Posted on February 22, 2007 - by Justin Hartman
Social Networking = hard work!
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I love Web 2.0 stuff and more importantly I love community involvement but hell it’s hard work to keep up with the various subscriptions I have to social network sites. A couple months back my good friend Lisa, who now lives in Toronto, sent me a friend request to join Facebook. Because she’s my mate I joined up but that’s as far as I ever got with it.
Then interestingly enough tonight I got a request from her to join a group on Facebook which I diligently obliged to do but the really scary thing is about two hours later I got a friend request from Paul at Chilibean. After never using the system I suddenly get found by him and I had no choice but to mail him and ask how on earth he hooked up with me. Turns out it’s quite easy but a little freaky at that!
This has now in turn got me going and I’ve started to setup a small profile on Facebook. I’m even thinking about putting up some real pictures of me… but only time will tell. I’ve also been looking at Facebook in terms of its functionality and in principle it seems half decent.
The best thing I found is that you can setup an RSS feed from your site and it will publish your posts in Facebook which is super-cool!
In truth though I’ve really come to like MyBlogLog as a social networking tool but I can see for people who don’t have their own sites, such as my dear friend Lisa, Facebook is great to blog and keep in touch with the world.
On a side-note I managed to score a 1-year Pro subscription on MBL so I’m a really chuffed guy but unfortunately I can’t tell you how or why… sorry!
Anyway I digress - at some point though we have to draw the line with all these sites. When is enough actually enough? I barely have time to blog let alone keep up these social networks but maybe it’s a small price to pay for social fame. Thoughts anyone?
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February 22, 2007
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Yeah Justin each service seems to have one little advantage or one unique feature that lures us in, but alas, to keep up to date with all of them would require full-time attention - a luxury few have. I’ve tried to experiment with as many social services as possible and have then picked and chosen the ones I find most valuable to contribute to regularly and update frequently. Thus I stay sane. Sort of.
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February 22, 2007
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Yeah Justin each service seems to have one little advantage or one unique feature that lures us in, but alas, to keep up to date with all of them would require full-time attention - a luxury few have. I've tried to experiment with as many social services as possible and have then picked and chosen the ones I find most valuable to contribute to regularly and update frequently. Thus I stay sane. Sort of.
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February 23, 2007
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I agree with Mike, there are tons of sites out there that ask for your time and I must say that I am a bit addicted to the networking thing. I have technorati accounts, digg, delicious, facebook, myspace, groovr, MBL amongst many others. I don’t maintain many of them and am still trying to decide which ones are novelties and which ones have longevity.
Myspace is out, facebook a must. Groovr is a cellphone novelty, MBL is not and will work for a while. in general its a personal thing and you gotta be disciplined and make your choices!
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February 23, 2007
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I agree with Mike, there are tons of sites out there that ask for your time and I must say that I am a bit addicted to the networking thing. I have technorati accounts, digg, delicious, facebook, myspace, groovr, MBL amongst many others. I don't maintain many of them and am still trying to decide which ones are novelties and which ones have longevity.
Myspace is out, facebook a must. Groovr is a cellphone novelty, MBL is not and will work for a while. in general its a personal thing and you gotta be disciplined and make your choices!
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February 23, 2007
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PS: Was that group the SA Rocks facebook group by any chance??
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February 23, 2007
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PS: Was that group the SA Rocks facebook group by any chance??
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February 23, 2007
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Nic it wasn’t SA Rocks however I did find this group on my plight yesterday and joined.
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February 23, 2007
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Nic it wasn't SA Rocks however I did find this group on my plight yesterday and joined.
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February 23, 2007
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I’m a big fan of these social network sites too - facebook is really cool and its amazing how many old friend I have been able to re-connect with BUT I can’t help feel that there is some kind of “trap” somewhere - paranoid maybe - but it wont be long before third parties approach the various “network managers” (if they haven’t already) to “purchase” some of this info for a whole host of reasons and benefits - i said i was paranoid
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February 23, 2007
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I'm a big fan of these social network sites too - facebook is really cool and its amazing how many old friend I have been able to re-connect with BUT I can't help feel that there is some kind of “trap” somewhere - paranoid maybe - but it wont be long before third parties approach the various “network managers” (if they haven't already) to “purchase” some of this info for a whole host of reasons and benefits - i said i was paranoid
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February 23, 2007
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Justin: Glad you joined the group and found the site!!
Carls: I agree with you 100%, especially with the like of MR Rupert Murdoch around purchasing sites for gagillions of cents. very dodgy, very interesting!!
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February 23, 2007
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Justin: Glad you joined the group and found the site!!
Carls: I agree with you 100%, especially with the like of MR Rupert Murdoch around purchasing sites for gagillions of cents. very dodgy, very interesting!!
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February 24, 2007
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and besides the murdoch mania what about the way these social network sites basically use your profile to further market their site and turn u into a commodity? They set the parameters and we fill in the blanks!!
wow - i am really paranoid
must get a drink!
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February 24, 2007
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and besides the murdoch mania what about the way these social network sites basically use your profile to further market their site and turn u into a commodity? They set the parameters and we fill in the blanks!!
wow - i am really paranoid
must get a drink!
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February 24, 2007
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At first I never really wanted to join any of these social sites but Facebook just looked so damn pretty. It’s design is fresh and clean. It’s really easy to use and more and more South Africans are starting to use it.
Myspace on the other hand is shocking! The only reason I joined it was because a few friends who were already on it begged me to join. I hate viewing someone’s profile and they’re page looks like it’s been hit by a tornado. Images and other crap all over the place!
For now the only two social sites I am really active on are Facebook and My Genius.
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February 24, 2007
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At first I never really wanted to join any of these social sites but Facebook just looked so damn pretty. It's design is fresh and clean. It's really easy to use and more and more South Africans are starting to use it.
Myspace on the other hand is shocking! The only reason I joined it was because a few friends who were already on it begged me to join. I hate viewing someone's profile and they're page looks like it's been hit by a tornado. Images and other crap all over the place!
For now the only two social sites I am really active on are Facebook and My Genius.
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February 24, 2007
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Carls, there is no doubt you need a *couple* drinks to relax
But having said that I too worry about all this data we so freely give out on a daily basis. It’s not that ‘these’ companies will in fact do any wrong-doing but can you imagine what will happen if some evil-powers-that-be get their hands on it?…. that should screw your weekend up….. 
Tyler, as far as I’ve gotten with myspace is by visiting it once. I’ve never seen a poorer functional and looking site than this. However, it seems that loads of celebs like to use it so I guess there is value if you have the patience in trying to find your local celeb biut IMHO it’s a waste of time and energy.
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February 24, 2007
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Carls, there is no doubt you need a *couple* drinks to relax
But having said that I too worry about all this data we so freely give out on a daily basis. It's not that 'these' companies will in fact do any wrong-doing but can you imagine what will happen if some evil-powers-that-be get their hands on it?…. that should screw your weekend up….. 
Tyler, as far as I've gotten with myspace is by visiting it once. I've never seen a poorer functional and looking site than this. However, it seems that loads of celebs like to use it so I guess there is value if you have the patience in trying to find your local celeb biut IMHO it's a waste of time and energy.
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February 28, 2007
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saw this the other day - think its a really fun idea: http://www.wehanghere.com/
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February 28, 2007
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saw this the other day - think its a really fun idea: http://www.wehanghere.com/