I like this article, it was a nice and inspirational read! I think myself and other people should pay more attention to step 2, it would also make Twitter and similar services more useful in the long run.
MGWineGirl
· 6 months ago
GREAT advice! I struggle with #3, but you're right, I do have other important things to do... we all do. It's important to remain productive while we're consuming so much information or we'll just become really well-informed do-nothings. Also great points about focusing on the people and media that give you the most value - everything is not for everyone.
Most importantly on this list is Step 5 - "find the people who give you the most value — who share great info, who make you laugh, who inspire you, who give you great suggestions for improving, who help you on a regular basis, who you enjoy talking to." Even if you mismanage your time, or spread yourself all over the place, if you make meaningful connections they will inevitably become more valuable than the most efficient productivity! Laughter and inspiration are immeasurable, but your ROI is great! Thanks for these reminders, per usual we will pass them along to our clients.
Sara @ iGoMogul
Unconformity
· 6 months ago
that was interesting ..i didn't know about Digsby until now !
Mak McKeehan
· 6 months ago
Very true. Props on this post. I can't agree more. So many people, especially those in business, don't "have enough time" to get into social media. Its all about TIME MANAGEMENT. Quality things, a few times a day with key people: this is the secret to success with social media. We talk about this all the time.
Geeee
· 6 months ago
Very good article as usual & to the point ... now I'll work on my social plan .. thx for the great post & keep it up ;)
Bamboo Forest
· 6 months ago
I use twitter as my social media platform of choice. I think, possibly, you get the most bang for your bug with it.
Zee.
· 6 months ago
One of my favorite posts on Mashable for a long while
amki
· 6 months ago
More of the good advice and observations that we can expect from Zen and zenhabits. Much appreciation due and conveyed.
Kaye - SandwichINK
· 6 months ago
I LOVE Tweetdeck and highly recommend it. It makes Twitter way more interesting as well as easier! For my cell phone, I love Slandr! :)
techsupport
· 6 months ago
yes, I'm also like this article, it was a nice and inspirational read! I think myself and other people should pay more attention to step 2, it would also make Twitter and similar services more useful in the long run.
J.Chu | SuccessRevolution
· 6 months ago
Great advice.. I am new in blogging, and send most of my time in using social media. All the social media are new to me, and I felt so tired pushing myself to learn all in the short time.
Finally, I try to find the way to simplify my routine for that, list out 5 social media to do per day.
Allen Resha
· 6 months ago
Excellent wrote article. I am in the beginning stages of starting a marketing business that will rely solely on social media. This article is what i needed to read just before I went to bed. Food for thought.
Jay
· 6 months ago
Are you kidding? How to simplify your social media routine... Step 6 - Manage your time wisely. Wow... i wish i had a brain J.
wchingya
· 6 months ago
The main idea is to be smart, and organized with our social life, on or offline. To me the hardest part is to have dicipline in managing our schedules.Never ever multitask if you have an important dateline to meet. I learnt that the hardway though. Overall, I agree with the points given, now need to have another 6 more points to make sure I adhere to them --- Focus x6.
Great tips! Haven't tried Digsby yet, but going to look into it and perhaps increase my productivity.
Tom
Saundra Goldman
· 6 months ago
This was helpful, Leo. It seems obvious, but it's easy to get lost and difficult to stay focused. Thanks, as always.
Rod Claar
· 6 months ago
Great post! In this day of needing secure passwords, I keep a spreadsheet (in a secure online location) where I track my logins, passwords and the latest update and schedule for next update for each site or network. I look at it each day and follow my plan.
Very nice article! I totally agree with Steps 5 and 3. Social Media can be a real time-waster if you try to read everything or keep up with too many relationships. Great advice!
Neon
· 6 months ago
I felt I had to comment. Digsby sucks. Really badly. For what it does it's a complete resource hog. Unless you are dedicated to checking all your online activity every 5 minutes the wedge of ram and cpu it uses could be put to far better uses.
Steven Burda
· 6 months ago
Thanks!
