Social Networking Overload
Read more about: Balancing Business, Freelance Business, Freelance Networking
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I have a confession to make. I haven’t been reading your blog lately. Yes, I’m talking to you. I haven’t been reading your blog, and I feel incredibly guilty about it.
The fact of the matter is that I currently subscribe to 79 blogs. In addition, I have four of my own (with a fifth about to start), not counting the ones I write for clients. I haven’t even visited most of the new blogs on our very own Sparkplugging network, and that’s just shameful.
There’s also MySpace. And AIM. And Twitter. And LinkedIn. And Technorati. And Work It Mom! And StumbleUpon. And I really, really want a Facebook account because all of my college friends are on there. I also have four email addresses that I use on a fairly regular basis. (I have to keep coming back and adding more to this list, like LiveJounal and Yahoo Meetups and Sk*rt - which is now called kirtsy - and I haven’t even included ones I don’t use, like Digg.)
It’s just too much.
I used to love to spend time surfing around a few of my favorite blogs, leaving comments here and there. But I haven’t been able to do that for a while now. While I have been busy with work and the baby, part of it is just that I’ve been overwhelmed. I don’t know how to fit all of this social networking in with the other stuff I need to do for my business.
I suspect that I’ve actually hurt my business to some degree. I’ve been spread too thin and tried to pay attention to too many things. I’ve lost connections I’d made in the past by working to make new ones. That seems a little ridiculous now that I’ve typed it out.
So, I’m starting over. I’m going to go delete all but a handful of blogs out of my Google Reader. I’m going to pick a few and get back to interacting with those people. I’m going to let go of the guilt I have over the 900+ unread items and just wipe the slate clean.
As for the MySpace/AIM/Twitter/LinkedIn/Technorati/Work It Mom!/StumbleUpon/Facebook/email conundrum, I’m not sure what to do there. It makes sense for me to read blogs in a variety of niches, because I have blogs in a variety of niches, but this is getting a little crazy. If my job was just to network, I might have enough time in a day; but my job is actually to find and write for clients. There’s a subtle but important difference there.
I know a lot of you folks have these various accounts, and I’m curious as to how you deal with them. Any suggestions?
Christina Lemmey is the mother of two school-aged girls, a wife, and the owner of 
I feel like I could have written this post myself. With Root & Sprout requiring so much of my time, not to mention needing to look for another freelance assignment, my personal blog has been suffering. Truth be told, I feel like I’m starting to outgrow blogging (but not reading blogs!) However, I also feel like I need my blog to promote Root & Sprout. I’m using my upcoming vacation to do some heavy-duty pondering.
Sigh.
I belong to just a few social networks. You’re right - it does become overwhelming very quickly. There comes a point when you have to say enough is enough, and then do some weeding.
I don’t blame you at all. I totally understand how it can all this social media can be overwhelming. I kept up with reading blogs until late 2006, but I just didn’t have the time, come 2007. It can be really time consuming. And now, I’ve created a blog for my business, which sucks up most of the blogging time I allow myself. I changed blog reader (from Bloglines to Google Reader) and went through, this morning actually, and purged several blogs.
I was never much for Twitter, but I’ve got all these people that have started following me, so I tweet occasionally. I only log into Myspace and Facebook when someone sends a message, and I’ve had to cut back on the time I spend in the LinkedIn Q&A section. A lot of social media is great, I just don’t have the kind of schedule that lets me spend hours a day on these sites.
I focus on my new blog first, tweet an update if something interesting happens (unlike friends, who tweet that they can’t figure out what kind of ice cream to get). Spend one to two hours reading interesting blogs (spread throughout the day), and visit LinkedIn if I have time time.
Do what you gotta do! Figure out what’s bringing you the most value and personal satisfaction.
Alaia Williamss last blog post..Six Ways to Simplify
It is very difficult to keep up with all that reading and social networking! I try to focus on activities that help me reach out to clients or build communities with other writers and freelancers.
