionally have video at your website and at a linked site with the .tv extension).   Facebook is a bit easier to understand video uploads.  Click here to find out how to add video to Linkedin. 

5.  The Google-owned YouTube site, while originally a fun, quirky way to post and view videos, is now becoming a top contender for business-related videos too.  In the UK its users have already surpassed usage of the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.  Dot com sites like Onetruemedia,  Animoto, JayCut and Shwup help you easily create video with background templates and music for free and even without using a camcorder.  You can be coached by experts like Lou Bortone of onlinevideobranding to walk you through all of this at a very reasonable fee.

6.  Consider your primary business site and spend more time creating a presence there, joining a few groups to interact with.  There’s no harm in listing yourself on several social networking sites to increase your search engine visibility, but it’s not necessary to do all of them.  I would, however, recommend you have a Google profile page.  Note the degree of sophistication or complexity you’re hoping to accomplish with your listings and that can also help you determine which sites you want to be involved with.

7.  Wikipedia has a large listing of all of the sites if you actually want to take the time to look up ones you’ve heard about or learn about new ones, though they don’t do more than give a vague description, i.e. Facebook is considered “General” and LinkedIn is considered “General, but mainly business.”  Top Ten Reviews  rates and compares a few sites with more detail. 

8.  This article from MSNBC.msn.com reiterates some of what I’ve said here, so you might want a quick read of it as well.

Finally, security is still something to be concerned with.  Your smartest approach with any online participation, is always to be sure your spam protector is current and working well and always back up your computer regularly in case you contract a virus and it destroys some documents or renders your computer useless for awhile.  You can still take your back up device and use it on another computer.  Even though these mega sites are considered secure,  Twitter has recently gone down a few times and Facebook has been hacked.  You can’t be sure that every site you click to through these sites is protected.  See one such article on this topic from Times online magazine.

Please feel free to leave your comments or additional suggestions for other readers at the CreatingAtWill.com blog page.  Happy social networking!

Tags: best social network choices, life balance, social networking overwhelm

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Career Tips, Time Management, Women Entrepreneurs, Women Managers, Women Returning to the Workforce, Re Careering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.