Comments on: Social Media Burnout

By: Roland

Roland — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:22:27 +0000

I found some useful tips for “How to Write in 140 Characters or Less”
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-to-write-in-140-characters-or-less.html

By: Roland Reinhart

Roland Reinhart — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:24:37 +0000

Steve and Pete, I think you illustrated an interesting point. Each of us gets different value out of the same tools.

I highly value Linkedin professionally to reconnect with past business colleagues and find little personal value using Facebook.

For Steve, Facebook is highly valuable for reconnecting with friends, while Linkedin is a professional necessity.

Pete tries to make professional connections but has had little satisfaction.

It’s becoming clear that “successful” experiences with these tools really depends on whether or not they support your goals. Just because it works for one person doesn’t mean it works for everyone.

Thanks for writing.

By: themolk

themolk — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:53:31 +0000

Roland, buddy, I hear ya.

This Interweb thingy is supposed to make communication easier, not tie us down so that the variety of communities we’ve connected with become a burden to communicate to!

I twit because I find it convenient. There are drawbacks, and I am tempted to Plurk, but I shudder at the amount of time I would lose in my day if I had to keep another place up to date with my mundane thoughts and sarcastic comments. I really add nothing to society, and I don’t want to weigh down these networks with my useless bytes. LinkedIn is somewhat necessary at the moment due to my current employment status, although that’s nearly fixed, I think.

Facebook is one that puzzles me – I resisted for a long time, simply because everyone else kept telling me how cool it was. Now that I’m in (235 friends and counting), I’m only really using it for the selfish reason of reconnecting with lost friends. I don’t want to join your vampire fight, I don’t want to become a fan of that band, I don’t want to play Scrabulous with you, I don’t want you to own me or pwn me or anything – stop sending me those stupid invites!!! The FBchat tool is cool, and if your company doesn’t block it (first thing I do!) it can allow for some time spent avoiding work under the guise of work. That’s about it at the moment. Facebook and MySpace have their moments – but I think you really have to be aged 25 or less to appreciate them (and even want to delve into the depths of them).

…I’m just so tired now. I must go lie down, but before I do, I have to twit about it so everyone knows… but I need to call someone first, so I’ll IM them to ensure they’re available… right after I blog about how happy I am about version 2 of the iPhone…

By: Pete Aldin

Pete Aldin — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:28:25 +0000

I’ve struggled with this, as we’ve talked about before “off-air”, Roland. I’ve been on Facebook and then pulled my account off there, because I was getting too many invitations to “Compare” myself to other people.

I’ve signed up for Twitter, Linked-In and Biznik, but I find spending time on there does absolutely nothing to drive business my way. As far as friends are concerned, I’ve made them via blogging alone. And I value blogging because it seems to develop community more organically than other tools.

When I left Facebook, I sent around a mass message to say “I’ve enjoyed meeting you all or reconnecting. I need to focus on XYZ and I’m finding it better to use more traditional tools to stay friendly with people.”

Interestly, I got no responses…