Balancing Social Media/Networking & Work

January 11, 2008

social-networking Sometimes it’s hard to find the balance in things.  Social media networking is one of these.  It takes an enormous amount of effort and time to participate in the social fields, and this can conflict with our primary responsibility of our day jobs.  You know, the one we get paid for? ;-)

It’s hard, especially when you start to become part of the community.  As you get to know the people you’re networking with, and as you have those “aha!” moments that redefine the value of a given social networking tool, it becomes more important to participate.  But what of work?  How do you stay connected with your online friends when you have limited or monitored access?

Or forget about access to your online social resources, how about the workload that you have?  What about priorities?  These may sound like ridiculous questions to some, but for those trying to forge a new career and life goals from social media, it is paramount.

I have no profound wisdom, and fewer hard-won examples to go with this question.  I’ve only a few ideas that I’m working on in order to find my own way through this difficult portion of social media.  Here are some of the ideas, tools, and techniques I’m trying, in order to help me GTD and still network.

  1. “Twitter Scope: down” Many fellow Twitters will recognize that one.  Simply logging off the social tools we use is the best start.  Schedule a time during the day to log in and check/update status.
  2. Reduce the number of sites/tools  Another tip would be to reduce the number of social networking or social media sites that you visit or try to keep up with.
  3. Groom that RSS reader  Seriously pare down the number of feeds you read.  How many tech feeds do you have?  How many times do you see the same post in each? ‘Nuf said.  Find the bloggers and sites that simply adhere to your ideas, themes, beliefs, etc… and follow those.  News is everywhere and easy to find.  Intelligent posts that are relevant to you are not.  For those Google Reader users out there, check out the Trends feature and use it to identify abandoned or otherwise seldom-updated feeds.
  4. GTD  Find the organization tool that works for you.  For many it’s the Seven Habits, or GTD that work wonders.  For others, it’s a simple Moleskine, notebook, or other simple list.  Maybe leadership training, or project management skills help drill in the needed organization lessons.  Whatever it is, give it a try and stick with what works.
  5. Schedule Social Time  Here is another simple but effective  technique.  Just like having a girls or boys night out – schedule your social networking time to fit your day.  Breaks, lunch, before/after work.  All these are simple to do, and your social network will adapt to your participation.
  6. Integrate  If your employer or job permits, maybe you simply integrate your social networking with your job.  Got your favorite email & IM client open all day?  Why not have a good Twitter Client open all day as well?  Leave yourself logged into Facebook for all the special interest groups.  Use some time during the day and answer questions on LinkedIn.  Keep it business focused, not “Saturday night” focused.

Obviously number 6 is for folks who work in an industry that has direct tie-ins to social networking or media in some way.  There may also be some environments that simply don’t care what you do as long as you get the tasks you are responsible for done as expected.  Kudos to those who do.

Now, I really want to learn more, because I’ve only mentioned the really obvious ones.  What tips do you have?  What other techniques and tools are there to help manage being an active social participant and not getting in trouble?

Conversation Tags: ,
Categories: skills, social media, social networks

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  • Great site by the way!

    <abbr>Thomas Jackson´s last blog post..iCommandant.com</abbr>
  • Bringing or finding balance in the world of Social Media and Networking is front and center in the U.S. Coast Guard today. The Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen is in the process of the largest modernization effort in Coast Guard history.

    He's nearly alone in senior leadership on this quest as his senior officers run for cover. The Admiral started his own blog, using blogger as the platform. It took off with great head speed for the first week, and then died off.

    We speculate that he lost steam because he didn't understand the technology his was using and how most in the world use social media. Right from the start there were complaints about his moderation of comments. It appeared (and appearance is everything) that only comments of praise for him and his efforts were published. Anything controversial was not.

    To fill that gap we launched at the request of readers a commercial version of the Coast Guards official site, which we call www.iCommandant.com. On the commercial site, moderation is turned off, and free and open speech is turned on.
  • Jenna, that is so true and one that I've been working on doing more often. Too many people to talk to and keep up with every day, so I'm checking in from time to time rather than keeping it open all day.
  • Shutting off Twitter is the biggest one for me. It's easy to ignore the rest but Twitter is like chocolate. If it's there, I want it.
  • Sure, several that either of us could come up with right away. Guess I'm coming from the perspective that the average business should adapt to the idea that people have needs outside the business during business hours.

    It's up to the employee to work on making sure they don't misuse that trust or access. At least in a perfect world. :)
  • You are right, of course, the security. But probably there are also a different ways to share the information...I guess...
  • Hi Phoenix, I'm sure some businesses believe it's a productivity drain, however there are some organizations where security is paramount. By blocking access to web-based email, and standard email ports (IMAP, POP, SMTP) they are reducing the number of ways for information to leave the organization. Sometimes it's worth the trouble, though most times it's not.
  • I have a friend that works in a one of the institutions in my home town and altough she has an internet at her work, she can't even check her e-mail (of course none work e-mail). They've blocked some domains and that's it! I don't think that people would be checking their e-mails for hours;)
  • It's frustrating that many institutions (you're right, it's not just businesses) block blogs and other new media sites such as social networking tools. While I understand their concerns about productivity and of litigation, it disrupts the productivity of their most talented employees and erodes morale.
  • Sometimes people are trying to be everyday on time with social networking that they are spending most their working time at that kind of websites. And that is what you said and it's true. The scale of this 'problem' is so big that in many situations a big instutions are blocking the attempt to those websites for their workers...and leaving them only possibility to visit boring sites;)
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