Know when to kill the Beast

Social networking can become overwhelming with all the different social sites available. I personally have profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blip.fm, Flickr, AAF Nashville’s ning, Digital Nashville’s ning, and a few more that I have signed up for in the past. That’s a lot of socializing to keep up with! I try to remain active on all of them. The frequency varies- some multiple times a day, some once a day, some weekly or monthly.

Have you ever played The Sims video game? The Sims are characters that you control through the game, but in order to keep them “alive” you have to feed them, make them talk to friends and neighbors, you even have to make them go to the bathroom- or they will “die”. There is usually a prompt in the game that tells you what they are lacking and allows you to manage their “health”. Unfortunately, our social networking profiles do not have prompts to let us know when our social networking skills are dying.

Interaction and frequent activity are essential to building your successful online networking community, no matter what social networking platform you choose. You must feed the monster that you created, or it will die.



So, how often should you interact, and how many social sites should you be on? That’s totally up to you. Just know that if you set up a profile and make connections, those people expect you to communicate with them, contribute, and show up for the party every once and a while. Otherwise, what’s the point?

When I worked as a radio marketing consultant, I created media schedules for clients. I learned that frequency is essential in an advertising campaign because that’s how advertising works: top of mind awareness. If you set up a Twitter account and have not updated it in a month- delete it. If you have a Facebook page and there’s no profile pic, you have not filled out your profile, and your only friend on there is your cousin, Sue- delete it. If you have a LinkedIn profile set up and have one connection, the person that sent you the introduction – delete it. Not every social network is right for everyone. Stick to what you are comfortable with and manage your frequency accordingly.