Writing...Just because!

 I spent a long time yesterday writing a comment in a LinkedIn discussion on a social media marketing group that I thought I would share here.  The group facilitator had invited members to post all their links but included a long list of guidelines on what to do and what not to do...  to make it a more useful discussion rather than a dumping ground.  I thought I would share it here because I think, in their desperation to 'connect' and be 'liked' so many people are totally missing the point... Here's the comment I wrote: I'm sad to say that even though you (the facilitator) painstakingly outlined the guidelines for this discussion I have already been bombarded in my LinkedIn inbox. I will simply delete those messages and continue merrily on my way. I would like to thank everyone who has begun following all my social media but would like to plead with those who are blindly following, liking and connecting with everyone on this string, to please us...

I am now officially a self-proclaimed social networking junkie. I’m on FaceBook (managing both my own personal page as well as a non-profit group for which I volunteer). I’m on Twitter, Linkedin, Plaxo, Classmates.com and more. I’m following more people on Twitter than I could ever truly keep up with, am a member of numerous “groups” on all of the above mentioned networks and could spend 24/7 just reading and chatting. I could go on but I’ll stop there since I’ve decided it’s time to pare down and only manage what I truly have time for and is fruitful in any way. So, the challenge becomes, how do you “separate the wheat from the chaf?” Fruitful can mean different things to different people. Sometimes little intriguing nuggets lead to bigger nuggets and you’re following link after link and spiralling down a dark tunnel of information overload with no end in sight. The first step is to define what “being fruitful” means to you. What is most important to yo...