The trouble with Facebook groups
Each time a friend sends you an invitation to join yet another Facebook group, do you oblige? I used to. (Since having a talk with my veteran Facebook-user, college senior son who suggested I get back to basics, I've been much more discerning.)
After joining over 30 Facebook groups (and starting one), I've finally figured out what's wrong with them...I belong to over 30!
That's the trouble, there's just too many of them to participate in any one with frequency. Every time I open my Facebook page, there's at least four messages from as many groups. When you consider that each one of those is its own mini-social network, well, I think it becomes plainly obvious that a line has to be drawn somewhere.
Extrapolate that beyond Facebook, and the principle holds. No one has the time to devote to umpteen social networks. Right now, I belong to Plaxo, Facebook, , Adgabber, The Society of Word of Mouth (a niche network started by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba), , MyBlogLog and at least one more! And those are the ones I pay at least some attention to each week.
You could even take that a step further and apply it to the number of friends one has in their network. Is it feasible to carry on meaningful conversations with 500 or more people? I mean, think about Twitter. At the time of this writing, I have 400 followers and change. Most of these folks are never going to interface with me to any great degree, or I with them. While it's an ego trip to keep adding to the list, the truth is I'll spend quality time with only a small percentage of those followers.
There are two topics of greatest interest to me at the moment, and one of those is how to make the most of social network involvement. I mean, if you join an online community, shouldn't you at least make an honest attempt to participate?
I hope to create a set of principles for effective social network involvement, and one I can share right now: Limit the number of groups in which you participate. It's better to be active in a few than lame in several.
Ning: Paul Chaney
StumbleUpon: pchaney