- Steven Burda
P.S. Do check out my all-in-one profile: http://whywebpr.com/burda (Presskit designed by Richter10.2 Media Group)
Chris Ballance
· 6 months ago
Good article Leo. I appreciated the reminder that "you can't read everything," as this is very true and easy to forget.
rowiro
· 6 months ago
Very well put! I actually look forward to the release of Digsby on Mac. I strongly believe that step 2 needs to be emphasized by all of us! Always room for improvement....
creativeblogs
· 6 months ago
New technology=competition for our time. Remember when email felt overwhelming? These are great tips. Q: How can you use social media to SAVE you time?
mark
· 6 months ago
We created NutshellMail.com to address this exact problem. NutshellMail is a free service that sends you a consolidated email digest of all your social networking activity on a schedule you choose. Instead of receiving a lot of one-off email alerts from Facebook, Twitter, etc....NutshellMail sends you all the info in an easy-to-read and interactive email. In addition, you can update your Facebook and MySpace status through email. Twitter users can send tweets, dms, @replies and even follow or unfollow tweeple through email. NutshellMail also updates you on new messages from your secondary email accounts.
Our mission is to keep you engaged and productive at the same time. NutshellMail is free. To learn more, check out http://nutshellmail.com
Anne Marsden
· 6 months ago
Great points. I'd add "Keep it in perspective" Social Media should be tools to enhance and expand relationships - not a substitute for real, meaningful ones.
Eric Tsai
· 6 months ago
I totally agreed! I've been testing most of the popular ones in a week or two then focus on the most effective ones. Try to use an "All-in-One" tool would be the best way to reduce time and look for automation tools to aggregate data and information. For example I use tweetlater to get all my tweets in in a short time and don't have to actually tweet for the entire day, get your "high-impact" focused message ready and follow the 80/20 rule!
MLDina
· 6 months ago
Social media is pretty new, so it's hard to find the right balance and find initial value. You don't want to spend all day on it, but you do need to set aside time to interact with people to find value. Make it a part of your routine, just not the whole routine!
jimgray69
· 6 months ago
I really needed this article right now. Just a bit of guidance goes a long ways.
Rich_Weaver
· 6 months ago
Very nice! I read as much Mashable feeds as I can because you guys always know what your talking about. Mashable is even my RSS feed on several of the Twitter accounts here at the office. Keep up the great work. Mucha appreciated form an ole Okie boy!
elizahleigh
· 6 months ago
You have NO IDEA how handy and timely this article is for me...I've been teetering on the edge of social media madness for the better part of two weeks, just trying to make sense of it all. Clearly, I've been a late bloomer -- I knew nothing of this wacko world back in April and somehow seemed a little more zenlike. Now, my nerves are frazzled and my retinas are burned out and yet I want MORE MORE MORRRRREEE!!! The amusing part of it all is that my new addiction spawned a little article called: Top 5 Reasons Why Being A Twitterin' Junkie Is Not Green.
If anyone wants to take a peek and offer me their perspective on how social media has radically changed their life for the better (or worse), please feel free to comment on it!!
Great list. The only issue I have is with #2 When you talk about "high impact statements"...I understand the intent here, but it may be useful for your readers to add that not every tweet needs to be groundbreaking, include an amazing article, or share breaking news. I think too many people (myself included) get into a situation where they want to be as witty, cool, and current as they can possibly be. They forget that while these tools are great to spread information and aggregate content, they're also for human connection. This connection come from eliciting emotion in people. I find that many of my tweets that end up being re-tweeted have NOTHING to do with Social Media, and everything to do with life, however mundane. We don't want to get caught in a "link bot" scenario where everyone is just passing each other links to great Mashable posts :-) - thanks Chris Dessi chris@buddymedia.com @cdessi
web design and development
· 6 months ago
It's very nice
Daulton West, Jr.
