As I have worked on realizing my potential, I have spent a lot of time building up my social network. For those of you who don’t know, essentially social networking is your online footprint and who knows about you. You create a viral market for yourself by creating a value for something you bring to the table, be it good advice, an interesting picture, a useful or funny video. Some people simply use it to make themselves more marketable. In a job hunt, distinguishing yourself is key. Look into it, or read on….
There are many tools available to socially network. You can create accounts on facebook, twitter, digg, myspace (does it exist), youtube, flickr, etc. Making a webpage is relatively easy if you have some computer sense, and patience. There are so many of them out there, and knowing which one to sign up for is kind of difficult. Obviously it depends on what type of networking you would like to do. The more you have, the better off you will be.
However, as you “digg” yourself deeper into the social depths of the Internet, you will find yourself being pulled every which direction at every other second. For someone who holds a job, and has a normal life, it is relatively difficult to keep up to date on all social networks. One note of consolation is that when you use social networking, you can decrease the amount of “real” networking functions you must go to, thus saving time. Additionally, as you immerse yourself in the electronic world, things such as getting your news and keeping on track of tasks become much easier.
My case study: I have two websites, two Twitter accounts, four email accounts, Linked-In, and Facebook. Really there are two separate social profiles for me on the internet. One is a personal profile, and one is for my business interests. However, I manage them both on top of a full time job, and an active social life. So the question being, how do I do it?
Really, it is quite simple. I manage my time. That, and I have a Blackberry. The Blackberry allows me to check both twitters simultaneously using Ubertwitter and Twibble. Also, I can stay active on facebook using the Blackberry app as well. It actually helps me track birthdays and careers of friends without ever even opening the actual site. Facebook is really just for my friends. However, I am really not that into it. For my twitter accounts, I follow only people that I find say things that I value. I am not interested in you if you tell me what you are eating for dinner. In the same respect, I create value for others. I only broadcast things I find interesting, and I build a following that way. Linked in is actually kind of difficult because there is no REAL Blackberry app for it. Since I founded and run the Enterprise Rent-A-Car group, I spend a lot of time approving members and moderating. I find this a lot of fun, so it isn’t too time consuming. Creating my website were the most difficult part of all, as I had to learn a great deal of programming to get to the point I wanted. I only post to these sites when I have something valuable to offer as well. In addition, I have modified my social networks to only really keep close people who I find bring me value. I also save time by using RSS feeds to check my favorite sites. Apartment hunting has become an RSS feed of craigslist as well. On top of this, I manage my time electronically and can share my entire calendar quite easily. Of course, my calendar and my contacts are synced to google, which is also synced to my blackberry. All of this saves me a great deal of time.
Also, I only make postings when I have free time. I do a lot of work on the Elliptical using the Bberry. Also, after my experience at Enterprise, I have learned to do three things at once. Tweeting or checking various feeds while talking about something else on the phone has become quite natural. This helps me save a lot of time. I write blog posts at night after the gym.
Really – I have found that the key to social networking is to network with people that provide you value. If you are finding value in what you learn or who you meet, then its not really work is it? However, if you are looking to bring an impact to others, you had better be interesting….. ::YAWN::
If you have any more questions on how I do all of this, I am at your fingertips…..
Sam Diener
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