Social Networking Checklist…

Posted on | October 21, 2008 | No Comments

(Alt Title: Attention All Internet Stalkers)
The social networking scene kind of crept up on me over the last 2 years. I witnessed some sites such as YouTube mature from infancy to a stable large-scale social video network; while others, such as Friendster, lost their touch with their audience and have fallen in to the black space of the internet. With hundreds of social media sites popping up annually, it was about time I tried to take control of my Personal Brand on these sites.

The Project Charter:
Your name is becoming a valuable commodity on the internet these days. I’m still discontent about not registering shanehale.com when I could. But I digress…. developing my personal brand across these sites will build a positive and hopefully memorable image, allowing my friends, family, and society easy to find me and know it’s me and not Shane Hale, a realtor in Alabama.

The Check List:
I started with a long list of to-do’s from updating existing profiles to creating new ones. This often required me canceling semi-anonymous accounts to create new ones. Through the process I also decided to attempt to stick with a standard username convention with ShaneHale as my primary and ShaneHale7 as my back-up. After running through these I realize I’m on well over 25 social networks

For each network I would take advantage of address book searches and add all friends and that may already be on the network, but I wouldn’t invite them unless I thought they would utilize it. I would also cross link from network to network where available, and establish trusted connection, such as Twitter apps in MySpace & Facebook, making maintenance for each site easier.

Status:
Over the last few weeks I have been successful in accomplishing the goal I set out to achieve. But as I continue to discover more social networks I’m realizing their limitations and my own. You can spend a lot of time updating social networks that nobody will see. 75% of mine have no friend connections established.

As it stands I’m currently on 27 social networks, and I’m sure I’m missing others. Each has a completed profile, user image, bio, and networking options out there.

When is too much?
I’m not quite sure yet. But I definitely can see updating 25+ social networks on a weekly basis as tiresome. I have 7-8 that I already use and check into regularly, but continue to visit the other to take advantage of their featureset. I’m also trying to take advantage of cross-social networking web apps, such as FireEagle feeding BriteKite, which feeds Twitter, which Feeds FaceBook. Other apps such as Digsby is really helping me keep in touch with the social internet, while checking my email and IM accounts. I’m sure overtime, the good ones will rise to the surface while the others will join Friendster in oblivion.

So where do you live on the web?