I’m on LinkedIn. I joined Facebook a while back, and Del.icio.us and Technorati. I’m on my favorite message board for freelancers at least a dozen times a day.
But I can’t do Twitter. At least not yet.
There’s only so many hours one person can devote to online social networks, and only so many social networks to keep track of, and right now, I’m drawing the line at Twitter.
Call it social network overload. Using social networks is a great way to stay connected with friends and colleagues. And as I’ve written before, it’s helped me find sources and led to writing assignments. But it’s easy to cross the line from awesome productivity tool to awful time suck.
A lot of writers I know have joined Twitter, the micro-blogging site where you write “tweets” about work or life in 140-letter increments and sign up to read other people’s posts. Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist blogger, is a fan. So are a couple dozen of the freelancer writers I hang out with at Freelance Success, the subscription-based message board for professional writers. Some writers use it to help promote their books or blog. Jen Miller, a New Jersey freelance writer and author of The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May: Great Destinations: A Complete Guide: Including the Wildwoods explains how she’s using Twitter to promote the book in this article on Mediabistro.com, the Website for freelancers (NOTE: You need to be a Mediabistro member to read the story).
I already spend at least an hour a day on my social networks and this blog. I can’t see how I could add Twitter, FriendFeed, Flickr, GoodReads, RedRoom, or any of the half-dozen social networks people have invited me to join without cutting into the time I spend doing other work, like researching and writing articles.
Researching this, I found posts dating back to 2004 from blogger complaining about social network overload. The names of the social networks may have changed since then, but it’s the same problem. It’s also an issue some of the best-known minds in the business are grappling with. If you have 55 minutes and $15 to spare, you can hear what Wired Editor in Chief Chris Anderson thinks about the future of social networks and the media in this video clip from the recent Mediabistro Circus conference.
No doubt there are tools out there that could help me streamline my social networking activities – if anyone knows of good ones, let me know. Eventually, I could change my mind and join Twitter or GoodReads. For now, call me a Luddite, Twitter challenged or just plain behind the times. I’m happy with the social networks I have, but no more.
Michelle,
I can totally relate to what you’re saying. I just joined Twitter not too long ago along with StumbleUpon, Technorati, MySpace and probably a few more I’m forgetting. I’ve been a Facebook member for awhile now. It’s ridiculous! I can’t honestly say I’m very comfortable with any of them, so it makes you wonder how beneficial it is…
I “tweet” a couple times a day, but I honestly have no idea how it directly impacts the amount of traffic I get to my site. I will say that the biggest positive to Twitter is it motivates/inspires you to do things you might normally forget about (if you follow people with similar interests).
Eh, that’s my two cents 🙂
There is only so many hours in a day, but I twitter to direct people to my blog and to share snippets of what I blog about. I feel that since so many people are on twitter, I should use that as promotion of my blog, and after all, social networking online is about self-promotion too.
Greg, I’m an Outlook fanatic and use the Task manager and Calendar to remind me to do things, so I don’t need Twitter for that.
Ken, I know people use Twitter to promote their blogs, but I’ve also heard comments lately that Twittering *just* to promote your blog is bad Twitter etiquette. Would love to hear your thoughts on that.
Michelle R.
I’m with you, Michelle. I’m drew the line at Twitter as well.
I’m a food writer and cover my culinary adventures on my blog. What on earth would I say between posts? Chopping, chopping, chopping celery. Crying over peeled onions. Dropped an egg!
Exactly. Here are 2 hilarious comics on Twitter that I should have put in the original post:
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/twitter-funny.jpeg
http://nowsourcing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/hugh-mecleod-twitter-twitter-twitter.jpg
Besides, I don’t need Twitter to interrupt my work life – that’s what kids are for.
Michelle Rafter
Michelle, I’m with you. A social media savvy friend of mine has been trying to get me to join twitter for a long time (in fact, she even tweeted about why I need to join Twitter). I like the concept, but I’m just not sure it would be worth all that time spent on getting oriented with the site, following others, tweeting regularly, etc.