Testing From the Minnesota Blogger Conference

Sitting in the Mobile Blogging session at the Minnesota Blogger Conference with @ojezap.

This post was created from the WordPress android app. Hope it looks good!

Social Media & Social Networking: What is too much?

There has been a lot on my mind lately. Some of it is personal, some is trivial. Here, I will choose to share something that should interest each reader of this blog.

By reading my blog, or any blog, you become part of the social media and social networking world. The social media world is a new and evolving arena at the same time, which means the rules for social media are being created as we speak. Rules that are not set are difficult to follow. Common sense rules apply: create and contribute meaningful conversation, don’t create too much noise, show your personality while keeping your thoughts clean enough that you could tell your mother, etc.

There’s a problem: not everyone has common sense.

As a person that has grown up in the social media and social networking era, I am on facebook, MySpace, twitter, LinkedIn, digg, flickr, I blog for the online marketing blog at work, I blog for personal reasons (as you’re reading right now). There are so many social networking sites out there beyond the list above. It can be difficult to keep track and actively participate in all of the above networks.

For over a year, MySpace has been losing its grip on the top social networking site. Facebook, recently surpassing 225 million users, and twitter growing at a ridiculous rate, show that social networking is here to stay, and you should be a part of all that you can be.  99% of people I know are on Facebook, 90% of people I know are on twitter. I have noticed, based on my ‘top friends’ on MySpace, that people are deleting their MySpace accounts.

This led me to think of a few questions that I need answered by you:

• What would make you quit ‘social media’?
• If you left one site, does that mean the other sites you are on satisfy your needs?
• What is your favorite social networking site? Why?
• What purpose does social media/social networking serve in your life?
• Is there too much social media/social networking?

I look forward to a good discussion with you.

~Jason Douglas

twitter: @jasondouglas

Jason Douglas on LinkedIn