· 6 months ago
Good "best practice" tip for those who post too many messages - it's about quality, not quantity. "Less is more" in these cases. I've also stopped following people because they jammed up my inbox with way too many messages. My rule of thumb, before you send that message, think "so what", and if it doesn't add value, maybe you don't need to send it.
my_favorite_estore
· 6 months ago
Social Media helps us shrink the world. Thereby creating a space to breathe, think, and relax. When the enormity of the world and our busyness shrinks away, we begin to see a clear path to a better way of life. A life of joy with our families and friends. A simplified life wherein we can find peace, health, and yes even success without trading away our sacred time.
Your steps are a wonderful way for us to begin. They are a map for the future. And their simplicity proves the point that placing value on our family and ourselves first is not only possible...it can be genuinely easy as well.
Do-It-For-Me Web 2.0
· 6 months ago
You may also want to interconnect your social media accounts, you can hire services that implement all this for you so you don't do a thing but enjoy your social networking, see my website here: http://cipriangherghescu.org.
gavin
· 6 months ago
Nice post from Leo. It's so easy to get sucked into social media without some clear goals and schedules. Twitter quickly becomes a distraction addiction without some boundaries.
Michael Litman
· 6 months ago
Oauth twitter commenting is super cool!
Voice Over
· 6 months ago
Loved this article! As a voice talent, I try to effectively use social media every day! Thanks for writing this article. :)
AskJamesHolmes
· 6 months ago
Leo - Very sound and sensible advice, it is easy to get trapped in your own social media web. By following your advice one can manage their social network effectively and deliver value for others.
Love the quote that "you just can't consume all of the information coming at you---it's like trying to drink water from a firehose." It's how I feel everyday...
prayerthegate
· 6 months ago
This is great info. I am new to social networking and feel like it is eating up some valuable time. I want to do it and be effective. But, as you say, there are folks who tweet 40 times a day and I block them out. Thanks for some valuable insights.
allruiz
· 6 months ago
Step 2 makes a great point... twitter in not an IRC channel
Kris Miller
· 6 months ago
Thank you for taking the time to write this. Social Media can become very overwhelming at times as we all begin to feel a panic about getting involved. I highly agree with your comment about using simple tools to help simplify the experience. We are working on a program that will do everything iGoogle (gmail), Digsby, Tweet Deck, etc. do and more with everything built around the contact. Programs that can help simplify the social media experience and help get more out of the contacts made there are going to be key as we move further into the use of this space for business. If anyone is interested we are releasing a beta version of My ReMa in June and are looking for testers. To register go to www.myrema.com and put in code 002.
Erika Lemay
· 6 months ago
Great advices and clear reality. Thank you for having taken the time to share that with us.
Very true article. The bottom line is Social Media is still in its infancy. The "best practices" for it are still growing and changing but its good to know as this article points out: common sense does still apply :)
Syvella Brantley
· 3 months ago
What a great post. My biggest struggle is #6 since my business relies on me be online about 9 hours a day but I do try to take 30minute breaks.
All Comments
keep it up
Cashflowdeals
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Sara @ iGoMogul
I am new in blogging, and send most of my time in using social media.
All the social media are new to me, and I felt so tired pushing myself to learn all in the short time.
Finally, I try to find the way to simplify my routine for that, list out 5 social media to do per day.
J.
@wchingya
Social Media/Blogging
Louise OPL
Tom
Rod Claar
http://www.EffectiveAgileDev.com
- Steven Burda
P.S. Do check out my all-in-one profile: http://whywebpr.com/burda (Presskit designed by Richter10.2 Media Group)
Our mission is to keep you engaged and productive at the same time. NutshellMail is free. To learn more, check out http://nutshellmail.com
If anyone wants to take a peek and offer me their perspective on how social media has radically changed their life for the better (or worse), please feel free to comment on it!!
Just paste this address in your browser -- I promise, it'll be worth it!! http://www.greenwala.com/my_blog/867-Top-5-Reas...
Your steps are a wonderful way for us to begin. They are a map for the future. And their simplicity proves the point that placing value on our family and ourselves first is not only possible...it can be genuinely easy as well.
Great post!
James
http://twitter.com/AskJamesHolmes
Thank you for having taken the time to share that with us.
Artistically Yours,
Erika Lemay
www.erikalemay.com
http://www.facebookster.com