Social networks and chewing gum in your hair

My friend Mark Amtower announced back in 2009 that he was considering leaving Facebook. He didn't.

Leaving a social networking site is tough. Because social networking is like a cocktail party, leaving a network is like trying to leave a party. When you do, you’re gone. Forever.

But it is so damned easy to join a social network.

Reminds me of chewing gum in your hair – easy to get in but tough to get out.

My solution is to resist joining networks. After all, you can’t go to every party. I’m still not on LinkedIn for example and here's why.

I'm never the first adopter of a new network. When I see critical mass, I jump in. For example, I started blogging in 2005, YouTube 2007 (I think), Twitter 2008, and Foursquare in January of this year. Many people were much earlier than me to these networks.

Personally, I'd rather focus on a few social networking sites than try to do everything. Because as Mark proves, it is tough to leave.

Image: Shutterstock / Sunny_baby

Comments

[Tim Washer]

not sure if leaving is that much different that simply not going back. I have a comedian's page on MySpace, but the last video I posted was a 5-minute opening I did for Milton Berle.

a big challenge for many corporate social media teams is trying to do too much instead of focusing on priorities. not getting pulled into new networks which require community maintenance and new content is good advice.

[David Meerman Scott]

Good point, Tim. You can just abandon your presence in a site. Kinda like I've done several times at health clubs.

[Sean - SEO Marketer]

Absolutely. But I think it is mainly the marketers who tend to join more and more networks as their base objective is to gain maximum exposure to their business. And as online sharing has become very easy with ample of tools round the web people are not feeling it as some tough job to join a new community unless if they feel it isn't worth joining them! What do you think?

[Jake LaCaze]

This post is a great addendum to your point about not joining LinkedIn. I've left Facebook in the past and come back months later.

[twitter.com/Sheldrake]

Funnily enough, I did think it was kinda odd that you're not on LinkedIn David, and kinda odd that Seth Godin isn't on Twitter. But like you say, so long as you're in the conversation and people know where to find you when they need to.

BTW, I closed my Facebook account in February in protest of their outrageous disregard for personal privacy.

But that's OK. I'm still active in the largest social network of them all, the WWW, which is made much easier to navigate socially, irrespective of the proprietary platform(s) you or those you wish to connect with may have adopted, courtesy of OpenSocial. [Facebook excepted of course.]

And you might like my post on that topic at http://bit.ly/fbachilles.

[David Meerman Scott]

Yes, Seth Godin is not on Twitter. But he has one of the most popular blogs in the world.

Focus...

[60SecondTweets]

I think your main point is a good one -- social networks are easy to join, but hard to leave.

That said, I suspect there might be a mass defection from Facebook in 2011. After all, once Grandma "friends" her granddaugther, granddaughter in inclined to leave Facebook and go to the next hot social media site.

Will Facebook eventually go the way of AOL and MySpace? What are your thoughts on that, David?

-- Jamie Turner, The 60 Second Marketer

[Go2Mach2]

David...Thanks

I think it really boils down to two things: Time and Human Nature.

Regarding Time - using a spinoff of the old saying - we can do some things some of the time, some things all of the time, but not all things all of the time.

Regarding Human Nature - we all tend to gravitate to places where we feel "Part Of."

Like anything else in business or in life, it's all about "Balance." Effective Social Networking requires finding the right "Balance" between time and what works for each person or business. Thanks again...

[Sean Carpenter]

David - Great post and what always seems like a great recommendation - do fewer things better instead of lots of things poorly.

Seth Godin may not be on Twitter but it would be interesting to see how many of his brilliant blog posts or concepts are tweeted each day...making him "on twitter by default."

[sara bonert]

I agree that it is better to concentrate on a few social networks, it is easy to become overwhelmed if you don't.

However, I think you should set up the minimum account level on as many as possible. It is good to reserve your seat at the table, in case you one day use it. And it is good to squeeze as much SEO juice as possible out of all the profiles on the sites.

No, Seth Godin isn't on Twitter, but I bet he has an account so that he has him name reserved and to block anyone else from using it.

[chandani]

I agree with you. Specially with new social networks coming up every other day. Like you mentioned it is sticky situation. A year ago I created a facebook account for my business. Only then I realized facebook account was supposed to be only for personal use and one single person can't have two account. Since then I have been trying to get rid of that account as I have new fan page created for business. It only deactivated the account whenever I log in I am back on facebook. Social networking is something that should be used only after serious consideration.

[Devremülk]

i like to read your posts. thanks for this one.