Thing 8 of 23 Mobile Things

Social Media Management Tools:
Well, I sure can get behind the goal of managing social media tools ( prepare yourself for a diatribe).
I signed up for the big ones a few years back, as part of 23 things, and I was exposed to the whole social world. At that time, I was merely exposed. But over the years, I have picked them back up.
First, there's Facebook, where I am immersed in the lives of my extended family, as well as high school friends from St. Louis, living all over the world. Add college, and some current friends and coworkers. But I am uncomfortable with some potential friends, maybe from work, of very different political persuasions. I like to check FB every few days, and in 10-20 minutes, I can stay on top of the incoming posts. It's a joy - an enrichment of my life.

I have also attempted to do more LinkedIn- first populating my connections with people I know socially. I have made the effort to engage LinkedIn more professionally- I connected with people I met at a professional conference. But now, what do I do with these? I am not looking for a job. I review my list of contacts, I read about a promotion in a job here or there. But I'm not finding value, or even any lame jokes. I would rather check FB and laugh at the 100th video of my Texas friend's toddlers.
I will continue to check, and connect. Maybe I'll eventually get the chemistry right. But it seems like a work in progress, at least for me, now.

Finally, there's Twitter. Again, I signed up ages ago- and since I signed up at work, I signed up for work-related entities to follow. Some product lines from my company. Some vendors and professional organizations. Occasionally, notices are pushed to me, and I find the tweets to be interesting (despite being work- related).
I used this 'thing' to review, and refresh myself on the basics about Twitter. I now understand some of the nuances of where, and how you place an address (starts with an @). And I spent some time looking for names to follow, starting with a connected colleague, and noting some of the people he follows. Mostly politics or humor, but an occasional work-related tweeter. I am looking forward to reviewing, and retweeting. And maybe really diving in with a post, sometime. I may be approaching a sweet spot- let's hope.

Finally, and quickly, I am completely cold at these so called management tools that allow me to merge all my posts or comments to multiple apps. I find that there aren't enough walls within Facebook-I certainly don't want to inform Twitter and LinkedIn of my every move, and every 'oooh' and 'ahhhh' I have in response to the Texas Toddler.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod.