Spend Much Time On Social Networking?
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Only recently I posted about how to use Facebook effectively. In that post I indicated that there are too many features that are distracting and take up too much of my time.
The same applies to other social networking platforms.
Mind you, they’re all great to build a network and I certainly recommend using them. I’ll even go one step further: I invite you to add me to your social networks at
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Send me a message, so I know who you are or where you’re coming from.
Let’s make this agreement: we can have a (virtual) coffee together and chat or communicate about improving each others online efforts and everything that comes with it, but we will not waste each other’s time using gimmicks, ok?
So, how do you avoid spending too much time on social networking?
I could write a few things about it, but I’d rather have other people, who apparently experienced the same, talk about it.
My friend Dr. Mani just published a great post at his blog entitled: Don’t Waste Time On Social Networking!
Daniel Socco and his team wrote a great post about 8 addictive habits of bloggers that take up too much time. I sure can relate to them as I too have personally struggled with each of these at some point. Daniel show you how you can get rid of them
And here’s a great video post from Ed Dale about Why I Don’t Follow Many People On Twitter - I choose to follow EVERYONE!
Let me add my personal best time saver. It’s not about social networking per se, but has to do with it.
It’s about email and reading hundreds of messages each day.
A few months ago, my domain was used to send out a mass mailing.
Of course I didn’t want that to happen again, so I deleted most mail boxes at my domain -I just kept a few with rather unknown names to continue earning money- and unsubscribed from all newsletters.
I then used my Gmail account to re-subscribe to newsletters that I absolutely didn’t want to miss, skipping hundreds of others, thus decreasing the number of incoming messages.
Gmail allows you to label all incoming emails and archive a lot of them for later reading. I love that feature and go through my labels once every week to see what’s interesting and what can be deleted.
Handling my email in this way saved me a lot of time.
Some of these labels are for social networking platforms where I keep messages that I may need later.
It makes a great archive.
So, how about you?
Do you spend a lot or too much time networking?
Post your comments below.
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April 15th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Have you heard about Nancy Marmelejo and her Viva Visability website? Nancy was a guest a few weeks ago on my Get More Business Podcast. She has a great e-book out called, “How to make MySpace Your Space” She made some excellent points on my show about being really strategic with your social networking.
Great idea on how to use gmail with the labels for archiving emails.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Great post! My wife is oft heard complaining that I am wasting too much time on these things, its easy to do.
I will differ from you on one point though, some of those useless and time consuming apps can really be quite good, allowing you to connect with new people with similar interests, and providing one more way to stay in touch - like the wall variants. Everyone on facebook has a wall, but then there’s super wall, fun wall etc. Or the books applications, allowing you to check out what your friends are reading, and connect on a new topic.
Most are a waste of time, but there are some gems out there.
P.S. Will take you up on the online coffee offer
April 15th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I’ve been trying to spend less time doing it. I think, if you’re not careful, you can spend a lot of time on it and pretend that you are working. But I do enjoy twittering!
April 17th, 2008 at 4:43 am
@Melody Give us the link and I’ll put it in your comments
@CS Thompson Actually Cameron, we do not differ that much, because I agree that you should use all features that are beneficial to you. And as Dr. Mani wrote in his post, if that means you’ll be busy all day with them, so be it. If that works, ok. But the message is to be alert not to waste any time with fancy features that aren’t beneficial.
@Courtney Although time-consuming, Twitter is very nice. I followed you until you protected your updates. Just performed a search and requested a follow again. We’ll meet in there!
April 17th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Very GREAT!!!
Really socialnetworking/marketing website has made my business in real. Through social networking websites, i get a lot of relevant traffic and earn a lot of click on adsense so much.Thanks for updating such type of information. Thanks again.
April 21st, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Good post, I believe it is real easy to get hung-up on the social networks and spend way too much time there.
I think that is why the micro-blogging sites are growing so fast, the messages are short and time is therefore limited.
Pugsley
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
It is so true that when you start going through all the social networking sites - and trying to figure it all out - you can find the day gone before you know it!
That is why - it is important to figure out a marketing plan that is customized specifically for what you are trying to accomplish…
The challenge is developing the marketing strategy that is right for you and your type of business - customizing it … and then not getting sucked into the 9 zillion things that are not going to get you when you want to go…
Focus, Focus, Focus
Easier said than done!!
Pamela…
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:08 pm
There’s been a debate of late over how radio advertising like these chaps, fits in with internet marketing - in that opposed to TV and print, it can actually be consumed alongside internet use. A complimentary medium. Any thoughts?
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
My belief is that you need both internet marketing and traditional marketing.
But again that depends on your business. IF you are a business that is in a state or city that is especially true of an actual brick and mortar store…
Pamela
April 24th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Being successful online means having offline marketing along with online. There is no exact formula to combine these efforts but you must analyze your customer’s demographics and how to reach them
April 25th, 2008 at 7:53 am
If you want to make money online, it seems that social marketing is not the way to go. I want search engine traffic and not fellow bloggers. Just my opinion though.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:05 am
@Sam Thousands of marketers prove each day that you can make money and build a nice network of affiliates and JV partners.
@Pamela & Kevin Absolutely. When you start out, you can concentrate on one, but once running, you have to add other marketing strategies.
@Mark I think it’s going to stay. People test it, with success I guess.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Great post! Very helpful tips.. especially the gmail ones. I don’t regularly use the labels but I now see a really good reason to! Thanks so much!