How many social networks are too many for our personal brands?

October 26, 2007 at 12:45 pm | In Personal Branding, Reputation Management, social media | 11 Comments

The last step in the personal branding process is entitled “maintain.”  Personal brands must grow as you grow, keeping authenticity and accuracy consistent.  Sites such as TechCrunch, Techmeme and Scobleizer promote a variety of social networks daily. The sheer number of social networks is now overwhelming and forces all of us to concentrate on reputation management. The more social networks you join, the more you must perform routine maintenance on each profile. When I say profile, I mean your work experience, hobbiesSocial Networks Web 2.0 and adding new friends to your network. Another issue I see is that if you have friends on multiple social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, you are forced to add the same friends to each one. This increases your email and begins to be a tedious and continuous task you must preform.

The Question: With all the social networks that are created each day, how do we react? As humans, we only have a certain amount of time we can dedicate to social networks, especially because many of us have full-time jobs, blogs and other extracurricular activities.

The answer: Join the most innovative networks with the largest installed base. There are more than 34 million Facebook users, 200 million Myspace users and 10 million Linkedin users. All other social networks have a fraction of this amount and few of those provide strong differentiation. We join networks to solve certain problems and we hear about them through word-of-mouth marketing. In general, if you can’t pinpoint a reason to join one of these networks, then you are wasting your time. It is a better and more productive use of your time to stick to the “usual suspects.”

11 Comments »

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  1. I agree with your point. I think an all-purpose social networking site like Facebook is much better than having separate social network micro-sites. It’s better to just form a group in Facebook, and let people have one identity to maintain, instead of forming a whole separate site. I have a LinkedIn account to which I am responsive when people add me as a contact, but I focus on Facebook. MySpace hasn’t done anything for me in professional networking.

    Getting associates to join Facebook is relatively easier because it has critical mass; splinter sites would be much tougher.

    Comment by leeaase — October 26, 2007 #

  2. I totally agree with you. There are far too many social networking sites out there and managing them all (effectively) takes time.

    I recommend my clients start out with Facebook and MySpace and then move into other social networking sites as they see fit.

    Sincerely,

    Erin Blaskie
    Business Services, ETC
    http://www.bsetc.ca

    Comment by Erin Blaskie — October 26, 2007 #

  3. People also need to be conscious of which social networking sites are on brand for them. It’s not just about the numbers but the quality and value that the networking group brings to your brand and what your are able to offer in return.

    Comment by Paul Copcutt — October 26, 2007 #

  4. It used to be:

    Facebook = social life
    LinkedIn = Professional life
    Myspace = somewhere in the middle

    Which one you use for each is important to your brand.

    Comment by shwibbs — October 26, 2007 #

  5. I totally agree with your post, there are a lot of social networks out there. It comes to a point where people have to make a decision on what they believe is best for them.

    Comment by Jason — October 26, 2007 #

  6. for me social networks is the most important method of marketing. there are there are a lot of social networks out there.

    Comment by hafiz — October 28, 2007 #

  7. Dan,

    I only focus on facebook, myspace, linked in, youtube and mybloglog.

    Facebook is my primary network that I like to use…MyblogLog comes second, linked in 3rd (only for trusted business contacts), and youtube is just whatever!

    I hear you loud and clear…Staying focused is a must!

    Find those that you like and stick with them over the long haul!

    P.S. Love the new look of the blog!

    Comment by scottbradley — October 28, 2007 #

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  11. Well, I’ve joined about fifty social networks, to participate at differents activities. That you say, we’re lifes not only do one activity. You don’t connect with all peoples with only one reason. You need first connect and gain their trust. Then, They’ll should go to your site or blog. Of course, you need have content and good stuff to write.

    Comment by Gilberto Galea — June 12, 2008 #


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