Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The more I engage with others in an endless myriad of social networks, and the more I try to convey all things to everyone, the more I discover the value of being niche oriented. A close friend recently told me that to do two things at once is to do neither. I am beginning to fully understand that being task specific versus multi-task oriented can build significantly more equitable relationships in the long term and keep me from burning out in my attempts in keeping up with a multitude of network requests.
With online application development moving at the speed of light, and providing users with many tools to connect, manage, and create, it is tempting for me to try and keep up and attempt to be an expert at conversing on every networking site that becomes accessible. The problem that has become obvious to me is that I can’t do it all. As hard as I work at keeping up, there is always someone working just as hard at developing more challenges for me which causes me to get further and further behind.
So how do I overcome the urge to try and participate in every social networking site that pops up?
First, I have decided to organize all the networks I am involved with into smaller groups and then prioritize how often I will focus on each site. I ask myself if the time I am investing in an activity or session is going to be of some value to me and create some form of equity rather it be professional or personal in nature.
Next I have to decide which of these selected groups will help to narrow my focus and benefit my goal of creating a specific social niche. I recently joined Twitter, which is a great source of social networking and I have been asked by many people to network. The problem I am experiencing is that there are so many people to keep up with. This time consuming activity of rooting through hundreds of posts takes away from building a network of professional and personal contacts that I can gell with and build some form of equitable relationship.
My final solution in building a social niche is keeping the connections to a minimum of 10-15 individuals, rather than 100 or more. I focus on those that I want to learn from, collaborate with, or start new friendships. This smaller network becomes easier to manage and has much more value. I recommend that you build your social niche by keeping it narrow and specialized. This will allow you to be more personable and offer more attention to your connections.
With online application development moving at the speed of light, and providing users with many tools to connect, manage, and create, it is tempting for me to try and keep up and attempt to be an expert at conversing on every networking site that becomes accessible. The problem that has become obvious to me is that I can’t do it all. As hard as I work at keeping up, there is always someone working just as hard at developing more challenges for me which causes me to get further and further behind.
I have been asked by many people to network. The problem I am experiencing is that there are so many people to keep up with.
So how do I overcome the urge to try and participate in every social networking site that pops up?
First, I have decided to organize all the networks I am involved with into smaller groups and then prioritize how often I will focus on each site. I ask myself if the time I am investing in an activity or session is going to be of some value to me and create some form of equity rather it be professional or personal in nature.
Next I have to decide which of these selected groups will help to narrow my focus and benefit my goal of creating a specific social niche. I recently joined Twitter, which is a great source of social networking and I have been asked by many people to network. The problem I am experiencing is that there are so many people to keep up with. This time consuming activity of rooting through hundreds of posts takes away from building a network of professional and personal contacts that I can gell with and build some form of equitable relationship.
My final solution in building a social niche is keeping the connections to a minimum of 10-15 individuals, rather than 100 or more. I focus on those that I want to learn from, collaborate with, or start new friendships. This smaller network becomes easier to manage and has much more value. I recommend that you build your social niche by keeping it narrow and specialized. This will allow you to be more personable and offer more attention to your connections.
Labels: Networking, Personal
