How Many Social Networking Profiles Is Enough?
There are so many social networking sites out there. MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Xing, Twitter, LinkedIn, Second Life, Friendster, Digg - in fact, there are thousands of social networking sites on the Internet. And while each can serve its own purpose, I think too many people have spread their personal and business brands too thin, and as a result find it too exhausting and too time consuming to manage all of their social networking profiles in a meaningful manner while at the same time living a “normal” life.
As an online consultant specialising in social media strategy, I obviously get and advocate the strategic use of social networking sites for various outcomes, including to access new information, exchange diverse perspectives, maintain or strengthen relationships, find new opportunities, encounter new romantic relationships, to name just some. I also know that there are many applications and website that help people update their numerous profiles, such as ping.fm, twitterfeed, friendfeed, to name some. But on a personal level – and that is what this post is about - I think that anyone who manages more than a handful of social networking profiles - and even that’s a lot for many – must have a difficult time living a life outside of their office or bedroom.
Sure, social media (including social networking) offers fantastic ways of feeling a part of a community, keeping in touch and maintaining basic relationships. But I also think that we need to ask and be brutally honest whether the amount of time we spend using various social media and networking tools is really worth all our time and effort. Which begs the questions: How many social networking profiles is enough? How many do you have?
If you have five minutes to spare, here’s some comic relief related to this post.
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Comments
I must admit that personally I’ve limited my social networking to Facebook, Twitter and some LinkedIn. The rest of my networking is done with people who I know and who love having coffee with me 
[...] 9, 2009 by leigh3a Gino Cosme blogged about a topic close to my heart recently, titled “how many social networking profiles is enough“. In it, he says: There are so many social networking sites out there. MySpace; Bebo; [...]
Ah yes, I remember the days of being on Friendster. How young and naive I was then.
These days I’m only on Facebook (because that’s the only way to get photos from friends) and LinkedIn (even though I’ve never done anything on it but accept friend requests).