Blog reading and commenting definitely ranks high. I try to keep my subscriptions to about 50 or less and that seems to be a manageable number though I definitely don’t comment on all of them!
Melissa Donovans last blog post..Link Love Mad Libs Writing Exercise for Bloggers
@Lis - Weeding. Check!
@Melissa - Less than 50 subscriptions. Check!
@Alaia - Prioritize. Um. Working on it?
Thanks for the suggestions so far. It’s good to know I’m not the only one, and I really do want to know how other people are managing this.
Have you heard of the book “the 4 hour work week”? I haven’t, but i hear lots of raving about it in the blogosphere and how much it’s improved everyone’s productivity and ability to get through this stuff quickly. Also, there are a lot of sites (blogs) that deal with this too Lifehack and ZenHabits would be goode places to check out, even if you are trying to get rid of blogs
Ameyas last blog post..Personal Finance Checkup - What is your Net Worth?
OK. Were you reading my mind! I’m still trying to survive web2.0 and navigate proficiently!.
Good post.
Strong Ones last blog post..WOO HOO! I Did It! (I think)
@Ameya - I have heard of it. The impression I got was that it had a lot to do with hiring people to do stuff for you. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Although, that does cost money and all . . .
@Strong One - Yep, totally reading your mind. OK, not really; but I’m discovering that a lot of people feel the same way I do.
Lorna - That’s true, i forgot about that, but I think it also has more than that in there. If nothing else, those blogs might be useful. =)
Ameyas last blog post..Personal Finance Checkup - What is your Net Worth?
THe thing is– do you really socialize with potential clients? Or is it fellow writers? Only ONE of my soc netwroking outlets is mostly clients. THe rest is other writers. What’s the point of socializing with other writers? Well, you get tips. You get camaraderie. You don’t get lonely. You may get an overload client schlepped to you once in a while. You might get a recommendation….(I recently gave ya one of those
I mean, who are you REALLY networking with and WHY?
See, I guess, because of About.com, I have to do BOTH. I have to be known and reach out to other writers….
I guess what I am babbling about is to know your PURPOSE for social networking and keep it in mind when you undertake your social networking reorg.
When you have to work as well as blog, that´s when it gets complicated.
Here´s how I deal:
I check my email first thing in the morning and deal with any important issues immediately, getting them off my plate. For At Home Mom, I do this just once a day, and for my freelance writing account, I also check it at night, so I can get back to potential clients rapidly.
I only use social networks that are related to my blogs and/or don´t require constant monitoring. Twitter is out, though I like the concept. It´s just too distracting and you could easily spend all day there! Instead, I use StumbleUpon, Facebook, and also hang out at WorkIt, Mom! Each of these takes 5-10 min. a day and keeps a presence going.
When it comes to blogs, I have them very carefully organized into categories in Google Reader. There are certain categories (blogging, freelance jobs) that I read daily and others that I catch up on when I have a bit of downtime.And I purge once every month or two, since I often add an interesting blog to my reader just to monitor if it will stay interesting.
I think commenting on blogs is very useful, so I try to do at least 5 comments a day, which is not really a lot and doesn´t take much time. As I read in my feed reader, I open the blog posts I´m interested in commenting on in a new tab (Firefox) and at the end, go through and comment on all the ones I´ve opened.
Usually at the end of the day, I will scan job boards for work if I need it and apply for jobs at that point, taking only about 10 min. When you stay on top of it, you can get through stuff quickly.
Hope that helps!
Genesiss last blog post..Recognizing a Work at Home Scam
@Allena - I was sort of thinking the same way. I have one client on Twitter, and the others are all colleagues.
@Genesis - Thanks for really breaking your method down for me. That’s very helpful.
I must say that I have experienced the same situation too and I have to schedule in my social networking time. There are new social networking sites that will allow you to update your status on all of your social network sites at the same time. I do not use digg.com or stumbleupon.com very often however I do need to setup a time to do this. Thank you for the reminder.
Nicoles last blog post..Why Are You in Debt?–Part II