Are we overdosing on social media?

Social networking is the big buzz but sometimes it's just a big headache.

I signed up for Facebook perhaps 8 months ago. Linkedin has been a friend for a couple of years. And then after much procrastination, I joined Twitter one month ago. The other day, a respected colleague sent me an e-mail to join her on Plaxo. Of course, I did.

When does anyone have time to get any actual work done? I'm amazed, particularly when I go on twitter, to find some people posting up to 20 tweets a day. They're filling up my screen, and it's annoying. There should be a limit, don't you think? I'm also realizing, of course, that some people at corporations are actually getting paid to tweet as part of their jobs in PR, marketing, or customer service. Nice for them.

Here's my other gripe: Facebook is for mindless banter about personal life, IMHO. Must this also occur on twitter? I use twitter and LinkedIn for business. Twitter has become a newsfeed of sorts for me -- I can filter on topics of interest to me, such as healthcare, high-tech, and the environment. I wouldn't mind actually getting all of my news this way so that my e-mail inbox could be strictly about taking care of business tasks or messaging friends. So that's one good thing. But unfortunately, social media is all about narcissism and no matter where you go, people just have to talk about themselves in some fashion.

Now that I'm done complaining, I do want to tackle the issue at hand: have we gone overboard on social media? Is social networking simply consuming far too much of our personal and business lives, risking our human relationships and impeding productivity at work? Is there really any measurable and valuable return?

I watched a video briefly yesterday from a man (I'll call him Twitterstar) who has started a service to increase one’s twitter followers. He's now got 40,000 followers. Is that a good thing? Twitterstar certainly thought so, and bragged about his ability to gain nearly $20,000 in income from such followers. Well, that's something for sure. But how much time did he spend to get that $20,000, I wonder? His friend, who was on the video with him, remarked that Twitterstar had spent over 1000 hours on the site—which comes out to about $20 per hour. I wouldn't say that's a fabulous return.

There is a place for social media, but I think the smart business person has to be careful about how they use such sites and limit her actions strictly to business purposes. That's not including Facebook of course -- which is for late night diversion or a five-minute siesta from work in the middle of the day.

For all intents and purposes, social media is still an experiment and it’s still foggy, at least for me personally, how I am going to "monetize" my involvement in these various sites. However, I have pieced together a few basic rules for myself, as follows:

1. I share personal information about myself only on Facebook because I use that site to connect with friends, and friends only.

2. I do not accept friend requests from people whom I don't know well, much less can hardly remember from high school.

3. I do not accept LinkedIn requests from people whom I have never met or talked to on the phone or at least had a decent online conversation with and understand our common interests.

4. On working days, I limit my Facebook time to 10 minutes per day. I don't post everyday unless I have something somewhat useful or thought-provoking to post. (I try to put myself on the other side of that post).

5. I do not post more than 5 or 6 tweets a day, and I never tweet on the weekends.

6. I use any tools and methods I can to make my experiences with the sites more efficient. For instance, on LinkedIn, there are only a couple of groups I belong to that necessitate daily updates to e-mail – but most of my groups are set for weekly digest updates. On Facebook, my settings are such that nothing arrives in my inbox. I go to the site to read everything because I do not want more random stuff filling up my inbox. On twitter, I use an application called TweetDeck to interface with the site. I can do all of my posting and actions from there in a more automated fashion, and I love the way that I can create groups to organize my tweets. That way, I can read the most important stuff first and the other tweets only if I have time.

7. I make a point to use the phone for networking every week, and schedule at least one in-person meeting a month. I also attend a couple networking events every quarter. (See "Face-To-Face Networking Is Still Critical").


Everyone has to set their own rules and limits for social networking. The point is: make sure to do just that. Then you'll have more time for live human interactions, such as hanging out at the beach with your kids...

What are your thoughts on the intersection between social media and business? Are you making any money or deriving quantifiable business benefit from your time spent on these sites? Frazzled mom wants to know!

Face-to-face networking is still critical

Last night I was making dinner for the kids when I realized that I had forgotten to RSVP for a business networking event that I try to attend from time to time. I had already had a long day of working and taking care of the kids, it was hot, and I was drinking a glass of wine, which didn't exactly help my motivation.

While eating with my family, I realized I hadn't met face-to-face with people for work-related matters in months. It's easy not to, with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, e-mail, texting, and other forms of social media and digital communications.

Even phone calls can make us all feel like we are doing our part to stay human. But looking someone straight in the eye—there's just no substitution for that.

So I splashed some water on my face, brushed my hair, threw on something that looked nicer than a playdate and ran out the door.

Am I glad I did. I spent 30 minutes chatting with entrepreneurs and consultants in the green business sector, followed by a speaker, Steven Van Yoder (author of “Get Slightly Famous”) who discussed personal branding, and then a roundtable with introductions of everyone in the room. The networking event is called EcoTuesday, held in Palo Alto, and it's a super forum for people interested in environmental and sustainability issues and careers. (Currently, EcoTuesday has events in several cities. The photo here is from their site...lamo me can't do a caption yet).

I made a few contacts that may be important for my business, but more importantly, I got out of the house and talked to some real live people who weren't arguing about whose stuffed animal belongs to whom, or complaining about why they didn't get dessert. I hugged my friend Jeff Marcous of dharma Merchant Services, who’s moving his business and life from the Peninsula up to San Francisco to start a new chapter. I wished him well, and was glad I got to see him again before he becomes a hip urban resident, leaving me in the dust here in San Mateo.

On the drive home, I felt more connected, energized, and full of possibilities. I learned some cool things: such as the fact that the planet Mercury, which is currently in retrograde, will be back in alignment shortly after my birthday in early June (thank you, Universe). I learned about a company called Advanced Transit Dynamics Inc., and chatted with its sales rep, a wonderful woman named Whitney, who pitches aerodynamic trucking panels to trucking companies by promoting the gas-saving benefits. Blue-collar meets sustainability: what a concept.

I was going to talk about time management today, but I'm still trying to figure out that one. Especially now that I'm on Twitter and feel like I've spent way too much time tweeting this week. I have to get a handle on this social media before I lose my wits: of course, it's all about business, right?

In any event, pardon the pun, but get out of the house and go to an event. As soon as you can. Not only does this enable you to get away from your computer, the laundry, dirty kitchen, the regular evening meltdown of children of any age, but you'll undoubtedly learn something new, and exercise your charming social graces which have been hidden away behind that PC for the past untold months. You'll also run into at least one person to add to your social or business network.

For me, I'm interested in reconnecting with the delightful woman I met last night, Jane Hillhouse, founder of Final Footprint. (Check out her website for information on her concept for "green burials"). But the reason that I want to hang with Jane is to discuss astrology and whatever else might come of that: because she was funny, full of life, and I need people like that.

Do you attend networking events? How often and what value do they bring you?

Until next time, enjoy the rest of the week—and don't worry if you still feel frazzled by Friday happy hour. You won’t be alone….