Social networking has become a necessary evil for most of the people I know. Some love it, some do it because their friends and business contacts expect them to show up on the popular sites. For those of us on multiple sites, the question is how to keep up gracefully.
I read the other day there are more than 400 social networks but I imagine the number is outdated. There are the big general networks like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, as well as specialized sites aimed at specific demographics, geographies, special interests, etc.
Most of my contacts maintain a presence on some combination of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Some are also active on Plaxo or Naymz. I can’t speak for the rest because I’ve had to draw a line in the sand myself. You can find me on the five I just mentioned.
The big question is this: Is it better to post something specific to a network or use a tool that automatically posts the same content to all? I and some of my pals post different things to different sites because the audiences differ. In my case it’s also a social experiment to see what people react to.
Others pals are simultaneously posting the same content to different networks which is faster and more efficient. It may also have a downside: A friend of mine posted pictures to Facebook which showed up as a newsfeed. Immediately following that was a newsfeed that read, “John Doe just posted photos to Facebook.” Yeah, we know already.
I also wonder what the tune-out factor is if the same stuff is posted across different networks. So long as there isn’t substantial overlap in audiences it’s probably OK. OTOH, as personal networks grow, who’s going to take the time to compare lists (assuming there’s no centralized buddy list)? And if you look at content syndication in general the same exact stuff from a common source, including news, is showing up everywhere.
Increasingly, I’m seeing more people move toward the one-post-to-many networks model because it’s more efficient regardless of the content redundancy. Defiant by nature, I’m sticking to the different-postings-to-different networks model until I reach the point where resistance is futile. Besides, I’m not finished with my social experiment just yet.
The Rainmaker 