There are many outlets and choices for your time and attention, including: Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Digg, LinkedIn, Stumblupon, Youtube, Flickr, not to mention blogs, and even Google Reader.
I spend a fair amount of time on these various networks, but mostly it’s time spent for the enjoyment of it. I certainly set myself up and participate with a bent towards promoting my business and increasing awareness of it, but I would not (yet, anyway) consider it a revenue producing activity. Therefore I try to be careful about when and how much time I spend, since I consider this activity more of a hobby at this point in my online life.
There is definite worth to these sites, and opportunity is out there, and that is why I think the blog post that inspired me here is so right on. I think you should invest some time, and to one extent or another you probably need to be out there in ‘the cloud’, but you also have to prioritize and measure your time spent on social networking.
I will say that I learn a ton from my networks, and there are plenty of smart people posting useful things on all of these sites. There is much, maybe too much, information to absorb.
Ultimately, I think it is never a bad idea to increase your knowledge and expand your network as far and wide as you possibly can. So join me somewhere in the cloud sometime, say hello, and let me know what I can do for you.
Hi Greg,
Thanks for the link-love and for spreading the ideas around.
The great thing about social media is that it provides a very powerful marketing tool for most businesses. The challenge of course is in understanding how each new tool is going to be helpful (if at all) and then allocating the right amount of time to participating in that network whilst saving enough time for the “real” revenue producing activities.
Again, thanks for the sharing the link. Glad to connect!
No problem, I loved your post. Glad to connect with you as well.