Looking at the top of my computer screen, I currently have eight tabs open: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calender, the Blogger dashboard, two tabs for Facebook (home page, one group page), a Google search page and a forum. I have Tweetdeck (old version) ticking away at the bottom of the screen and I’m listening to some music via Spotify. That’s what I call “managing my social network” – having it all open at the same time. The problem is that I am on major overload for at least three hours of each evening and I am my own worst enemy but my system suits me. As bloggers we can become so reliant on our social network that it becomes just as important as Real Life so time management is necessary. Here are my five recommendations for managing your social network.
- Facebook: Be friends with everyone but subscribe to a chosen few. Hover over someone’s name and a profile box will appear. Move your cursor over to the “subscribe” button and a new menu will show. Limit their updates or unsubscribe all together. You only see what you choose to see and they are still your “friend”.
- Twitter: Use a third party viewing application that ‘flattens’ twitter so you can see all of the columns and more. Until the recent updates I would have recommended Tweetdeck but the new version isn’t performing to its full potential and still feels as though it is in trial mode. Other suggestions would be Hootsuite or Seesmic but Echofon is also good for live scrolling.
- Email: If you have more than one email address (well, which blogger gives out their regular email address?) use a system that allows you to import all your accounts into one stream. My current favourite is Gmail as you can set it up to import all messages from all accounts (I’m currently running three main email addresses) and my reply always comes from the address it was sent to even though I view them all on one screen
- Blog: Be strict with the time you spend blogging. If you feel you are full of ideas then start some draft posts or make a list of ideas in a notebook. Unless it is absolutely current and imperative that you post right now, save the idea for the week that you have the dreaded Blogger’s Block. Because it will arrive… it happens to everyone at some point or another.
- Time Out: Social networking is famous for ticking away 24/7. It will be there whilst you take a break (five minutes, five hours, five days, whatever) and people will remember you. It’s not a competition to see who can spend the most hours a day being ‘available’. Subscribe to blogs and forum updates by email and spend a leisurely half hour reading through the new entries, deleting those that you don’t need to bother with (gone forever, just like that) and only clicking through to the ones that you really want to comment on.
How do you manage your social networking? Do you limit yourself to certain timescale each day or are you permanently switched on with your laptop/phone/iPad? Do you find it easy or difficult to walk away from your online life?
I love how, at the end of this blog there is an option to share on Facebook, Twitter or email haha. Anyway, I don’t manage my time very well, I’m an addict!
Of course there’s a way to share this post. I insisted upon it!!
And this may very well be a case of “Do as I say, not as I do”.
It is a juggle and my time management is bad in fact right this very moment I am supposed to be working (joys of being own boss!) and yes I have got side tracked.
One of my worse stresses with all of this is also I don’t have time to comment on lots of blogs. I love to write comments it is just finding the time, and comments like that fab or wow is just not me.
Point proven with this long comment another task I need to tackle :-/
I’m finding it hard to comment on all the blogs at the moment so I tend to scroll through in my Google Reader and click through to the ones that catch my eye. I do enjoy receiving comments via twitter or facebook though. It’s all interaction at the end of the day and you have to work with what’s convenient.
Yet to master the google reader thingy (!) so I am a old fashioned girl and have my favourites via email though now tend to see it turn up in my Face book or twiiter feeds before which has it’s plus points that I not the last at the party to comment!!!
This is a really useful post for me.
For a start, I need to concentrate on improving my FB use, and this is an excellent tip to get me going.
Re Twitter, I keep trying different sites but I keep returning to the regular page because none seem to work as well for whatever reason. I need to spend time on that as well, obviously!
I had no idea I could stream all my emails into gmail. That will be HUGELY helpful.
Excellent tips on blogging. I do need to focus my time there–treat it as a specified time slot perhaps and then close the laptop and walk away.
Time Out is an excellent tip as well!
I have recently discovered the benefit of having Twitter on in the background while I am working on my blog. Then I can have half an hour chat with people on Twitter, send up a link from my blog, RT a few people and I’m done for the day.
Until the sort out new tweetdeck there is no way I’m getting rid of the old Air version. i’m still waiting for the #newnewtwitter web version which looks like it could be good – very similar to the way Echofon works I think.
I don’t have a strict schedule, nor am I constantly attached. I try to have a sit down on the computer each day as I really enjoy it, but I have to fit that around whatever else I’m supposed to be doing.
Unless I really don’t want to be doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and then my social networks become the perfect excuse to procrastinate!
I think priorities are different depending on our personal/work time constraints and how old our children are. I would never have had as much time to spend sat on the laptop if my children were younger.
I’ve lost so many hours “procrastinating” on my social network – I darent’ count them up!
Really great tips! I am so useless with technology have not started on twitter yet. And I just do Facebook twice a week when I do a blog post. I only FB twice a week because I don’t want to “bother” my FB friends. My 14 year old son says I would get a lot more comments on FB posts if I FB posted more about my everyday life without it just being about my blog posts. This must be true because next day I simply posted a pic of my son and got loads of comments. I do find it a time suck though and exhausting in a weird way…Good tips on your part about not letting it become 24-7
Glad you like the tips
I think you have to use social media (fb, twitter, etc) in the way that works for you – if what you’re doing at the moment is all good then stick with it. If it’s not working then experiment with something else. But yeah, it’s all a time-suck and it’s a bit of a drug.