Probably the single most asked question I hear about social media is “there are so many sites out there. How on earth am I supposed to keep up with them all?” This is usually asked in a panicky voice and is usually the justification for the questioner to avoid getting involved altogether. The fact is, there is one simple answer.
You aren’t.
The reality is, every second developer out there is striving to build the next Facebook or Twitter. They are churning out new sites by the day – some are innovative but ahead of their time, others are too complex, others are simply a rehash of something that already exists, and still others are just doomed to failure. For every Facebook, there are a thousand Facebook wannabes which just didn’t make the grade and have died a quiet death or faded into obscurity, with a dormant audience and no development money.
As a result, there is very little point in most people trying to spend their time on these kind of sites. In reality, you will probably need to go where the crowds go in order to make an impact and build a network. Smaller niche sites may be appropriate depending on your goals, but even in this case, you need to check your numbers.
Let’s take online business networks as an example. I have got these numbers from Underground Confessions. I make no claim that they are 100% accurate – this is more intended as an illustration. The Viadeo numbers I got from Viadeo themselves via Twitter.
Viadeo - 25 million users (they recently acquired UNYK)
LinkedIn – 12 million users
Xing – 2 million users
Ecademy – 100,000 users
If you consider this, and you are looking for the broadest international reach, then you would probably be better served spending your time on Viadeo or LinkedIn. Naturally, this discounts regional biases – Xing is very much European so is perfect if you are looking to connect with people across Western Europe in particular. Ecademy is UK-centric so can be good if you are localised. The problems arise when you try to work with all of them to the same level as one another. Although from a networking point of view that can be great, you need to think how much time you are spending and what you are not doing because you are trying to spread yourself too thinly. Would you be better served whittling your activity down to one or two sites with the broadest reach in the area you want to network with?
You need to be realistic with your time. And you need to get the biggest ‘bang for your buck’. Sometimes, it really is about the numbers when you are fitting your social media activity in around your day to day job.
Thank you to Stewf for the image
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Tags: time management, user numbers
