Sorting your social networks out
Too many social networks...
If you like me have registered with far too many social networks and is adamant to maintain them all, the addition of Google Buzz was something of a godsend.
Not only does it provide a central online profile from where other sites can be linked, it also has some really clever functions to pull in the stuff you create elsewhere to one place.
This has allowed me to optimize the time I spend on feeding my social networks with relevant content, and streamline and simplify the posting process.
In summary: Google Buzz gave me a solid way of aggregating content from the sites where I create it, and passing it on as one consolidated RSS feed to various tools that then automatically push it on to social networks where I have conversations. I have tried doing this before, but it has all been very patchy and hap-hazard, resulting in a lot of duplicated posts and weird, irrelevant cross overs between networks.
Here is how I did it.
Now Google Buzz aggregates my Reader shared notes, Tummyrumble, theblackboard.net, this blog, andsome other assorted stuff. I deliberately left my YouTube videos and Flickr photos out of there since it just seemed a bit excessive, and not that interesting.
The Buzz recent posts feed is then imported to Twitterfeed.com from where I push out updates to Twitter, Facebook and Ping.fm.
Update 15/02/2010: Here is a recent blog post with screen shots on how to set Twitterfeed.com up, important to remember to push on “descriptions only” as the post titles in the Buzz RSS feed say “Buzz from Application name by User name” which is long, brings no value and gets very repetitive…
(When it comes to location checkins, which I do with Gowalla and from there Foursquare and Facebook Places, the iPhone app itself updates Twitter and Facebook selectively when I want it to. I see no need for bogging down Buzz with that stuff as it is largely irrelevant to most people…)
I have then configured Ping.fm to update LinkedIn, Friendfeed, Ning, Jaiku and a few other random services that I have been signed up to for a long time, but never really seemed to take off.
I do absolutely not want to import the status updates I do on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to Buzz. The way I see it, I have different followers (and myself follow different people) in each network. While I want content I create to end up in all three networks to feed discussion and comments, I want to keep the conversations confined to each network.
With this setup I can also decide if I want to push a piece of content to all networks, or if I specifically want to post something to for example just my friends on Facebook to see.
(For network specific status updates my trusty iPhone is indispensable as it is so much quicker using the apps then looking up the corresponding web site in a browser on my laptop… Another great tool for selective posting is Hootsuite.com, available on desktops as well as on smartphones.)
Let’s see how well this works. Already I can tell some connections seem to work better than others… I am sure some information is dropped going through the maze of APIs involved… If I find time, infographic to follow.
Now I need to sort out my personal web site (what is the purpose of a site like www.hultberg.org when all stuff is published and talked about in the cloud?), and how this all relates to other web sites I use such as Dopplr, Last.fm, Goodreads…
This post was inspired by Louis Gray describing how he has updated his “social network setup” for 2010. Thank you Mr Gray for providing me with the missing pieces required to puzzle my own setup together.
